[center][h2][b][u]Alodia[/u][/b][/h2][/center]
It was a little overwhelming, really, riding alongside so many people for the first time.  Sure, she'd talked to a lot of people since she started leaving the forest, and she'd seen a bunch of them around the castle a few times already, but this was her first time actually out on assignment with them.  Admittedly she [i]was[/i] riding at the back, supposedly because she was inexperienced in actual combat and due to her not being as physically capable as the actual knights (although with how trigger happy she was that was probably partially just an excuse), but still... Not only that but she'd never rode a horse for this long either!  Honestly, she was starting to get a little bit twitchy by this point.

"Then again I guess Granny always said life's all about new experiences!"

Like bandits.  Bandits!  Back home in the forest you rarely ever saw actual bandits, and when you [i]did[/i] they were usually being victimized by wolves or boars or trolls or the angry trees with vine tentacles.  Thinking about it, she should probably go back to her cottage at some point in the near future.  The trees were probably getting hungry again, and that was [i]never[/i] a good thing.

Although really, when she stopped to think about it she wasn't entirely sure what was going on with the bandits.  Fanilly (she looked so young and cute!  Was she [i]really[/i] the leader of these knights?) had mentioned something about one of them being a king or something, and something about a rebellion.  Honestly, trying to remember everything the captain had said made her head hurt.  Politics and current affairs were definitely not her area of expertise, after all.

Speaking of Fanilly, she seemed to be about to give the order to dismount.  At least [i]that[/i] was something she could understand.  After all, if she forced her horse to cross rough terrain and ended up getting it hurt, the horse spirit would probably be disappointed in her at best.

Now, if only she could remember how to actually dismount this thing.

"Ah, um... Wah!"  She slipped, she tumbled, she [i]somehow[/i] managed to still land on her feet.  Definitely all due to natural acrobatic skill, definitely not because she'd cast a minor air spell to correct her fall.  Nope, definitely not that at all.