[h3][color=lightblue]TEAM RUTABAGA[/color][/h3]

The blood rushed to Fiammetta's head as her right eye started to twitch in a crooked blink. Anyone who had a passing acquaintance with reality could tell someone had just made the noblewoman very, [i]very[/i] angry.

"Why you... [i]insolent little...[/i]" she said between ground teeth. "You think a lowly soldier can speak to nobility like that? Threatening someone of my stature... I'll see to it that you're stripped of your rank! No... Mongrel, I'll have your head!"

But just as she was about to draw her second sword, someone stepped in to interrupt them.

"Telio?!" she said, confused. The young painter shoved a ruined piece of wet canvas in the two soldiers' faces, the remains of a farewell present to himself. The last taste of home he'd see for a while. A beautiful hand-drawn map of Enn. Fiammetta could tell it was spectacular even with the colors dripping away, because she'd seen Telio's art before with her own two eyes. This map had had passion put into it. 

Which is why it just broke her heart to see something that could have been so beautiful being ripped to pieces in front of her. 

She gasped. "Telio, what are you-"

But it was too late. He threw the pieces to the wind, scattering his magnificent painting. She glared at the two soldiers, but at Alex in particular. 

"Do you see what you've done?"

Hurrying to pick up the pieces before she got left behind, she brought them back to Telio, leaving her birdcage for Alex to carry as punishment.

"Here," she said, offering the damp and slightly muddy paper back to Telio. "You shouldn't just discard this. Especially not after [i]I[/i] went through all the trouble of digging through the mud just to get it for you."

Fiammetta smiled, hoping he'd take the paper back. This mud on her gauntlets really would be hard to get off without wiping it on her freshly laundered dress...