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Description
The next morning, Princess and Grumpy met up at the northern city gate. The looks they got from the guards told him that anyone looking for a small group of travelers, would easily find the information they needed here. Amidst all the preparations, he had forgotten how afraid the citydwellers were of the nature and the winter, so any group counting fewer than twenty members was a rarity. But it was too late to think about that now, turning back would bring even more attention, so he did little more than quietly curse his decision to take this job, and led her out towards the mountains. Princess raised an eyebrow at this seemingly unprovoked outburst, but whether it was the cold, or the early morning, she didn't seem chatty enough to inquire about it yet.

It didn't take very long, however, before she seemed to grow bored of walking in silence and decided that getting Grumpy into a conversation would be an appropriate challenge. He did his best to discourage her by short, gruff answers, but it didn't seem to have any impact on her determination. In the end, he gave up, and decided that teaching her a bit about winter and mountain survival would be the least bothersome topic, and might even make the journey easier in the long run. But however he rationalized his defeat, it did nothing to erase that smug grin she wore for the rest of the day, as the travelling passed in far less silence than he had anticipated.

The evening found them as two weary travelers, she from taking a much harder journey than she was used to, and him from actually talking while he walked, something he was not used to. Luckily, the path was well known to him, so he didn't take long in finding them a nice, sheltered campsite. The cold meant he had to build a fire, but he could only hope that whoever was after Princess wasn't that close behind. He looked forward to getting into the mountains. In this region, caves were plentiful, and he knew quite a few that were well suited for hiding at night. For now, however, he would just have to hope for the best, even though that was slightly against his principles. As he built the fireplace as discreetly as possible (which meant not very discreetly at all), Princess crept into her sleeping bag, and got ready for the night. She was singing softly to herself, probably some kind of lullaby, and Grumpy figured it was most likely connected to a significant memory or ritual from her childhood, so he made an effort not to catch any of the words.

After she fell asleep, he circled the camp, placing his wards around it. While he didn't like the possibility of revealing that he dabbled in such arts, it still beat getting killed in your sleep. Once he was satisfied that he would be warned in time should someone decide to sneak up on them, he rolled out his own bedroll and got ready for sleep. Before dozing off, he glanced over to Princess, and pondered on how peaceful she looked. He toyed with the idea of drugging her for the journey, so he could have this peace during the day as well.

She surprised him in the morning by being the first to wake. He had counted on his diminished need for sleep to let him remove the wards unnoticed, but as he opened his eyes, he found her sitting by the fire, cooking some sort of soup for breakfast. She smiled at him and waved him over "Good morning, you're up just in time for breakfast. I hope you like vegetable soup, since I only had dried greens in my pack." He grumbled out a few unintelligeble words, but when she came over with a bowl, he accepted it and started eating. She went on chattering about how nice the mountains were in the winter (Grumpy almost laughed a bit about that in his mind, since they were barely getting to the foothills at the moment, but remembered in time that laughing was against his character) and how peaceful the snow made the world seem. While she was doing the talking, he surveyed the area for clues as to whether or not she had been far enough from the camp to find his wards, and tried to figure out how he was going to disable them unnoticed. After the meal, the problem solved itself as Princess got busy cleaning the bowls and repacking her backpack, an opportunity he used to "patrol the vicinity". To his relief, all the wards seem undisturbed, and he could find no tracks that indicated that she had left the camp that morning.

The journey soon entered into a routine where the days went by with Princess trying to engage him in conversations, and scouting out which topics it was possible to bait him into talking about. While most of it was innocent, he soon became aware that occasionally she slipped in a question or two to try to coax him into revealing something about himself besides the knowledge he had about the lands and the wildlife.

It took them almost a week to reach the mountains, and Grumpy started feeling a bit more relaxed. From then on, he knew he could hide their camps properly, and the nights would be a lot more comfortable with sleeping under a roof, even if it was just in a cave. He almost became cheery on the first evening, when he located one of his regular caves, and found that his trading partners still kept up their part of the agreement, and stopped by the caves to keep them stocked with durable food every now and then. He wouldn't have to slow down the journey by hunting after all.

On the third night, his natural instincts to expect misfortune finally got a little vindication. They both were woken by a sound not too different from thunder, and Grumpy almost leapt to his feet, grabbing his sword. His night clothes were probably too thin to last him a long exposure to the mountain winter, but it might hold for a short trip. He cast a quick glance to the bewildered Princess. "Get dressed and don't leave the cave. It might be wise to watch from the opening, so you can flee if it goes wrong, but don't get involved. There's a small trading post two days north of here, you'll find an odd looking knife in the sleeve of my jacket, it will grant you sanctuary there." With that, he hurried to the exit, hoping to catch whoever had set off the alarm before they could block them in.

