And now…one last score update with As the Yak Runs before I go to bed:
Ellehnia has been sitting in the bar. nursing her drink, watching Kandi do her thing – mostly getting men to buy her drinks while teasing them – when she senses someone come up behind her. She closes her eyes and prays for patience. She does not want to end up knifing someone tonight.
She spins around, ready to start shouting and finds herself face to face with Tryce. The devilish lout grins at her shocked expression. “Can I buy you a drink, babycakes?”
Ellie looks nervously around, wondering if at any moment someone will notice that there is a foreign soldier in their midst. Kandi would surely recognize him, but she was too busy schmoozing to pay her any more attention.
“You dolt.” Ellie hisses through gritted teeth and she grabs Tryce’s hand and drags him off up the stairs. “How did you even get here?”
“I snuck across the border.” Tryce’s kitten-eating grin only grew wider in the face of her annoyance. And that annoyance was wearing off pretty fast.
They were alone for the first time in months, and he was looking pretty good in his new armor. Although, she ventured to guess he might look better without it. “I guess…we should make the best of this then.”
Sometime later, Kandi stumbles up the stairs, giggling and counting the day’s takings. She walks into Ellie’s room – and what should she find but Ellie and Tryce in a very compromising situation!
“What in the HAEEEELLL is going on up in here?! Uh-uh, no you not. NO YOU ISN’T!” the drunk Kandi shakes her head, waving her finger at Tryce. “You don’t get no further until you prove you kin provide fo’ my friend. If you want some then you oughta put a KEEP on it.”
Tryce lifts an eyebrow. He loves challenges, after all. “A keep you say?”
“You know that’s right. Ellehnia is the QUEEN and she need a castle.” Kandi spouted.
“All right. I’ll get her a keep then.” Tryce said with a shrug before laying back in the bed to relax.
Ellehnia, meanwhile, is not sure whether she should be horrified or ashamed. She hides her face inside of her hat and groans.
The next day, Ellehnia is preparing her herd for its weekly migration through the borderlands. She knows that the dangerous Aspenthirs will more than likely come for her yaks, but she has never been afraid. The only thing that worries her is that Peta is nowhere to be seen. Where could he be?
Little did Ellehnia know that while the herd is completing its migration, Tryce was plotting to take a keep in the name of love (and yaks). After her completing the migration, and with her brothers at her side, she made her way to the gates of the Fort Aspenwood garrison and found them thrown wide. Fireworks rained down from the walls, dolyaks pranced through the outer courtyard, and standing tall on the stairs was Tryce, wearing that kitten-eating grin that provoked at first irritation, then tenderness.
“Welcome home, babycakes.”
PS: Eat your heart you Usagi
<3<3 Ellie.
