CHAPTER 284: GOODBYE

Irene took to the trail early, not expecting to see anyone. However, as she left, she saw Gunnar and Felix waiting for her when she left her guest room and made it to the bottom of the stairs.

"Isn’t it too early for you to be awake?" she asked the two in disbelief.

"I need to wake before the apprentices," Gunnar explained.

"And I’m not going to let you go into the great unknown without seeing you off," Felix insisted.

Irene couldn’t help the smile that pulled at her lips.

It wasn’t that they were worried for her because they doubted her, they wanted to see her off because she was one of them. Ever since she was an apprentice, she was in the fringes of the group, but now that she was knighted, she had broken all the way in.

Their shared experiences were the best glue to bond. Brothers and sisters in battle knew the other at their lowest defeat and highest victory.

"Then see me off properly," she responded. "As the only girl around here, I feel that I’m owed at least a bit of affection."

To Felix’s surprise, she held her arms open. She was pushing his boundary. However, to her surprise, he actually responded by giving her a hug which she returned with a light laugh.

Sir Gunnar was far easier to hug since he was a cuddly bear more like her father though not quite as large. It was the difference between a polar bear and a grizzly bear.

"Stay safe, Irene," Felix was the first to say after the hugs were finished. "I mean it."

"Have faith in me," she requested.

"I do."

"I know you aren’t that superstitious, but I would prefer you take this with you," Gunnar explained as he pulled something from his pocket. "The apprentices gave it to me just before you joined the order, but I want you to have it. The colors of the dukedom. Dark red and silver."

Her eyes widened slightly. The braided together material could be fastened to a sword’s handle. It was a charm to remind those of who waited for them and who cared for them.

"I appreciate it nonetheless," she responded. "Thank you, both of you. Now I ought to be off. I want to make it as far as I possibly can each day. Four weeks there means uphill travel. Three weeks back all downhill." But she paused. "Ah, actually, I forgot one thing."

"What is it?" Felix wondered.

Irene hadn’t fastened her thick outer coat yet and she reached underneath her clothing to pull out a letter that she had written the night before.

"Here it is!" she exclaimed, relieved. "I wrote a letter to my family. If you could have it delivered by any means. It doesn’t have to arrive quickly. I just wanted final words before I leave for a long time."

"We’ll get it sent at once," Felix assured her.

"Of course," Gunnar agreed. "Even if we don’t see the late Duke’s hawk much anymore, there are plenty of falconers in surrounding towns."

"Thank you," Irene responded with a nod of her head. "Then I will be off."

As Irene walked across the largest tower’s main floor and out the back entrance, onto the practice yard, she casted a final glance towards the Duke’s Tower before pulling up her hood and going to the warm stables where her horse, Sammy, waited for her and the tough journey they were to face together.

Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly depending on one’s knowledge of armor, Irene wouldn’t be wearing plate armor on this particular excursion.

While the Knights of Chemois were already pushing the limits of wearing metal when it was freezing outside, going even further north while completely surrounded by metal would certainly cause the girl to freeze to death no matter how much woolen cushion or outer covering she had.

Her father had fitted her with armor that, while a few pieces had metal reinforcement inside of it such as her chest and shoulders, it was mostly made of stiff wool and brown leather. If it were to get too cold for her outside, the metal would undoubtedly pull the heat from her body so she had to wear it sparingly.

At least now, she would have flexibility and movement that would help her along the way.

Of course, this sort of armor was unlikely to simply be laying around. That’s what Irene though before she went through her grandmother’s armoire and found a few pieces that fit Irene quite well considering the similar height she shared with the woman.

As she prepared Sammy for the road ahead with a coat underneath a securely fastened saddle, she thought fondly of the old woman who had put her onto this journey in the first place.

The now faintly red-headed woman, once a tall and proud Sünstoian warrior, seemed so small in the bed while she was sick. Decades of working herself to the limit had finally reached her. It was as if she spent each one of her days running from the possibility that humans were in fact not indestructible.

"Ready to go?" she asked her horse.

He seemed energetic and it was a good enough response that the girl set out confidently into the early morning, even before the sun would reach the far eastern horizon.

During winter, there were only a few hours in the day of actual sunlight. The rest of the time, the world was cast in darkness.

For a long time, the trail was very familiar to her. She had memorized the beginning of the map so she would remain efficient while she was still in Chemois.

However, there was a point that split the mountain and lead to two valleys. If she were to continue and not go down the split, it would send her east and towards the small village where her father lost his hand.

The directions she recalled, however, were to take the split. That was where she would reach a break in the mountains that would allow her safer passageway to the north.

Her father warned her before she left that even further north, the days were darker for longer during the winter. It also persisted even longer. But the darkness she dreaded was the reason she was able to go right now. It would keep the monsters at bay. The only monsters or beasts that enjoyed the cold were wyrms or white dire wolves. One had been extinct for decades while the other was easy for her to take care of on her own.

The next stretch, they would begin climbing foothills that led to hidden switchbacks. Nearly a week of her journey would be in the mountain pass. For that, she decided they could take a break. The sun was as high in the sky as it would get.

"It’s going to be uphill from here on out," she explained to the horse, directing him to a bit of dry grass that had managed to survive the snow at the base of a tree.

It wouldn’t be the first or last time she relied on her horse as someone to talk to during the journey.

Just as she had been warned, the way up was difficult. She felt like the times she had gone to the winterization up the largest northern peak trained her for what she was experiencing. The foothills were the same, the tree line was the same, but most of all, having to climb off of her horse so that she could get past the rocky parts safely were exactly the same.

There was a switchback that seemed particularly large and would undoubtedly put her at the heart of this path.

Sammy tried to press on, but Irene pulled at his reins and stopped him for a moment so she could turn and say goodbye to the only valley she had known in her life. How she had never left it was amazing. She still felt prepared for this journey just because of all that there was in Chemois.

With that, she pressed on with her horse, knowing that it was too late to turn back around and run for the Duke’s Tower where, even if training became tough and decisions were outside her realm of experiences, she would be safer.

She allowed her horse to go forward. They needed to find someplace flat so that she could set up the tent and have a break from the wind. On the way up, she had been collecting bits of wood despite having already brought her own. She was determined not to use the wood yet because she knew further in would be even less vegetative.

A couple of hours later, as the sun set, Irene lit a small fire. It wasn’t the flattest place to sleep, but being wedged into a crevice at least kept her and Sammy out of the wind.

After her tent was erected and her fire was an adequate size, she removed the saddlebags and saddle from her horse. The only strap left on him was the one that kept the blankets tight against his body. However, she also unrolled a fur and placed it over him.

There would be a couple of weeks more of nights just like this.