Illyce was dreaming. She hadn't done a lot of dreaming between the release of her service, and rescuing Luna again, but it wasn't particularly novel either. 

[i]She dreamed of her's and Luna's old home, overgrown in vines of ivy and briars. Only the shape of the keep could be seen underneath all the green, with only the occasional grey stone poking out of the overgrowth. Its drawbridge was down. Past it, an impenetrable darkness yawed onwards. For the first time since she had became a page, she felt afraid of the dark, just this darkness in particular. Perhaps seeing nothing beyond it gave her chills. Perhaps not knowing what was going to emerge was overwhelming her. No matter what, she planted her feet, and reached for her sword. 

"Illyce..."

She raised her sword in both hands. Someone spoke to her from behind. Someone spoke with a soft, familiar voice. Yet, she kept her eyes on the darkness inside that castle.

"Illyce, it's okay..."

Someone touched her hand...and she shrugged it off. A splash in the moat followed.[/i]

She awoke with fatigue already setting in. Her saddle felt a little bit more spacious. It took her a minute to realize that she had woken up to Luna falling off the saddle. While she woke up a little more when she saw her princess cradling her injured arm against the forest floor, she sighed in relief. [i]Why would she run off somewhere, anyway?[/i] It was the kind of reassuring thought she found herself thinking when she was a prisoner, and even when she had told Luna to run. It was a reckless decision on Illyce's part, in retrospect.

She certainly looked like she was dreaming. Maybe even sounded like it for the few minutes she remained asleep.

"Oh, Luna," she said. She dismounted, and knelt beside her. "I'm sorry I couldn't rise earlier to help you out there." She hung her head in a halfhearted display of shame, a grin worn on her face like a telling wink. "Now, let's get that wound taken care of..." [i]My worst skill set...[/i] Illyce couldn't tie a knot if it had already been double-tied by a peasant. Bandages were only slightly more forgiving to her. For a steady sword, bridle, and shield hand, she could never keep them steady for needles or threads or anything else. 

But Goya's saddlebags still had a few rolls, because even her meager skills and barely-deft hands could serve some use. She started rolling up the wound when she noticed it scabbed over. The size of it surprised her. For someone who had never seen a fight, Luna certainly didn't lose a lot of blood for the place she was cut. A rinse from her waterskin later, and she bandaged the wound up to the end...the hardest part. Tying things together.

[i]C'mon...[/i] Her hands shook despite her determined thoughts against them. The first knot only stood on due to her sheer force of will. The second she gingerly approached. "Is that ... Too tight, Princess?" She asked. It probably wasn't, given the tenuousness of the first knot.