Aerdrie thought of this as she'd stood to stalk around after the others had gone to sleep. She hadn't been in woods the past few days ad she found herself missing them terribly. She touched the grass and soil creeping quietly around to drink in the nature around her. She heard the barest snap of a twig and her eyebrows rose with surprise. Still, it was always best to pretend ignorance, and with that, she continued to creep further and further away still hearing twigs snap from time to time.
After an hour of walking, she felt lucky to find the river she recalled playing in from her youth. She didn't even glance behind herself before stripping down and climbing into the water with a graceful hop. She swam in it going so far as to laugh as the various creatures of the river swarmed around her. Before long, she climbed out to sit on a rather large rock and dangle her feet into the water while she brushed her hair and let the air dry her body.
She sighed, "Such a Gentleman to wait for me to put my armor back on before you slit my throat, Trelias." She heard the crunch of boots on the ground and turned to see the drow leaning casually against the closest tree looking very much as if he were completely uninterested in the nude woman he'd been following for the past few days. "You don't really think I'd be so bold as to slit your throat like that?" She smiled ruefully at him before returning to brushing her hair.
"You're bold enough to stare at a lady bathing." She began to braid her hair.
"You knew I was following you. If you didn't want me to look you might have said so." He moved to drink from the river.
She chuckled, "Why are you here, Trelias? Changed your mind about killing me?"
He grinned at her and shook his head, "You intercepted a message I was quite interested in reading. Luckily, you weren't very difficult to follow. The Valley of Tears. Not a very creative place to stage a siege from is it?" She shook her head in reply to this causing him to continue, "May I ask you a question?" She nodded having just tied off the complicated braid she kept her hair in and was beginning to pull her clothing on.
"All those scars on your back, shoulders, arms...where did they come from? I haven't seen anything like it on an elf before." She paused in her dressing to look at her bare arms turning them, "You have keen eyes in the moonlight. They're from my Grandfather. Every time I displeased him or failed in my lessons or brought him shame, he'd have his men hold me down and he'd carve another branch or leaf onto the tree on my back. When I was ten, I carved the elven languages onto my arms to avoid 100 lashes per language. He gave me the choice." She watched the shock and horror play out on his face and looked down smiling slightly as if to shrug it off.
"So why are you going to the Valley of Tears?"
"I have a new contract and I intend to collect on it."
She nodded at this and continued dressing in silence while he sat down next to her. They remained sitting like that trading few words until finally she stood up to walk back to the group, keenly aware that it was likely he would follow them all the way to the meeting place. When she arrived back, she found Nevermore draped around Sol and held up a rabbit she'd caught on the way back. "Anyone hungry?"
