FIFTY: The River is Cold

"Again, huh?"

The air cooled as a shadow came between Kel's crouched figure and the warm rising sun.

"Taegus," Kel smiled weakly at the shadow's owner.

"How many times has it been now?" The silver-haired boy scrunched his eyebrows, reaching for the boots. "You don't even look surprised anymore."

"I can't blame them," Kel shrugged. "It's only natural they'd be unnerved by the emperor making a pet out of some low rank infantryman."

"Yeah, and they all suspect the worst too," Taegus mumbled, shaking mud from one of Kel's boots. "It'd be so simple for the emperor to correct this misunderstanding."

"He's too busy saying strange things and making it worse," Kel groaned, rubbing her forehead.

The emperor's careless tongue had started with Colonel Senf offering Kel a meal to "replace her lost energy" and since reached the ears of every other officer.