[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/cpsNZiy.png[/img]
[sub][@PrankFox][@Crimson Flame][@Yankee][/sub][/center]
[i]“You’ve done good work here.”[/i]

Two days later, and old Narillon’s words still echoed in her mind, long after the taste of succulent, tart grapefruit faded from her tongue. She did good work. She did good work! So Chef Tuan didn’t rat her out to the head butler for keeping those pantry mice as pets after all. Thank the gods for that. She could only hope that Janet would remember to feed them.

Nea shook her head, scattering the thoughts out of her skull. Her thoughts seemed to always be going back to the estate these days, and the people there as well. Though gossip and chatter from fellow travellers sounded all around her, it sounded rather terrible and fantastical. Some monster at Woodard’s? One of the gardeners had family there. Had he heard of it? Nea frowned. She really was thinking about the estate too much, huh? Maybe that’s just what happened once you started working and living somewhere for long. Certainly, she had been homesick when travelling out of the Highlands, no matter how miserably cold and isolated it was. She shook her head again, doubled down on her mind-clearing by popping some of the wildberries she foraged into her mouth.

It was summer in the land of Sedaia, after all, the sweet liquor of trodden blackberries sticky in the noses of those who strode through the highways of the sun-kissed kingdom. And the journey from the Croplands to the Highlands was a long one too. Perfect for one of those summer flings that one of the prettier maids always boasted about! Maybe she could detour to the Midlands and see the Celebration of Kings from the wealthiest nation around? Snag herself a cute merchant’s boy, eat some fancy food, take it easy until summer ends and…

Then what?

Through the Scrublands during the fall, where autumnal harvests and fat caravans mean that the bandits would be working overtime with their dastardly ways? Be stuck in the Highlands during a miserably cold winter, stuck with only her parents and sheep in that drafty old farmhouse? The vacationing maid furrowed her brow, and picked up her pace. The faster she could get to the Midlands, the faster she could enjoy herself, and then the faster she could end her personal enjoyment so she could get out of the Highlands before the storms really settle in. Which now seemed like the opposite of what a lazy summer with a purse of coinage ought to be.

[i]“Where you headed?”[/i]

A heavy hand fell on her shoulder, as gruff and ruggedly manly as its owner, who radiated such masculine musk that Nea was veritably blasted out of her thoughts of the future. She looked at the man, then at another man (doubtlessly jealous that his friend took initiative) who approached, then at [i]another[/i] man (well, maybe more of a farmer boy) who approached, then at [i]yet another[/i] man (this time, certainly a man, with such striking eyes that she could drink right out of them) who approached. A blush covered the dark-haired girl’s cheeks. Oh, what should she do? They say that travel changed people, but she didn’t think it’d have changed her that much, so soon!

Hah, if only that bitch Mira was here to see it. Just two days, and she was surrounded in all cardinal directions by men wishing to be introduced to her parents!

Unfortunately, her mouth wasn’t nearly so eloquent once her mind overheated with the possibilities.

[color=fff79a]“Uh,”[/color] Nea croaked, craning her neck up at them. They were all so tall and well-built! [color=fff79a]“Y-yes?”[/color]