The wagon trundled easily down the slope and away from the rumble of sounds and the smokey haze of the sprawling camp out into the growing darkness of the plains. Here the grass was short, barely up to Phantom's knees, and it undulated under the breeze like the ocean to the south. In some places on the Kerawac there was grass that towered so high entire armies could be swallowed up in it and never seen again.

It was quiet and cool out here, the wind full of the scent of growing grass and wild wheat. Yet the quietude did little to settle the whirl of confusing thoughts that turned over and over in Asher's mind, achieving nothing.

He didn't answer Verissa for a while, but it wasn't fair for him to keep her in the dark. He wanted better for her than to be treated as a slave. Turning, his storm-coloured eyes reflected the light of the waxing moon. With a twitch of his chisled jaw towards the seat beside him, he cleared his throat and said somewhat gruffly, "Will Remilia be alright if you come sit with me?"

"We're going to a place called the Grove. I haven't been there since I was a child. This is the first time the Thunderfangs have been near it since then." He didn't have to explain further. Verissa understood by now just how unbelievably massive the plains were, and how the tribes were constantly on the move, sometimes not traveling the same roads for decades. "I think you'll really enjoy it, but I don't want to say too much and ruin the surprise." 

There was a ghost of a smile in his cheek, a fleeting thing like one of the rare jeweled grasskeets that glittered in the golden grass. Bringing Verissa to the Grove wasn't his only goal in this brief holiday. That much was spelled out in the stubborn tenseness in his strong shoulders, but he didn't readily elaborate.

"I also thought it might be nice to have some real privacy for once." Glancing over, there was a haunted look in his expression. "I almost killed a man over you today. I still might, when we get back. I can't stand the thought of you being hurt. Especially not...like that." She'd confided in him that she'd never actually been with any man, and somewhat that fact both inflamed his desire more and made him even more resistant to claim her that way than before.

Asher had never been very good at discussing his feelings and his struggle was evident, though there was more to what he wanted to explain than simple protectiveness.