The marriage peace treaty

Chapter 16 On the Road (Part 4)

The 2 of them are riding the grass plains trail at a fast pace, with the wind blowing through her hair and the sound of galloping hooves Maryden feels at peace. A feeling of peace because of familiarity and a sense of home. In truth for so long home for her has never been a place but more of a feeling. A feeling she gets when she is in her zone. Even if that is on the battlefield fighting or like now when she is riding with nothing else on her mind, after she came back from the war she never felt like this. With all the restrictions and uncomfortable situations, she felt like a refuge running from all she had ever known. Now though she has regained her sense of home in this simple moment. Lucius takes a glance at her and sees the smile on her face, although barely noticeable he catches it easily. Seeing this he smiles back with accomplishment and mentally pats himself on his shoulder. 

Lucius: As expected, taking her out for a ride was a perfect idea.

Lucius picks up the speed because of excitement and seeing this Maryden can not help to pick up the pace too and they start racing each other. Without any of them saying anything. It is a mutual understanding between peapole of a similar mold. They do not need to know each other that well to understand each other as they are so similar. The same kind of person will have a similar type of thoughts and simple things are understood between them simply because it is what they would think of themselves. Thus they do not need to speak to start the race. The area they are riding is a riding trail through the grass plains that have not become fields. With the long grass as far as the eye can see they gallop through it like the wind. It did not take long for them to arrive at a little stream with a tiny pocket of trees like a miniature forest they rode inside. These trees are called Emerald birch trees and are found native here and in some parts of a tiny Ayrock a kingdom that was once part of Avilen but became its own kingdom about 500 years ago. These trees look like normal birch trees but instead of a white tree trunk it is green and its leaves are shaped like a star cut in half. Although this tree is native to these parts it is incredibly endangered here as most of them have been cut down for farmland. Now they can only be found in small pockets like this one all throughout the Harvest plains. But in Ayrock they are still thriving.

As they ride they can hear the gentle sound of the stream and the twittering of birds. But as they rode Maryden suddenly stopped her horse and looked at her left side with a gaze like a focused cat. Of course, this can not be seen through her mask. Lucius stops when he notices her stopping and rides towards her. 

Lucius: " What is it."

Maryden: " Ah, oh... i just, i heard the sound of a distressed bird."

Lucius:" I did not hear anything."

Maryden: "... You are not a swordmaster after all." She says and starts riding towards the sound with Lucius following her. She did tell him about her love for birds so he assumed that she wanted to save it. He for sure won't stop her. It took about 20 minutes to find the bird and once she did she dismounted her horse to pick it up. the bird from the ground. The bird turned out to be a starling with its brow blackish and iridescent feathers and tiny beige dots all over. As she picked it up she noticed his wing was broken and bloody and it looked like he had been bitten by a predator. Seeing this she feels bad for him so she rips off a part of her dress and uses it to bandage his wing.

Lucius: " Is it alright?" He asks not because he cares about the bird but because he cares about her caring about the bird.

Maryden: " I dont know, I am not a vet. But I hope so, if he survives the journey I can have Iven look at him."

Lucius:" Iven?"

Maryden: " My comrade, he is a doctor who can treat not only humans but beastmen and animals as well."