Solamnic's Peace

Avaria turned her horse and raced back through the forest. She steadied her bow as the horse emerged from the wood. Ahead of her a deer leaped and bounded over the tall grasses. Her arrow loosed; flying straight and true to fell the deer. Avaria slid from her horse, pulling a dagger from her boot. Approaching the deer she quickly drew the blade across its throat. Behind her she heard the sound of an approaching horse.

"Hardly the scene a young princess should present," Solamnic smiled down at her from his black stallion.

"You know I have no interest in sitting at court with my father," she turned back to the deer and proceeded to add it to the one already tied to her horse's saddle.

"Aye, my lady. I know fair well you would rather be out here," he motioned to the woods around them. "Alas, I have come, at your father's request, to remind you that you are coming of age. It is at your father's courts love awaits you." Avaria snorted as she flung herself into the saddle.

"Why should I need a husband? I can well take care of myself." Avaria turned her gaze away as his weighed upon her the truth of his words.

"Princess, you stand to inherit your father's throne. You will need a man's hand to handle certain affairs that a woman should not tend to. Take war, for example," Avaria held up a hand to silence him before he went off on one of his rants.

"Tell me, Sir Solamnic, are you up for the job?" Her laughter trilled behind her as she spurred her horse into a dead run. She would return to the castle, dinner in tow and worry about a husband another day.