A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1388 - 1388: Brilliance - Part 7

'This might be our last day of quiet…' Nila thought. She hoped that would make her determined to make the most of it, but determination was not what she needed. It only made her more nervous.

"If you don't go now, you're going to be late," Mrs Felder said, all but pushing her daughter out the door.

"I know that already…" Nila complained, but she went anyway. She'd dressed warmly for the occasion. The first frost of the year was fresh on the ground. It was going to be a cold day. Her breath misted in front of her in the air., and she pulled her coat more tightly around her for it.

"Good luck!" Her mother said again, seeing her off.

"What do I need luck for!?" Nila shouted back, but she began trudging away regardless, hugging her equipment with her thick waxed-leather mitts. If not for them, she knew her hands would have been beyond cold. They always seemed to get cold, even in the warmth of summer. Nila didn't know if it was a condition, or whether she was just plain strange. It almost made her regret having to take them off to shoot her bow… But then, there were few pleasures that could compare to shooting her bow.

Oliver waited for her, with a thoughtful expression on his face, perched on top of one of the fallen logs at the bottom of the mountain trail. His hands were gloveless, and there was no fur hat on his head like Nila had chosen to wear, but he didn't seem to mind. At the very least, he was wearing a pair of long hunting boots, refusing to follow Lasha's poor example.

"Good morning," he told her, pulling his eyes down from the sky when she neared. He looked even more tired than he had the day before.

Nila felt her heart jump a beat, as the nervousness intensified. She knew that she had to talk quickly, otherwise the fear would begin to overwhelm her, and she'd start to hold him at a distance again. "Did you stay up all night reading… even after you were barely able to stay away because of it yesterday?"

"Hmmm… Well, I wasn't reading that much," Oliver said. "I just couldn't sleep. It's fine, though, I don't feel too bad."

"You look like death," Nila said.

"Death must be a handsome man, then," Oliver grinned back.

She tried to kick the back of his leg for that, but he laughed, and easily avoided the blow. "Come then, Lady Felder," he said. "We're to hunt rabbits today, if any of them are still out in this cold. It would be a shame if Lasha managed to beat me."

"I noticed you haven't brought a bow," Nila said.

"I thought I might borrow yours," Oliver said.

"You thought, did you?" Nila said. "Did you think to ask?"

"Am I not asking?" Oliver said.

"I didn't hear a 'please'," Nila said.

"Please, can I borrow your bow?" Oliver said.

"No," Nila said, skipping ahead to hide the smile on her face.

"Am I going to have to throw rocks at these rabbits, then?" Oliver called after her, though he sounded far more amused than irritated. "Oh – I did bring a flint and steel. If I can get a fire started again, shall we call it even?"

"Maybe," Nila said back.

"But I would warn you not to fall into the stream again. It's getting a bit too cold for that," Oliver said.

"Will you forget about that already? Besides, it was your fault that I fell in. You and your stupid games. I don't know why I trusted you," Nila said.

"I don't know why you did either. I'm a devil of a man," Oliver said. "Too crafty for the likes of you, Nila Felder."

"Yes, yes, you're so crafty indeed," Nila said. "Will you hurry up? I'm getting cold just looking at you. That coat of yours is far too thin for this weather. If we don't move, you're going to end up freezing."

"Me and the cold are old friends, I don't think it would wrong me like that," Oliver said.

"I think this might be a one sided friendship," Nila said.

They had a particular destination in mind, in the form of the same hunting spot that Nila had brought Lasha to, but along the way, they kept their eye peeled for rabbits. Oliver would let the conversation go quiet, at times, to allow Nila the chance to listen out for her prey. The way he knew to do that, after knowing her habits so well, made Nila strangely satisfied.

Though, she had to admit that the fear that day was worse than it had been in a while. She felt on edge. Oliver seemed relaxed, on the surface, but she could sense a thoughtfulness to him. The sleep that he'd been missing out only pointed to that further. It made Nila worry. She had no idea how to approach him in matters like that. She ought to have been able to help him. After all, they were courting, weren't they? But in the end, she thought, she really didn't understand the matters of his world well enough. 'Someone like Queen Asabel would have been able to understand, and say something…' She found herself thinking, in a moment of quiet, rather than searching for the rabbits.

It ended up being Oliver that pointed out their first target on the way there. "Isn't there one?"

"Where?" Nila said.

"…Picking around where the long grass is," Oliver said, his voice quiet, as he pointed in the direction of it.

Nila had an arrow on her bowstring before she had even spied it. Then, instinct had taken over. Just the barest glimpse of its brown fur, and she could guess where its eye was, hidden behind the grass. The arrow was sent hurtling, and with a thud, the first kill was secured.

"I see you haven't gotten any worse with that bow of yours," Oliver said mildly. "Or have you improved even more? It could well be the case… That's what the Second Boundary does."