"All done," said Ikovos, walking out of the pantry with a filled pack in his hand.

I turned around smiling, relieved maybe. "Perfect timing, coffee just finished."

He brightened, dropping the bag by the wall. "Sweet." Then headed beside me after nodding to Jaden. "Morning."

The dark-haired boy lifted his hand in response, then he too walked over.

"So Evelyn's coming, aye?" he asked.

I moved away from them discreetly with my cup. They were both quite unconcerned about saying things in front of people that most wouldn't. Sometimes when they started on together . . . it could get a little scary.

Ikovos nodded. "Yeah, it was Thoran's idea." He smirked. "Should make things in town more interesting though, right."

I finished stirring my coffee, taking a sip in time to see both turn around and look at me, eyes moving from head to toe. Their smiles dropped. Both suddenly looked less cheery, almost concerned.

"Right, interesting . . . ," muttered Jaden.

My face went red under their gaze, this is exactly the type of brazen thing that most people wouldn't do. I cleared my throat, setting the cup down as they each lifted theirs.

"Will we be taking the horses?" I asked awkwardly.

Ikovos moved his eyes up to my face, as if nothing was strange about the way they were talking. "We don't usually, unless we have a lot of things to pick up." He shrugged. Jaden continued drinking. "We don't have much this trip, so we probably won't take them . . . unless you want to?" he added.

I shook my head. "Oh, no, that's fine. However you guys would normally do it."

Above all on this trip, I didn't want to be a nuisance. This was usually probably somewhat of a break for them, a chance to have some fun . . . I'm sure I'm already putting a dent in that.

As we finished up our coffees and made our way out of the lodge, I tried to think of things I could do to make the trip better for them, or at least be less of a burden myself. To be honest, I was so grateful to be able to go that I didn't care what I was doing. Unfortunately any attempts I made at assisting backfired. First I said that I would help with the map-navigating and they both already knew the way. Then I offered to carry the extra bag and Ikovos took mine. When we stopped about an hour after dawn for breakfast, I finally got a chance, succeeding in getting them to let me make breakfast.

I unpacked the rolls and dried meat happily from the pack as the two boys sat down on some rocks. We had stopped in a small hill of flat stone that gave a view of the forest around. The boys said they always stopped here for breakfast when they went to Rizenn.

The trip had started out with that magically promising feeling in the air, and it still hadn't diminished. I let out a breath studying the pale scenery around us. The air was cool enough to see my breath.

"So what type of stuff do you guys normally do when you go to the towns?" I asked, passing the food around, then sitting down cross-legged.

Ikovos took it, then shrugged. "Depends on the town . . . It's usually picking up supplies or getting things at the lodge repaired, sending mail. Plus it's how we get news about what's going on around us." I considered this, taking a small nibble of my roll. "Rizenn is one of the bigger towns, as you probably know, so we'll be doing a bit of everything."

I nodded. The sky above was starting to fill with passing birds, it reminded me of Tanis, so I slipped an extra piece of meat into my bag.

I had heard of Rizenn before . . . from some of the more traveled in Tiver.

Now, I took into account that what I'd heard was from mostly women, but three things were always repeated.

One, they had more material and jewelry shops that you could hope for . . . which I didn't really understand considering I thought the four in Tiver were too many. . . .

Two, it was a riverside town that had been around a lot longer than Tiver, so it was supposedly quite large and highly populated.

And lastly, if girls from the smaller towns reached a certain age without any prospects of marriage, they would be shipped off to Rizenn for a "vacation", assured to come back with a boy . . . or else not come back at all. I'd doubted this last one at first, until I saw it in action with both of my sisters. Granted, they had been sent well before they needed to, but with my mother marriage was a dire business.

Still . . . I never knew why it worked . . .

"Ikovos?" I asked without thinking. "Are there a lot of men in Rizenn?'

Jaden stopped chewing.

Ikovos laughed shortly. "Not especially . . ." I pursed my lips disappointedly. "Are you in need of one or something?"

Jaden's scowl deepened. I looked up stupidly. "Wha?-"

Ikovos was grinning. My eyes widened and I waved my hands.

"Oh, no. No, no, no, nothing like that." I cleared my throat, then considered explaining . . . only now that I thought about it, it was kind of an odd subject to discuss. I just dropped it.

We talked more on the way, though not very often and never about anything of great importance. Tanis had settled into full sleep-mode in the pack. No surprise, I was sure now that he was nocturnal. The weather was nice. Fairly regular, maybe a bit more cloudy than usual.

We traveled mostly through the forest, but eventually came to a road that had large clearings running along either side. At a little past midday the town came into view, another mile or so to go. My steps bounced excitedly. It stood alone in a wide plain with a river running up beside it. From here it really didn't look that big.

I smiled. "Is there anything I should know before we get there?"

Jaden kept his gaze ahead. Ikovos answered.

"Not really. You know, just the usually city . . ." his voice trailed as I listened eagerly ". . . Tiver isn't the only place you've been, right?" He asked it carefully.

I shook my head. "No." Heh, practically. "I've been to Kirne and Valtice , oh, and Domah once." I looked down, eyes widening. "That place was big."

Jaden smiled immediately, who knows why.

When I looked back at Ikovos, he seemed a bit distressed.

"Domah? You mean you've never been anywhere bigger than Domah?"

