Irene's shoulders slouched, and she felt brief relief.
However, a detail she couldn't look past was the fact that the man in front of her seemed to have doubled in age in the past few years—knight armor made everyone look so much older. Not only that, but he was knighted while she was still not.
It made the bitter taste that Felix should have been knighted by then all the more real.
"We must make haste!" a different knight shouted from where he was on his horse. "Only one dire wolf. Plenty more to go."
"Back onto your horse, apprentice," Alix ordered the girl. "Arrows for now. We've bought plenty."
She immediately did as she was told, seeking out Sorrel, who ran into the tree line a bit further on.
The horse came to her when she whistled, and she mounted the animal easily once he was closer.
Since the others had already headed towards the barking wolves, she did the same.