Description
The next morning, Princess and Grumpy met up at the northern city gate. The looks they got from the guards told him that anyone looking for a small group of travelers, would easily find the information they needed here. Amidst all the preparations, he had forgotten how afraid the citydwellers were of the nature and the winter, so any group counting fewer than twenty members was a rarity. But it was too late to think about that now, turning back would bring even more attention, so he did little more than quietly curse his decision to take this job, and led her out towards the mountains. Princess raised an eyebrow at this seemingly unprovoked outburst, but whether it was the cold, or the early morning, she didn't seem chatty enough to inquire about it yet.

It didn't take very long, however, before she seemed to grow bored of walking in silence and decided that getting Grumpy into a conversation would be an appropriate challenge. He did his best to discourage her by short, gruff answers, but it didn't seem to have any impact on her determination. In the end, he gave up, and decided that teaching her a bit about winter and mountain survival would be the least bothersome topic, and might even make the journey easier in the long run. But however he rationalized his defeat, it did nothing to erase that smug grin she wore for the rest of the day, as the travelling passed in far less silence than he had anticipated.

The evening found them as two weary travelers, she from taking a much harder journey than she was used to, and him from actually talking while he walked, something he was not used to. Luckily, the path was well known to him, so he didn't take long in finding them a nice, sheltered campsite. The cold meant he had to build a fire, but he could only hope that whoever was after Princess wasn't that close behind. He looked forward to getting into the mountains. In this region, caves were plentiful, and he knew quite a few that were well suited for hiding at night. For now, however, he would just have to hope for the best, even though that was slightly against his principles. As he built the fireplace as discreetly as possible (which meant not very discreetly at all), Princess crept into her sleeping bag, and got ready for the night. She was singing softly to herself, probably some kind of lullaby, and Grumpy figured it was most likely connected to a significant memory or ritual from her childhood, so he made an effort not to catch any of the words.

After she fell asleep, he circled the camp, placing his wards around it. While he didn't like the possibility of revealing that he dabbled in such arts, it still beat getting killed in your sleep. Once he was satisfied that he would be warned in time should someone decide to sneak up on them, he rolled out his own bedroll and got ready for sleep. Before dozing off, he glanced over to Princess, and pondered on how peaceful she looked. He toyed with the idea of drugging her for the journey, so he could have this peace during the day as well.

She surprised him in the morning by being the first to wake. He had counted on his diminished need for sleep to let him remove the wards unnoticed, but as he opened his eyes, he found her sitting by the fire, cooking some sort of soup for breakfast. She smiled at him and waved him over "Good morning, you're up just in time for breakfast. I hope you like vegetable soup, since I only had dried greens in my pack." He grumbled out a few unintelligeble words, but when she came over with a bowl, he accepted it and started eating. She went on chattering about how nice the mountains were in the winter (Grumpy almost laughed a bit about that in his mind, since they were barely getting to the foothills at the moment, but remembered in time that laughing was against his character) and how peaceful the snow made the world seem. While she was doing the talking, he surveyed the area for clues as to whether or not she had been far enough from the camp to find his wards, and tried to figure out how he was going to disable them unnoticed. After the meal, the problem solved itself as Princess got busy cleaning the bowls and repacking her backpack, an opportunity he used to "patrol the vicinity". To his relief, all the wards seem undisturbed, and he could find no tracks that indicated that she had left the camp that morning.

The journey soon entered into a routine where the days went by with Princess trying to engage him in conversations, and scouting out which topics it was possible to bait him into talking about. While most of it was innocent, he soon became aware that occasionally she slipped in a question or two to try to coax him into revealing something about himself besides the knowledge he had about the lands and the wildlife.

It took them almost a week to reach the mountains, and Grumpy started feeling a bit more relaxed. From then on, he knew he could hide their camps properly, and the nights would be a lot more comfortable with sleeping under a roof, even if it was just in a cave. He almost became cheery on the first evening, when he located one of his regular caves, and found that his trading partners still kept up their part of the agreement, and stopped by the caves to keep them stocked with durable food every now and then. He wouldn't have to slow down the journey by hunting after all.

On the third night, his natural instincts to expect misfortune finally got a little vindication. They both were woken by a sound not too different from thunder, and Grumpy almost leapt to his feet, grabbing his sword. His night clothes were probably too thin to last him a long exposure to the mountain winter, but it might hold for a short trip. He cast a quick glance to the bewildered Princess. "Get dressed and don't leave the cave. It might be wise to watch from the opening, so you can flee if it goes wrong, but don't get involved. There's a small trading post two days north of here, you'll find an odd looking knife in the sleeve of my jacket, it will grant you sanctuary there." With that, he hurried to the exit, hoping to catch whoever had set off the alarm before they could block them in.