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As the man Sjorging introduced himself and the third man, Gelding, he appeared to be scrutinizing her, testing to see what she was made of. Adranel lifted her chin fractionally and set her jaw firmly, drawing on her inner strength. She suspected that there was a good deal more to Sjorging that met the eye. She wasn’t overly impressed by him, and doubted she would come to like him much. Even his manner of speaking rubbed her the wrong way: if you desire, you may follow us until our road splits. Well, she wasn’t about to do any following; she would go with them or alone, but she did not follow.
When Beluf offered their company to her, her acceptance, unwilling as it may have been, was partly because of his appearance of genuine friendship. She got the distinct impression that he did not want her along with them, and that he only invited her along because Beluf already had. It was partly this that made her decision - she would show him that she did as she liked, and his unfriendly attitude wasn’t going to put her off. This was compounded by the fact that she would feel immensely foolish saying she would go alone after having already agreed to travel with them.
“I will continue on with you,” said Adranel decisively. “I’ll be ready by tomorrow morning.” Sjorging grunted in acknowledgment. Adranel thought he sounded skeptical and resigned to her presence.
Beluf gave her a small smile. “You look cold. Why don’t you warm yourself up by our fire?” Warmth sounded heavenly to Adranel. Her fingers, toes, and ears were like ice cubes, and she was chilled to the bone. She realized how long it had been since she had been warm: almost a whole day, when... She blanched, and quickly swallowed down the emotions that had risen up. She could give no words to describe the previous day’s events, even if she had been asked, because she had buried all the memories into the deep recesses of her soul.
“That would be good,” Adranel replied, hastily trying to cover up her near loss of self control. Beluf nodded, and showed her to the logs they had set down to sit on near the fire. It was quite some time before Adranel began to feel any semblance of heat, and during that time she said little, concentrating on the crackling fire. Finally she looked up, and found Beluf sitting nearby, watching her with some mild curiosity. Sjorging and Gelding had separated themselves and were talking quietly.
Adranel wasn’t particularly in the mood for conversation, but the silence was starting to feel uncomfortable and, despite herself, her interest in her new companions had been piqued. She tried to think of something that would keep the conversation off herself, for she wasn’t ready to share much news of herself with these strangers, not until she knew more about them, especially Sjorging. She was rather wary of him, and glad he had not deigned to join her and Beluf. It didn’t occur to her that Beluf might be as close-mouthed about himself as she was about herself.
“So,” she began, finally unable to think of anything but the obvious. “Have you been travelling long? Did I hear correctly that you are going to see King Brand?”
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