"If I'm flirting with you then truly I must be mad."
"It wouldn't surprise me. Anyone who willingly leaps from a tower has questionable sanity." She chimed again, continuing to feed her pint-sized pet. Her voice wasn't cruel like it had been the day before, albeit there was still a trace of irritation in the way that she spoke. Despite forcing herself to be more pleasant, she obviously wasn't in her 'ideal' environment. She noticed the horse move of his own accord, reaching out and stroking his mane. She loved animals, especially Horses... Shiva was a close second, but she craved Araiah's presence. This horse looked nothing like her four legged and ivory haired friend, but she missed her all the same. She never realized just how much she'd miss her. Suddenly she found herself thinking about the first day she met Araiah, when her father brought her to Kenna as nothing more than a foal. She was so strange looking back then, but now Araiah was a very beautiful horse.
"As for your earlier questions. I suppose that it is safe for me to answer you here."
Her thoughts were broken as he finally decided to answer her serious question. He couldn't see it, but her eyebrow raised as he spoke, and she awaited the rest of what he was going to say. The pause was causing her to grow impatient so she gave Shiva the last few bites of carrot to occupy herself. If she didn't, she probably would have said something out of the way.
"When we get to the Guild, you will remain there unless given permission to leave. We cannot have Lorn finding you an easy target. You will only remain with us until Lorn is dealt with. After that, you will be escorted back to your precious Silanos. The state of your Realm is of no concern to me. Protecting my people is all that I am concerned with."
"If that was your only concern, we wouldn't be here with two very different personalities and moral codes struggling to coexist on one horse, now would we, Assassin?" She stated in a calm tone, despite an obvious sigh escaping her lips. She wasn't sure who he was trying to convince, but he obviously wasn't being very honest as far as his 'concerns' were concerned. She had not qualms about pointing it out either. In fact, she found that she was rather enjoying getting underneath the Assassin's skin. Unless he caught her in escape, there was little he could do about her behavior.... so taunting, teasing.. it was all free game, and despite his 'big' and 'bad' status, she had diplomatic immunity in this situation.
"We will travel for some time this day. I would very much like to get as much distance between us and the village. The sooner we reach Axijan, the better. The moment Lorn realizes what I've done, he'll be after us. His wrath will be terrible."
"Good thing I've got a relatively short man, a very distinctive horse, and Shiva by my side then I suppose. I feel better already." She actually gave a light chuckle as she said this, holding no real malice or contempt in her voice but definitely slightly mocking him.. Tannin was a rather short man for his age, and Shiva wouldn't amount to a lot of protection.. Everything she said had a certain point... Especially since she'd never met an assassin before. How was she supposed to know he was telling the truth..? She did however believe him about who he was, but even still, would he be able to properly protect her or were they simply racing against the inevitable?
"Tell me something, Princess, Shiva...how did she come to be your pet? The two of you seem rather close."
"My father used to go hunting a lot before my mother died and left shortly after she died as well... I took it harder than most when we lost my mother.. and I eventually fled the castle because no one spoke of anything else the entire day." She informed him, thinking back on the day, she could even see her younger self running through the snow to escape the loud gossip of the adults inside. They had so many opinions and yet none of them had any ideas on how to bring back her mother....so why did they feel the need to keep talking about it?
"I nearly froze to death that night, because I was too stubborn to go inside. People that barely even knew my mother were acting as if they'd grown up with her their entire life.. That's part of being a royal I suppose, but I was only nine at the time... Anyway, my father just returned from a hunting trip and found the two of us nestled in the snow. We were both blue in the face, and he rushed us both inside only to find that Shiva wasn't actually a child, she was a Cabbit. She'd found me in the snow and curled up with me in her larger form so I wouldn't die... She's around the size of a six year old child in that state so she couldn't do much else.. Besides, she was a baby then too, she didn't know the native tongue at all." She didn't see the harm in telling the story. There was little he could use against her from it. Though she only found herself petting Shiva afterward, remembering how she owed her life to that little ball of fur.