Chapter 108: A Glimpse of Her Ancestors
Irene had volunteered to help Sir Gunnar skin one of the squirrels since the fire was taken care of and Felix was managing it. In the meantime, Leaf was plucking the bird of its feathers while Phillip sought a stick to roast the game and Sir Sven was pulling out all of his cooking supplies.
When their travel teams were assigned, Irene was thrilled that Sir Sven would be going along with them. Not only was it nice to have another archer on the trip, but he also cared the most about seasoning the food. Everyone who went with him was guaranteed a good meal. When they were out on the road for months at a time over the summer, she had surprisingly missed his cooking the few times she had tried it.
It led her thoughts to drift to whether or not the knights would be more aggressive in their pursuit of an apprentice if the winterization went well. She had always expected that Sir Sven may ask her one day. Sir Gunnar seemed to like Felix because he was one of the oldest knights and Felix had been around since he was a small child.
On the other hand, Sir Phillip seemed to like Leif even though the apprentice would probably prefer Irene’s father to be his knight. Her father was always resistant to it. She had a feeling it had to do with her grandmother’s insistence that warriors must be self-sufficient.
However, she also didn’t mind that all of them traveled together the way they were without picking favorites. They equally protected one another that way and it felt comfortable not to have to burden oneself with one knight but learn equally from all whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Sir Phillip soon arrived with sticks and with long pieces of strong grass. They tied the carcasses onto the sticks so that they could put them into the soft ground and occasionally turn them as the fire cooked them.
Irene cleaned off her hands with a cloth and her eyes followed the knight who was walking away from the group. She was surprised to hear Sir Gunnar utter something as he walked towards the edge of the forest.
She stood up, wondering what he was going to say, but he soon turned to her.
"Follow me," he said. "Let them deal with the meal."