Chapter 287: Her Family’s Lands
The next morning felt easier to wake up than the past few.
Rather than the monotonous journey of traveling across a plateau, Irene and Sammy were going to be able to scale down the mountains and truly test their abilities. It was also the first time Irene had stepped foot on Sunstoian land. That thought in itself made her feel giddy to see the place where her family had come from.
While she had plenty of oats to spare, Irene realized she should camp earlier that day because she needed to start hunting her dinner. Seeing that there were grouse present in the valley they would eventually be inside of, she hoped that luck would be on her side that evening.
When she was fully dressed and the horse had its saddle on once more, they began to head out. She still couldn’t ride the horse because the descent down was just as steep as the other side, but because the foothills were a lot higher, Irene believed she would be able to reach it by the time she needed to camp, or at least she hoped.
"Almost there, almost there," she muttered to the receptive horse who turned to acknowledge her.
Even though they couldn’t understand one another, she felt satisfied that she was acknowledged by the horse each time. He was probably calling her strange because he couldn’t understand a thing she was saying, but at least he was receptive to her ramblings.
As they went lower and lower, Irene couldn’t keep from musing about her ramblings to the horse. PErhaps she would have to break that habit before she returned to the knighthood. Others would probably find her odd if she talked to her horse as if he could respond. The only other person who did something like that was Leif, but they were both younger then so it made more sense.
The girl shook her head. It was time to focus on the trail ahead because it was starting to get more dangerous.
The rocks in that area were precarious. Snow hadn’t been kind to that region.
As she looked around, seeking the safest journey down, there were signs of rockslides and avalanches all around. It was hard to decide if she would have rather dealt with monsters than that.
Around midday, the sun was beating down on them and Irene had to undo her coat because it was getting warm despite the expanse of snow ahead of them. She was relieved to see that even here the sun could be warm overhead. Although she imagined it would be one of the last times she could think that once they were in the depths of the valley.