Chapter 396: I’m Gonna Marry Her.

Chapter 396: Chapter 396: I’m Gonna Marry Her.

He hasn’t quite gotten a handle on all of the various royal families she and her dad have dealings with; which ones like each other, and which ones don’t, and which ones hate each other but pretend they don’t, but he’s learning.

​(Running a kingdom sounds complicated. But she really sounds like she knows what she’s doing.)

​Here, outside the castle walls she seems relaxed, too.

​It makes for quite the charming scene; two horses plodding side by side through the early spring grass. From a distance they would seem like just two ordinary people enjoying a clear day in one another’s company.

​That is, until –

​"Montrel?" Xena ventures as they approach a bend in the trail they’ve been following, also per Vogrid’s insistence.

There’s a mischievous lilt to her voice, and a daring gleam to her eyes as she leans into the space between them to whisper, "What say we go a little faster?"

​"...A little faster?" Montrel echoes, glancing up ahead towards Gandy’s turned back.

He’s got no qualms –that had been what he’d meant when he’d invited her out in the first place, but... "Is that really a –" He doesn’t get the chance to finish that sentence, because that’s when she flashes him a beaming smile and kicks in her heels.

​She and her white mare immediately take off on him right then and there, flying off the trail and out onto the plains; leaving Montrel gawking slack-jawed in her wake.

​"Race you!" She calls back over her shoulder, voice pitched high with excitement and her long pink hair fanning out behind her as it catches in the wind.

​Grinning, Montrel takes off after her.

​" Your Highness –" Vogrid’s voice splutters in the distance, horrified that his princess has just run off into the wilderness by herself, but as he awkwardly attempts to wheel his horse after them, Rogard’s horse rears in an unprecedented display of belligerence and cuts him off.

​"Whoa, whoa," he soothes, pitching in his seat as his horse starts fussing and spooks Vogrid’s horse. " Easy !"

​"Control your horse," Vogrid demands, trying to rein his own in with some difficulty. " What are you waiting for ?" He snaps to the guard up ahead, as Gandy spins to see what all the fuss is about and finds his princess and his best friend rapidly vanishing off into the distance amidst a spray of dirt and kicked up grass.

​"On it, My Lord," Gandy assures him, catching Rogard’s wink as Vogrid struggles to rein his horse back in and making a slow count to three before kicking off into a gallop.

​He’ll catch them for sure, and if Vogrid submits an official complaint he’s gonna be in the shit with Drogger –and maybe even Bongo –but he figures he can afford to give Montrel a head start.

Just this once.

​But Montrel’s eyes are set forwards on the vision in pink galloping ahead of him with the wind at her back and her long silk cloak sailing out behind her, and Gandy’s kindness goes unnoticed.

She wasn’t kidding about going faster; she’s urged her horse straight into a full gallop, and if she wants to race then Montrel’s going to give her a race.

​The plains are nice this time of year. In summer they can get dry, but when the snow melts and before the hot weather comes parts of the rolling landscape get not just green, but all colours.

Out here, upon the very ground the wandering markets pitched their tents and danced by firelight clusters of wildflowers rove, and they and their petals scatter to the wind as the heavy drum of hooves sends them skyward.

Fleeting like summer, yet destined to live on forever in memory, because as she looks back at him atop her pure white horse; framed by the blue sky and splashes of colour, this is the moment that Montrel realises that Princess Xena is... it .

​Wow.

He doesn’t catch her, and he’s actually kind of glad, because at the peak of the next low rise she wheels her horse around, with her hair flying out every which way in the wind; caught on her lips and her ears and falling out of the pretty braid she’d been wearing it in.

​"I won!" she laughs excitedly, spinning in place and then playfully circling him as he draws his mare to a halt beside her. He’s never seen her laugh quite like that.

" You lost !" she teases, not caring in the slightest that her hair is an absolute mess and she’s got some grass on her face.

​Gods she’s beautiful.

​"I did," Montrel concedes with a chuckle, their horses finally coming to a slow halt alongside one another; so close that their feet nearly knock together. And as she smiles across at him, cheeks flushed and eyes dancing, he just... knows.

​I’m gonna marry this girl .

​So without a second thought, he bridges the gap between them to kiss her.

...

"...Hey, you guys know you don’t need to help me, right?" Gandy sighs, looking up from what feels like the twentieth pair of boots he’s brushed off this morning. It hasn’t even rained recently yet for some reason they’re obscenely muddy. And they smell dreadful .

​How the servants –like the ones currently working away around him –do this on the daily is beyond him. He’s totally gonna start cleaning his own boots from now on.

​"Drogger’s gonna be mad if he finds out," he points out, when none of them make any move to drop what they’re doing. It’s not that he’s not grateful for the help –there’s a big pile of shields that need shining, and some leather that needs oiling –but while usually this would be their job, for the foreseeable future, it’s Gandy’s.

​He’s also suspended.

​Vogrid’s a snitch; real shocker right there.

He could’ve probably defended himself –spun Drogger some bullshit about why he failed in his one duty as a chaperone –but Gandy hates bullshit and everyone knows Drogger both hates and knows exactly when he’s being bullshitted, so he does them both a favour and doesn’t bother.

​Turns out for as terrifying as Drogger is when he’s loud and angry, seeing him quiet and angry is a million times worse. He knows he slipped up; if that’s even the right word for it –a slip up implies an accidental lapse in judgement, whereas his had been entirely deliberate, so he deserved it.

That knowledge didn’t make it any less unpleasant though; standing across from his desk with a thin-lipped, deathly silent Drogger radiating disappointment had made Gandy feel about five years old and about five inches tall.

But he was a soldier and he’d known what he was doing, and he’d already prepared himself to take his punishment with dignity and grace.

​Hence the suspension. Fuck, in all honesty he’s pretty lucky he’s not out of a job. His ma would’ve chewed him out something awful for that.

She’s shitty with him as it is –there’s already mass speculation swirling in her circles about what exactly he did to get his ass so thoroughly spanked, but despite having reported his supposed ’ gross negligence’ to his Captain, Vogrid has apparently had no interest in sharing the story with the masses.

​So there’s that.