Lucrece’s special brand of training would begin immediately, for it was the single most glaring mistake she had noticed in Gabrielle’s fighting “style”, if she could really call it that: her abysmal footwork.

“You can’t go through life just rushing your opponent and hoping for the best! That’s how you end up dead or maimed.”

The skies were clearing slowly but steadily, the morning sun finally illuminating the muddy road ahead, and Luci took this chance to teach Gabi the first lesson in the only way she knew: by imitation. The lancer moved swiftly, dodging the many puddles on her way with rhythmic, quick steps around, keeping her left foot always in front as she advanced.

“I use my left foot because I’m a southpaw.” The blonde confessed, turning around to look at Gabrielle. “If you’re a righty, use your right foot.”

“What is a southpaw?” Gabi immediately asked, waving from across the road.

“It’s when you prefer to use your left hand.”

“You mean a leftie?”

“Yeah, that, whatever!” Out of reflex and embarrassment Luci fixed her hat in place. “This is what I get for trying to sound fancy…”

The way during the first hours was slow, even slower than usual due to Lucrece’s insistence on teaching Gabrielle how to properly walk during a fight. She kept a vigilant eye on the redhead, walking right beside her and insistently tapping her legs whenever she made a mistake, took a step too long or too short, or got distracted by something moving in the forest around them; this last one was quite the common occurrence, as Gabi would immediately jump out of posture at the minimal signs of movement.

At first Luci thought this was but another show of the witch’s natural paranoia, but soon enough she would realize things were much simpler than that. It would happen the moment something did come out of the forest, hopping from one of the bushes: a big, chubby-looking red rabbit, disrespectfully sniffing and wiggling his whiskers around like it owned the place.

“Ough, look at that…” Gabi immediately lowered her voice. “It’s a bunny.”

“It looks like a big one too, delicious.” Luci rubbed her hands together, reaching for a knife on her belt before Gabrielle bapped her hand away. “O-Oi, what’s the big idea?”

“Don’t kill it, it’s way too early to eat anyways. It would be wasteful.”

“Wasteful!? I am hungry! I swear I would not waste a thing!”

“Animals should only die when it is necessary.”

Lucrece simply stared at the witch, just letting her carefully approach the sniffing rabbit. The creature did not run immediately, instead choosing to sniff the witch’s hand softly for a moment. It was only when Gabrielle tried to pet it that the critter felt enough danger to bolt right out of sight.

“Awww…”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I could have snatched that thing in an instant, and gotten a great lunch. Damned witch.” The lancer sighed and pulled down her cheeks for a moment.

“But you didn’t.”

“Of course I didn’t! You were trying to pet it for some reason.”

“Thank you for not killing it.” The witch smiled for the first time in the whole trip.

Not having expected that Luci simply gulped and fell silent for a moment. What was wrong with this woman?! Did she simply go around making people feel like arseholes or was this not on purpose? The lancer didn’t have enough energy to get angry at Gabrielle over her own conjectures, so she simply sighed.

“Get back here and keep going. We have a long way to Caen and you still haven’t gotten through the exercise.” Lucrece shook her head. “And next creature we see, we eat! Understood? No matter how cute it is, lunchtime will be upon us soon.”

“Understood.”

Hours passed, and the day turned sunny and hot before any of the travelers could even realize. Eventually both of them decided it was time for a break, stopping their walk and looking for shelter under the shade of an old elm. Lucrece sighed, they hadn’t made much progress in either the training or the trip itself, but at least they still had plenty of time.

She checked on her belongings, the few things that she could save from that runaway cart: her sack of gold, a few knives she had smuggled, her compass and a few dried-up berry bars for emergencies. Now this was an emergency, and the sun was way too intense to really waste energy going around hunting, but the girl didn’t have that many of those bars: four bars left!

What if there was an even worse emergency and she needed them? Maybe she should simply save them? Or eat them when Gabrielle wasn’t looking?

The witch herself was quietly sitting on the wet grass, eyes closed, simply enjoying the cold wind that sometimes blew through the woods. Her stomach gurgled loudly, but the woman refused to make any comments about it…. Was she saving her food for emergencies too?

Truth is, Gabrielle had no food whatsoever! But there was no way she would comment on it.

Doubting and hungering, Lucrece was still staring at those oh-so-good-looking fruit bars, feeling herself salivate slightly. Until reaching her breaking point: oh, to Hell with it! If the witch wanted, she could get her own bars or something, right!? Luci simply grabbed one of the bars and began snacking quickly, loudly, trying to devour it as soon as possible before the guilt could catch her.

But it was too late. She already felt like a bag of manure the moment she took the first bite.

All because, in the quietly meditating Gabrielle, the blonde girl still could see the figure of a much smaller, much weaker little boy. An innocent boy, a slow-thinking but still very intelligent boy… oh Pietro… people simply talked and acted like he couldn’t understand but the kid was very, very aware of the things they said about him, the ways they regarded him.

Was this girl like him in that regard too? Did she realize the way Lucrece looked at her…?

She had ignored people a million times before, after all the lancer was used to living her own life without caring for others. “Everyone for themselves”, she used to think. “When push comes to shove, no one will give a damn about you. Why bother?”. But then, why was it so hard to simply leave this girl hungry?

With a loud, annoyed grumble, Lucrece finally gave up to her thoughts and offered a second bar to the witch, gently tapping her cheek with it. Gabrielle opened her eyes and almost jumped out of surprise, hands already going to reach for her sword before she could understand what was going on.

“Don’t do that.”

“Argh! Sorry, sorry.” Memories came to Lucrece: Pietro didn’t like being touched either. “I forget…”

“You forget? Forget what?” Gabi tilted her head to the side, legitimately confused.

“...Do you want a bite? You’re hungry.”

Gabrielle would keep inquiring but, she was pretty hungry. Without another word the girl grabbed the bar of dried fruits squeezed together and sniffed over it, making sure there weren’t any suspicious things hidden inside before giving it a bite. Soon followed by another, and then another. In a few seconds the girl had already wolfed down the bar.

“Thank you.”

There it was again. Lucrece flinched when the dagger of those words pierced straight through her heart, the guilt coming from all that hesitation and bad faith. The lancer sighed, shaking her head quickly

“It’s nothing… but hey, now that we are actually talking, I wanted to ask something.”

“Yes?” Gabrielle narrowed her eyes.

“Why do you need to go to Caen? Are you gonna get a ferry? Maybe making a deposit at the bank…?”

The witch closed her eyes and fell silent. How to avoid that conversation? Every time she spoke of it, things only got more complicated with people either disregarding her completely or trying to take the chance and exploit her.

“...I’ll tell you on one condition.”

“Huh? What is that?” Now Luci tilted her head.

“Tell me who took your eye.”

Lucrece flinched. The choice of words could not have been more cutting, and appropriate. Memories flooded her, the pain of ropes squeezing her arms, the shadows of the innocent and the guilty, the feeling of fire eating up her skin…

“... all right then. Keep your secrets, eesh.” The lancer crossed her arms. “You could have just said no.”

“If I said no, you would have insisted.”

“Of course! Ugh, arsehole…”

“We have a long way to go, best to keep going.”

Without another word, Gabrielle simply got up and cleaned herself of dirt and grass blades, looking down on Lucrece. She was still deeply shaken by the question and the audacity of the witch! With a bit of a hurt expression on her face, the lancer took a deep breath and slowly got on her feet.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s go.”