The soldier, Nate, snorted and rolled his eyes skyward. “She ain’t had the pleasure of hearing you snore yet. Ask her again in the morning if you’re still good company.”
“My snoring ain’t that bad,” Ren argued back, the smile still there.
“You kidding?” the soldier next to Nate chimed in. “We don’t have to post near as many guards to keep watch, ‘cause bandits think we got us an armored bear.”
Nate snorted louder. “Good one, Liam.”
“Yeah, well,” Ren shrugged. “Just remember, this bear beat you at arm wrestling six bets running.”
Nate’s snort turned into a full laugh as Liam’s expression dropped into a glower. Liam started to offer an argument but quickly snapped his mouth shut and sat up straighter in his saddle. Nate was left laughing alone and oblivious as a horse rode up to the wagon.
“Keeping our guest entertained?” Commander Aldric asked.
Nate choked on his laughter. “No, sir. I mean, yes, sir. Well...”
“Good,” Aldric said. “You and Liam can accompany them to the creek.” Aldric kept riding past the line without waiting for Liam and Nate’s belated and slightly fumbled salutes.
“Nice, gentlemen,” Ren snickered. “Real nice.”
Liam slumped in his saddle. “Great. Bear washing duty.”
“Beats setting up the tents,” Nate said as Liam returned to his glowering.
A short time later, the squadron stopped in an overgrown field lined on one side with evergreen trees. Smoke rose in the distant sunset from the chimneys of Haden’s Crossing, a sign that at least here the fires continued to burn. The men quickly set about to task, a few leaving on horseback to gather provisions from the town and others yanking the tents from the wagon. Stakes were being hammered into the hard ground and firewood gathered as Ren led Dnara towards the tree line.
“Creek’s just on the other side of them trees,” Ren said. “Not a big river, mind you, but enough to wash the grime off. I’ve been on the road for two weeks. It’ll be nice to not smell like a horse for a while.”
“You’d need a waterfall,” Liam muttered as he and Nate followed behind.
“At least I can get clean,” Ren replied without looking back. “There’s not a magical fountain nor lake in this world that can make you less ugly, Liam.”
Nate snorted into laughter as they marched to the trees. Ren told the men to wait at the tree line, which they did after a few more disgruntled mutterings from Liam. The men turned their backs to the trees and faced the growing campsite, with Nate saying one last word of caution.
“Stay within earshot, yeah?” he said with a flickering glance to Dnara.
“Yeah, yeah.” Ren dismissed his concern and rebalanced the canvas bag hanging from her pauldron. “No peeking.”
“I would never spy on a lady,” Nate admonished.
“Aye, but Liam would.” Ren didn’t wait for an argument as Liam turned red with a sputtering of unintelligible words. She moved into the trees, holding back a thick pine branch and waiting for Dnara to go first. With Ren’s torch and Dnara’s lantern lighting the way, they entered the woods.
“You ain’t no lady!” Liam finally stuttered out past his agitation, making Ren chuckle as the drooping pine branches became a barrier between the field and the forest beyond.
Fifty yards into the trees, the vegetation gave way to a narrow strip of low grass, cattails and rounded stones banking a lazily flowing creek not more than ten feet wide. Dnara stood at the edge and looked into the water. It looked shallow and cold, but clean. Ren asked for help in removing her armor, and Dnara quickly learned how the whole set was held together with hidden leather straps and hooks. They shared a few laughs as Ren walked her through each step, and Dnara wondered who had the job of helping Ren into the armor in the first place.
“Nate, usually,” Ren explained as the last piece, a shin guard, plunked down to the earth. “He’s like my best mate, I guess. One of the few who don’t treat me different to the rest of the men.”
Ren stood poised in her underclothes; a thick cotton shive and patched breeches. Her arms flexed with muscles and her shoulders looked strong, like they could easily share the same weight as any soldier in the King’s Guard. Ren removed her shiv, revealing a tight wrapping around her chest. With a few painful looking winces, she slowly unbound the wrapping.
“It hurts?” Dnara asked.
“Well, it ain’t comfortable taking it off,” she said and left it at that.
Both naked as the day of their births, they took turns dunking their hair in the cold water. Ren’s tightly shorn blonde braids and shaved scalp took far less work to clean, and Dnara considered the practicality of her own long hair once it became fully drenched in freezing water. Shivering, Dnara made quick work of washing her arms and chest. By the time she reached her bottom, they were both left gasping at the water’s temperature and laughing at the faces they each made.
They had just begun drying off and redressing when a rush of wind blew through the trees, swaying the pine tops with frantic motions. Ren stopped, one shin guard on and the other in hand, the rest of her armor still piled in the reeds. Dnara stopped, too, as a shiver shimmied its way up her spine; a shiver not caused by her cold, wet hair.
“That you?” Ren asked, her eyes on the trees. “With the wind, I mean.”
“No,” Dnara said, her gut tightening. She took the everbright lantern from its place on a nearby stone and held it up to the trees. “But, something isn’t right.”
Staring harder into
