Earthbound

Chapter 14

The next morning was a blur. Ezran could hardly remember where she slept last night, nor how she ended up bathed and fully dressed.

Somehow, she ended up dressed in a pale blue button down shirt, with a dark gray doublet adorned with silver buttons. A bandage was loosely slung under her shirt, preventing infection from taking hold as her skin rapidly knit itself back together.

Loose brown pants hung just below her hips, and a silver buckled, black belt held them up at her waist, although her fears of her pants falling a little too low still worried her. Black boots crawled up her shins, with thin, coarse laces and silver aglets enclosing the fraying ends of the cord.

Ezran didn't understand why she was so unnerved by death in her presence. Maybe after a few months of spontaneously growing plants, killing a creature was an oddity; even if it was trying to harm her first. And yet after years of living in a cabin near the woods with her father and stepmother, she'd been taught how to shoot a bow and kill little creatures for sustenance.

Or maybe it was watching an innocent man die in front of her. 'He likely had a family. People who cared about him,' Ezran poured over these thoughts heavily. What if it had been her? Or Nicolette? Would others have felt the same as she, if they walked a mile in her shoes?

"Ezran, are you listening to me?" Kai's voice cut through the thoughts clouding her brain like a mother smothering her newborn child with attention.

Right.

The duo were walking down a long hallway within the palace.

"Am I listening? Not really." Ezran sighed.

"Are you still..." Kai swallowed, before just nodding, already knowing what her response would be.

"Yeah." Ezran nodded. "I've seen death before. I just...I wish I could have done something different. Been more prepared. That man...he didn't deserve to die."

"I know Ezra. I know."

Ezran looked out the large windows as they stride down the hallway. Trees towered outside the windows, and she could even see the edge of the Royal Garden. It was late summer, and the lazy heat could be felt throughout the castle.

"Damn, whoever designed armor plates did not have comfort in mind." Kai shuddered, shifting a shoulder pad. Ezran thought most of the guards within the palace looked rather silly, like something from a story book, but she did see the practicality of suits of armor.

"I'd rather be uncomfortable than dead." Ezran sighed.

"Ain't that the truth."

"Where are we going again?" Ezran piped up, her gaze avoiding the few tapestries that filled in empty space on the wall between long velvet curtains.

"To visit Queen Valarie." Kai stopped at a door at the end of the hallway. Ezran didn't notice, hence she walked face first into a warm stone wall.

"Shit-" Ezran's hands flew up to clutch her nose.

"Careful!" Kai laughed. His laughter made her feel slightly better. Just a little.

"I could have used a warning." She huffed, pinching his ear as she brushed past him, grabbing the other door with her left hand.

"Or you could have paid more attention." Kai smirked.

"I'd beat the shit out of you if I could do it and win." Ezran glowered.

"You wish."

"I do wish, very much so." Ezran pulled a door open, and Kai pulled open the other.