Grimbaud had been told - rather clearly, I thought - not to wander far from the castle gardens. We'd spent much of the day there and it had seemed a safe enough place to bed down for the night. Had we any coin I would have sought a place indoors, but I knew even if we had some fund to our name we would probably never be able to afford accommodation within the castle's walls. Still, it had seemed to cheer Grimbaud just to be close to it. I had left her and her newest friend, the dog she'd christened Pablo, in the gardens while I went in search of food. There hadn't been much available, so I'd had to content myself with a small hunk of bread. At least it was something to stop the hunger pains, even if I wished I had been able to take down a plump rabbit for her dinner instead. When I arrived at our designated meeting spot, and found it empty, I sighed with exasperation. I should have known better than to leave her by herself - I had no control over the fairy, and Pablo most certainly did not either seeing as they could not communicate at the moment - but I'd only been gone an hour at the most. Grumbling under my breath about my naughty girl, I left the bread beneath the large oak tree we'd selected for our resting spot and hurried off to search for her. Thankfully she hadn't been gone from our meeting spot long, and I found her and Pablo's scent with ease. I felt a bit of distress as that scent led me into the castle - somewhere I'd strictly forbidden her from entering, and especially when I wasn't able to accompany her - and picked up my pace to a jog. I rounded a corner and there, peeking into the dining hall with large eyes, was my girl. I hurried to her side, a stern rebuke on the tip of my tongue. Pablo, at her side, ducked his wiry head when he saw me, his long pink tongue running along his lips in a nervous sign of appeasement. Though we could not communicate in a normal fashion - Grimbaud's strange gift of languages had not worked since our arrival - he still knew from my expression that he and Grim were in trouble. Still, given Grim's determination, I couldn't blame him too terribly much for letting her do what she wanted.
"Grim!" I hiss softly, hurrying to her side. She's hidden herself behind one edge of the archway into the hall. I couldn't tell what had captured her attention more, the nobles in their finery or the miles of food spread out across the tables. I knew we didn't belong - Grim's ragged clothing attested to that - but... I couldn't quite bring myself to drag her off like I knew I ought to. She turned to me, her luminous gray eyes big and watery with hunger.
"I... I'm... sorry, Gisli," she said, ducking her head in embarrassment. "I didn't mean to be bad, it just..."
I sigh heavily and nudge her too-thin shoulder. "I know it's hard, Grim, but we don't belong," I said gently. "We... we should probably go..."
Grim ducked her head again in disappointment, nodding slowly. We turned to leave but stopped, the sound of approach freezing us into place. Would we be thrown out? |