Chapter 283: Supportive as Ever
Before Irene could go on a journey far larger than she was, but undoubtedly possible based on her father’s explanation, which lasted well into the night, there was one last thing she needed to do before she could pack up and leave.
Supplies weren’t an issue. She was accustomed to setting up camps in unsavory places. Even sleeping in the winter was something she had learned well in the war—many travelers often said that they could warm themselves up better when it was just them all alone rather than having to share a fire with an entire army of men.
What was the issue was that Sorrel was growing older and, while he was fine for a few days at a time, she had been noticing the grey hairs that popped up throughout his mane and body. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was a bit harder to rouse in the colder weather as well.
Considering she was going to go someplace that would be even colder than Chemois, her father suggested she might need to find a new horse. He was an animal most loyal to her and who had carried her through all sorts of precarious situations. However, his loyalty made it so that he deserved to live out his final years in peace rather than in an accident or freezing to death because his gait and sure-footedness were a bit weaker than they once were.
Unfortunately, she certainly agreed that it would be kinder if she chose a different horse and, for the next two days, she found a horse who would be perfect for the ride north.
There was a fjord horse named Sammy with beautiful tan hair and a darker brown stripe that went through his mane. He was directly from a line of horses brought with her grandmother and their clan into Chemois. Considering he was built for traveling in the snow and surviving the cold, there was no better choice than him.
Irene was lucky that her father never had a horse in his stable who wasn’t anything less than meticulously trained, so even doing something as risky as taking him. At the same time, they didn’t know one another well, so it would be easy to control him until he did know her quirks while riding.
She visited her grandmother two more times, seeking all the advice she could before she decided to pack up and head back to the Duke’s Tower. Felix was someone she needed to talk to the most. While he permitted her to go to her grandmother, he didn’t permit her to take a two-month-long journey to the north on a wild goose chase to seek books she had never seen before in her life.
Irene wished her family warm goodbyes. Her father embraced her a little bit tighter than usual before swearing that he would leave in two months if he didn’t hear from her yet.
"Thank you for trusting that I can do this," she said to the former knight.
"I did it when I was younger than you and you are far smarter than I was," he reminded her with a grin.