True...again she was a bit unnerved by that recent encounter, her fifth or so with the ever haunting Lord of Narsil, but Irina merely shook the plaguing and often melancholic thought from her head. Like she would ever again let this fiend rob her of her purest moment of joy. A spring in her step, or rather several as her face was beaming bright with such rapture in her haste to tell the Princess of the wonderful news the King has bestowed upon her, Irina quickly ran down the hall of the castle, soon making her way to the chamber of Crystal and opening the door, forgetting to knock as courtesy, but she was just too damn excited to consider such, shouting merrily to the top of her lungs, "Princess! You'll never believe what-...." Luckily in her haste to fling open the wooden door...or rather unluckily....she had discovered much to the swift change of her happiness....to a much more grim and anxious face of bewilderment. "Princess? M'lady?" [i]Oh....not again...[/i] She would have only assumed the worst. Such a fool of the knight to leave a cunning and crafty lady such as Crystal in the care of....two bumbling idiots. [i]What was I thinking leaving her with those imbeciles? Now she's gone, but where to I wonder? Could it be....no. Varros, as much as I detest of him, it's below the honor of a Lord to commit such a horrible deed against his fellow Kingdom....but when has the beast ever known honor.[/i] Certain was Irina though that Varros' ill hands were far from clutching her lady in those gruesome, deathlike palms of his, but....just where exactly was she? The answer may or may not have been given to her....by frantic muffled voices from the Princess' wardrobe.... [i]"Oi! I think someone's out there!"[/i] [i]"Hey ye! Help us! We're stuck in here!"[/i] [i]Oh Goddess....how could I have known?[/i] Now that once worrisome face...had melted into a glower of such annoying disapproval towards the voices coming from the other side of the pinewood door of the closet. [i]And of course...this has M'lady's handprints all over it...[/i] Of course anyone, even a blind person who was hard of hearing, could easily dupe a couple of pea brained guardsmen like Pindel and Versetti. Giving a most dismayed sigh, a bit of a growl upon the end, Irina's eyes searched around for the wardrobe key, finding it glittering in the early light of morn upon Crystal's vanity. Snatching up the key, she stormed over to the closet, unlocking it with a simple turn in the keyhole and stepping back as the two buffoons piled out unto the hardwood floor of the bedroom, over-dramatically gasping for breath as though fish plucked from the pond, as always the fat one scampering like a freed rat towards Irina and clutching her legs in the vice-grip hug of his meaty arms. [i]"Lady Knight! Thank ye so much for getting me and Versetti outta there! We never thought-"[/i] "Shut your gob, you bloody idiot!" But Irina...was none to happy to see these fools, such a deathly glare of smoldering spite she cast down upon the two men cowering before her like whipped pups. "Did I ask you not to keep good eye upon the Princess? And look where you ended up! I swear if it were not for me being a bit more considerate, I would thrash you dolts upside the head with a birch switch" She wasn't holding back once, letting these two have their well deserved scolding from a woman deeply embittered by their idiocy, their lackadaisical and lethargic mockery of what should have been a very simple task..even for these two....but...Irina did have to consider whom they were looking after. "Ugh! Nevermind. Just tell me where the Princess has run off to." Ever annoyed the knight grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose with a deep and bothersome sigh. The thin one replied to her, [i]"Ahmm....I think she went to the forest, Lady Knight."[/i] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not long after, Irina had already called upon her steed Argo and the two were riding away from the castle and towards the path of the eastern forest, Irina being sure to keep a hawk's eye upon every tree, upon every stone and brush, should an ambush come to pass, but also being sure to keep a much vigilant eye out for the Princess, and after a bit of riding upon the forest path, she soon caught sight of that all too familiar white mane of hair, not to mention catching scent of that ever lovely lavender. "Ah, there you are." Quite courteously Irina addressed her lady, riding next to her with Argo in a slow trot of his hooves, a sincere smile crossing the woman's face.