Who: Lucressia Peron, Thais Keigwin Where: Group Two's camp, Somewhere in the Bannorn. When: 9:45 Dragon, 19 Molioris. Summary: Thais and Lucressia are sharing a tent. Best. Plan. Ever. Rating: Nothing so far.
They had fallen into a habit of stopping as the sun began to sink below the horizon—stopping to choose a campsite, to erect the small, slightly haphazard tents under which they would sleep, to build a fire and to prepare meals. It was strange for its normalcy, here among the handful of strange people. They were perhaps the most eclectic group Lucressia had ever traveled with. Mages and dwarves? And she had found time to observe the strangeness from the seat of her wagon, perched slightly above the group and relying on the ox to steer himself for the most part. The beast was placid and lazy and seemed content to follow the crowd for the most part.
It made for easy travel. What it did not make for? Was easy camping. While the rest of the group, the Wardens and their associates, pitched tents and sought firewood, Lucressia rangled with the dumb beast. Found it food. Tied it down, because, figlio de puttana, the night she did not tie it securely? That would be the one time the creature would become willful and wander away, and Lucressia did not particularly like her chances of convincing the Templar and the odd, calm man called a Tranquil to pull her cart instead. So she tied the beast in. Double-knotted the ropes that secured it to the nearby tree, and tugged them twice to check, and then quietly encouraged the beast to remember that if it ran away and she caught it, she would make sure its most vital organs were boiled and fed to a pack of mabari and its skin was made into a nice new tent.
The beast seemed not to care, but this was the typical practice. Threats dispensed, the task was done for the night. Lucressia straightened, tucking her hair behind her ear; in the low light she could see a few meters in every direction. Here, at their camp, surrounded by the rolling hills of the Bannorn, a copse of trees in the middle distance, Lucressia had a chance to feel relaxed. At ease. Sure, there were wolves, most likely, or bears, or darkspawn, or bandits—she had been born and raised in the city and really only ventured into the countryside as a means of getting from one center of civilization to another, and thus knew very, very little about what lay hidden in the wilderness. None of these things were good, but they were simple threats, to her mind. And there were other people—that handsome young elf, the dwarf who never talked—who seemed to know what to look out for in the wilds. (The Bannorn was "wild", wasn't it? It certainly had no taverns or merchants and that simply had to count as "wild".) It was not her responsibility. It made sleeping easier.
Given the option, she probably would have slept in her wagon, but it was stuffed to the brim with supplies, and so she had been shuffled out, and into a tent. Lucressia peered around, catching sight of her own tent among the small crowd of them, and began picking her way over. Her skirts just brushed the tops of a few clumps of grass; her hips swayed as she walked, a gait she had begun training to perfect before she could really have been said to have hips. It had not bothered her, sharing the tent: she had spent too many years crammed in small quarters with other girls to mind sharing with just one other woman. That Thais was a mage was an unnerving addition, but Lucressia's own employment was only a bit more respectable. She had to hoist her skirts slightly as she approached the tent; there was mud, and these were expensive. She bent down slightly, and reached forward to peel back the flap and duck inside.
"It's cold out," she commented, as she did so—despite not knowing for sure if the blonde woman was actually within. Although where else was there to go? The field? The other field? Better yet, the extremely riveting other other field?