I pursed my lips. "Well . . . no. . . . But Domah's big. There's so many people there and, ugh, I got separated from my group twice. The buildings are so high you see, so-" I raised my hand up to show, but when I looked to Ikovos he was practically wincing. "Is something wrong?" I checked carefully.

He scratched the back of his head, eyes wide.

Jaden shook his head. "I told you she should have worn a robe."

Ikovos looked like he might agree, then tossed a hand in dismissal. "That's your answer for everything, and you're gonna freak her out saying stuff like that. It'll be fine."

My head went back and forth between them as they spoke.

"Ikovos, the biggest town she's been to is Domah . . . and she got lost."

I raised a finger. "Hey, that was-"

"We'll be right there, Jaden. We're not gonna let her get lost."

He scoffed. "Yeah, well, that's the least of our problems."

Ikovos raised a pained eyebrow.

I threw both hands up, turning around. "Guys!"

They both looked at me. We all stopped in the road.

"Will you stop talking about me like I'm not standing right here." I ignored their dubious expressions and took a breath. "Look. I know I'm more used to a small town, but it's just a city, full of people. You make it sound like it's the most dangerous place in the world, it's only Riz-" I turned to gesture towards the city behind me "-zenn . . ."

I'd been paying so much attention to the boys that I hadn't noticed how close we'd gotten. It had to have been the largest buildings I'd ever seen. I didn't even know buildings got that high. When I'd first seen the lodge, which was about four stories, it had been the tallest building I'd ever seen. But it stood alone, surrounded by similar-sized trees. These building were even taller, some nearing ten stories, and there was nothing around to belittle their size. I could already see people crowding the entry ways from here, wagons, horses . . . and so many.

I gulped. That looked much smaller from across the field.

Chewing on my lower lip in consideration, I swung back around to Ikovos and Jaden. "Okay, so it's a bit bigger than I expected." They were eyeing me skeptically. "It's still just a city."

Both boys walked by me without a response, Ikovos putting a hand to my back. "Just stay close, okay?"

I nodded as we moved forward. "Okay."

He let go. Jaden eyed us.

I guess this was going to be interesting . . .

"Wow," I said, pointing to a shop to the left. "They have a whole place just for fruit."

Jaden gave it a dubious look. "Of all the things we've passed that's the first you point out?"

My shoulders slumped. We had gone a bit into the city now, everything around us was so hectic. Hundreds of people passing every which way through the streets, maybe here to stay or just traveling through.

Lots of young adults.

When we'd first entered I was admittedly nervous. But as we passed by so many things I'd never seen or heard of, I quickly forgot about it . . . of course it helped also that two strong, rather eye-catching, boys were standing ridiculously close on either side of me. Anytime I started to trail off, they'd pull me back between them. It was especially difficult when the shopkeeper's started honing in on me. I think the fruit-shop owner was about to do that now.

"Oh, no, here we go again," muttered Ikovos. "You had to look didn't you. You're like a walking vendor magnet."

I winced as the shopkeeper rushed forward.

"Hello! What a wonderful day today!" It was a large, exotic-looking, man with a heady accent. He focused in on me immediately, ignoring the two boys. "You must be passing through for a visit, aye? How about some fresh fruit for refreshment?"

I stuttered nervously. "Um . . . no thanks, I don't-"

He grabbed my hand, pulling me forward. "Come, come. I have just the thing."

I towed behind awkwardly. "Ah, really, thank you, but I don't-"

Ikovos stepped in, taking my arm back from the man. "We're not interested, thanks."

"Have a good day," added Jaden.

The man conceded immediately, moving on to the next customer. We started down the street again.

"How do you guys get them to stop?"

Jaden's head was still shaking.

"We just tell them to bug off," said Ikovos.

My eyes narrowed. "I said no."

Jaden snorted. Ikovos smiled slightly. "It's in the attitude . . . and yours is pretty much telling them you'd buy anything that they wanted you to."

I sighed, shaking my head. "I don't even have any money."

Ikovos pursed his lips. "Well, that would be a good excuse. Try it next time."

"Okay."

"And don't smile so much," added Jaden.

"Got it."

We didn't pass two more shops before one of the sellers came at me again. "Good afternoon, lovely lady. How are you today?"

I smiled. "Um . . . good." Then I remembered what Jaden said and straightened my expression. "I mean, good." I stressed it grimly, but the man stilled grinned happily, gesturing over to his shop.

"Great. You must come then to see my shop, there are many things you will like I think."

I waved once, then caught Ikovos and Jaden's humored smirks. "Ah, no. I can't. I don't have any money."

He waved his hands. "No problem, no problem, for you I will make a special deal." Then he pulled me by my wrist again.

"Oh, umm, but I . . ."

We reached the door before I was rescued again. This time Jaden did the retrieving.

"No, dude. She really doesn't have any."

The man's face flattened. "Oh." As Jaden pulled my hand he yelled to the next passer. "Good afternoon, how are you today!"

My brow furrowed and I stumbled into step.

"Good job," noted Jaden smugly.

I gestured a hand. "He said he would give me a deal, I felt guilty."

"You're hopeless," he said, but he was smiling, it was enough to make me do the same, despite the failure. Plus, he still had a firm grip on my hand . . . which was surprising. I looked around.

"Where did Ikovos go?"