Chapter 11: Terrible idea.
Four and a half years ago not only Lee's vision wasn't fully developed, he didn't have too many chances to observe surroundings while lying in the sling on Tess's chest.
Now the situation was completely different. His stepmother did try to make him sit on her lap, but there was enough space in the wide, open carriage, pulled by four chestnut colored horses, and passengers weren't cramped up even though there were five of them.
"I must say, Tess, we are mighty grateful to you!" The short and bold fatty, sitting across Lee, said, "If not for you and your cute son, we would've had ridden horses, like the rest. But now ... look around! What a beautiful forest"
"Shut up, Powel! It's already embarrassing enough!" The thin man next to the fatty elbowed him, but apparently it wasn't painful, because Powel was more amused rather offended.
He said, "Come on! To ride on a horse for almost ten days at our age? Farcry, even you can't be that delusional! The Emperor and General Strongheart is one thing, but us? No way!"
"But your daughter can ..." Alan tried to end the argument, but it had the opposite effect.
"It's all because she has her eyes on Dale, although I still can't understand what she sees in your son!" Powel's mood changed in an instant, and so did Farcry's, except it was time for the latter to laugh.
"It's because he's not only smarter than you, he's taller and, actually, handsome. And I bet his children will have hair!" He teased the fatty, but seeing that steam was about to come out from Powel's ears, Farcry added, "Don't worry, he'll take a good care of her. He's a good boy unlike Hardwood's son, doing two at the same time. Let's open a bottle of whine, shall we? We have a long road ahead of us!"
Lee could swear that the faces of the two young people, riding fifteen, twenty yards further in the front were colored crimson red.
Apparently they were the children the two spoke about, but Lee didn't care about the gossip. His eyes were carefully inspecting the two because he had seen them before, in Pine Village.
From what he understood, the sons of the three generals were also present in the expedition, but they were somewhere further ahead, with the imperial cavalry led by the emperor himself. Obviously the sons of the generals were harder nuts to crack, thus Lee focused on observing the couple in front, trying to think of best ways to start the road of revenge.