On Death's Honor

Chapter 12: Ignorant Soldier

It was the middle of spring, yet the wind still sliced through Erlan's thick layers of clothing like a wraith seeking to shred everything in all its fury. She stamped her feet against the hard ground, trying to seep some warmth back into her toes, while next to her, Hida knelt behind a thick layer of bush.

"Quiet down, would you?" The older girl hissed. Erlan shoved her hands beneath her armpits.

"I can't feel my toes," she objected, giving their surroundings a piercing glare. Surrounded by sparse trees and colder chunks of boulder and rock, they were far too high in the mountains to get any sort of protection from the wind. The sun had about two hours left to linger in the sky, and Erlan wasn't confident that that would be enough time to get back to town before dark. "You still haven't told me why we're out here."

"Oh please, what else would you be doing if I didn't bring you along?"

"Reading," Erlan snapped. "Next to a fire."

Hida scrunched her nose. "You mean the thick tomes the witch has been teaching you?"

Erlan straightened. "She's not a witch!"

Hida snorted.

"She-demon, then."

The younger girl rolled her eyes, tilting her head up to gaze at the unwelcoming sigh. It had been a little over a year since the odd woman had taken Erlan under her wing, gradually teaching her the history and legend behind the world's wonders. Hida didn't like it, but at least their mother seemed to approve. "She's actually quite pleasant once you get to know her."

"Sure, up until she gives you an outcast's execution."

"She's helped Drun-"

"Yeah, yeah," Hida stood, waving her comment away. "Spare me the speech."

"'Spare me the speech'," Erlan mocked, to which Hida promptly ignored.

"He's not coming . . ." Hida murmured beneath her breath. Erlan cocked an eyebrow.

"Who's not coming?"

"A friend." Hida brushed her hands down her tunic, her bare fingers pale against the cold. Erlan eyed her sister, studying the older girl's stern features. Her lips were pressed in a frown, her cheeks colored red from what Erlan had originally assumed was the wind, but judging how her sister refused to look at her, Erlan was beginning to wonder that it was something more.

Of course. Hida never did anything with her hair besides throwing it in a quick braid. Today, however, she had it braided from the top of her head, curving around her crown before coming together at the bottom - something that took too much time than she usually bothered with.

She gasped.

"Hida," she exclaimed. "Were you going on a date?" Then, at her sister's angry frown, Erlan suddenly forgot about the cold. She gave an excited jump, barely suppressing a squeal. "Oh gods, you were actually waiting on a date! Who is it? Is it Thom?"

"Erlan," Hida hissed, but there was a faint smile trying to tug away at her frown. "No, not Thom."

"Then who?" Erlan pressed. "Is it Monty? Harold? Jemny? Wait, do you even like Jemny-"

Once again, Hida waved her away. "No, no. It's not anyone you know."

Erlan grinned. "An outsider, then? Where's he from? Did you meet him when we had the fair? Oh! Is it that big Rentic-looking guy that gave you a beige rose? Because your children would be so beautiful if they got your eyes and hair and that golden skin of his-"