Despite before how her concerns of Lord Varros were nearly eating her alive on the inside, they all seemed to have dissipated in that moment, glancing upon the Princess and her playful, loving smile towards her large white hare, the bunny quite visibly enjoying Crystal's dainty fingers sliding across his soft fur as she explained matter of factly the whereabouts of this peculiar but indeed lovable creature, and Irina seemed to hang upon every word the Princess spoke, about how she traveled to the distant tropics of Poponoriodestia, known for the rarest and most magnificent of wildlife and not to mention its stunning island beauty. What a sight it must have been for Crystal, as it would have been for Irina, should she ever think of venturing to Poponoriodestia, perhaps next year maybe? An equally adoring smile crossed her lips as she watched the bunny hop away ever swiftly, landing next to Argo's stable. It surprised her quite what happened next, the white rabbit dropping his carrot next to Argo and the tall Clydesdale picking it up in his mouth. Such an act of kindness, even for two animals, it made her smile all the more as she mused to the Princess, "It seems you have a love for all the Goddess' creations, M'lady. As do I. Ah and looks like our favored animals are indeed quite the companions now." 

From his stable, Argo neighed happily, nudging the rabbit with his snout. "It seemed only weeks ago when I found Argo." Irina whispered nostalgically, her eyes again equal to the Princess' as she viewed her rabbit. "He was only a colt when my father and I discovered him abandoned after a terrible storm. We raised him well to become a valiant steed, but also he became like another member of our family. Really he's the only companion I've had for a while now." She paused a moment to sigh, her smile rather pleasant to the noble steed, watching as he and the large rabbit of the Princess practically palled around. "I wouldn't trade that horse for anything, not even all the riches of the Four Kingdoms. He's been by my side forever." It was as if there was a warmth in her heart carrying on this conversation with Crystal of their adored pets. How nice it felt indeed to Irina to speak of such with the Princess, no talk of her sworn oaths, no scoldings and whatnot, just two girls talking about anything under the blue sky.....but the casual conversing was soon cut short by a rancorous cry of- 

[i]"GANG WAY!!!!"[/i]

"Huh?!" Suddenly rumbling and thundering towards Irina and Princess Crystal was a large wooden barrel that seemed to have spawned from nowhere just as they were oblivious to it. "M'lady! Watch out!" Quickly though Irina snapped to it, throwing herself armor and all before the rolling chaos and soon *BAM!!!* it crashed hard into her torso, throwing her back a good distance away from Crystal before she hit the ground hard with a painful grunt, skidding across the emerald grass of the courtyard before coming to a dead halt against Argo's stable door. Thankfully though, the impact had spared the Princess from being ransacked by the rogue barrel, at the expense of her protector being clobbered silly by it. In a daze, Irina groaned deeply and rubbed the back of her head, picking stray blades of grass and twigs from her tousled blue hair before staggering up against the weight of her armor and stumbling back to Crystal's side. "M'lady, are you alright? What was the meaning of that?" There appeared to be something in the barrel, or someone, as several knocks and scratches could be heard resounding from within the wooden container, along with muffled voices of [i]"Help! Help! Let us outta here!"[/i]

[i]"Oi Pindel, There's cabbage in here! Do you want some?"[/i]

[i]"What?! Don't you be eating that, Versetti! You know what cabbage does to you!"[/i]

[i] "*BURP!* That?"[/i]

[i]"Oh dear Goddess! Somebody get me outta here before I die!"[/i]

Quite obvious as to now who was trapped in this barrel. Giving a bewildered shrug of her shoulders to the Princess, Irina approached the barrel and opened it, where upon here came the two bumbling guardsmen crawling out into the sunlight, both reeking strongly of day old cabbages, the stench enough to make the knight dizzier, even after hitting her head against Argo's stable. [i]"Hrm? Sir knight! Thank you so much for setting us free!"[/i] the short and fat one squeaked joyfully, wrapping his arms around Irina's legs, causing her to stumble back a little and wrench her legs away from Pindel's tight grasp. [i]"I don't know how long we've been stuck in there, and I don't know how long I coulda taken being stuck with that dimwit noshing cabbages!"[/i] The dimwit he spoke of emerged from the wooden barrel, cabbages under both arms as he groaned, [i]"But I was hungry, Pindel!"[/i] soon garnering a snappy remark from his portly comrade, [i]"Then eat bread next time, you dingus! Not cabbages!"[/i]

As humorous as this situation seemed to Irina, she was still bewildered as to why these two were in a barrel, gruffly clearing her throat to address Pindel and Versetti, "Sir Pindel, Sir uh.....Spaghetti? Why were you two stowed into a barrel if I might ask?" The fat one soon replied, his voice now becoming rather annoyed, as if this was some sort of cruel joke played on the two, [i]"Well lass, if you might inquire, some tall, skinny bloke...eh..not my tall skinny bloke, but some tall skinny bloke told me and Versetti His Majesty kept his royal mead in a barrel in the storage room, and let me tell you there's no better mead than the King's own personal brew, but anywho. Us two, being the thirsty dogs we were after working hard all day, thought we'd stop by and have ourselves a li'l pint or two. I mean surely His Majesty wouldn't know, but the next thing we know, we get bonked on the head and stuffed in the damn thing rolling down the stairs, and worse, it wasn't even full of mead!"[/i]

So these two were tricked, and Irina was pretty sure by who.....[i]It's him alright...[/i]