Drawing (pt 3)

Ava clumsily started drawing lines and shapes on the parchment in front of her, occasionally pausing to dip her quill in the bottle of black ink next to her.

She figured it would be possible to easily draw her week's schedule, in order to notify the cute little pup that she'd be away for a few days. Though as she jotted down the images in her head on the piece of parchment paper, she noticed the man sitting close to her was not so little after all. She could kind of tell from when he was standing by the door, but sitting next to him, his head visibly above hers and his long legs cramped up against the table in front of them - she guessed his height to be about 30cm above her own. 'Would that make him about 190cm?' She wondered, tilting her head toward him.

He glanced at her and furrowed his brow, pointing at the parchment in front of them. Ava looked back to the parchment to see she had dripped ink over half the page. "Sh*t!"

Charlotte looked up at Ava, giving her a smug look. Ava rolled her eyes in response, then took out the second sheet of paper. Quill steady in hand, she gave all her attention to drawing clearer images this time. Trying to lay out the pictures so that they wouldn't end up squished on one side of the page again.

"Ahem. It's complete," she proudly announced. Taking the sheet off the table to wave it around in the air for a few seconds to allow the ink to dry. She then slammed it back on the table, startling the two others looking at her with anticipation. "Sorry, I got a bit excited there..." She took a deep breath to compose herself, then pointed at the first drawing on the page.

"Ava," she confidently pointed at the stick figure in a dress on the page. "Little," she continued, pointing at the stick figure with a bandage on it's head.

'Does she think I need a head bandage?' Little gave her a confused look.

"This is Ava and this is Little. Ava is going to the Southern border for six days." She motioned to the line connecting Ava next to her castle to the other building drawn on the page. Above the line she drew six suns to indicate the days. "Six days," she repeated, holding up 6 fingers, before clicking her tongue to give her best horse impression to indicate the traveling from one place to another.

Charlotte let out a snort, inviting a quick glare from Ava. Ava then turned her head towards Little, looking up at him with her eyebrows raised, waiting for confirmation he understood her so far. He gave her an uncertain nod, then looked back at the pictures in front of them.

"Little will stay in Grethyll to recover." She finished, pointing at his picture then to the castle next to them. Putting her hands together, she rested them on her cheek to indicate a sleeping position. "Ok?"

Charlotte looked on at them dumbfounded. 'There's no way she expects him to understand with those child's drawings.' She saw the man shake his head in disagreement. 'Oh, I knew he wouldn't get it.' She let out a sigh, but not a second later the man pointed at himself, staring Ava straight in the eyes.

"Little. Ava," he then pointed his finger at her. Trying his best to mimic what Ava had just done, he pretended to ride a horse and pointed at the other building on the parchment. "Six days." He grasped his hands together trying to convey he wanted to go with her and gave her an eager smile.

"Hmmm." After a short thought she looked over to Charlotte, knowing she'd have to convince her of Little's company to avoid her nagging. "I suppose it's better if he comes along with us. It's not polite to leave a guest alone in the castle while the master is away. Besides, what if he were to get into trouble here. If he's with us, I can keep an eye on his recovery the whole time. It wouldn't be good to cause an international incident because we didn't treat our guest with the utmost hospitality." Ava trailed off, sending Charlotte a cheeky look.

'An International Incident?!' Charlotte's jaw dropped open in disbelief. 'It's not like he's a prince or a diplomatic envoy. Didn't they just find him passed out in the street?!' "Um... Milady, I don't thinks it's wise to be seen traveling with a man while still in your mourning period. Your cousin would be too quick to take advantage of this opportunity to spread around strange rumors."

"Ah..." Ava glanced at the man, observing again his gentle features, soft cheeks and long eyelashes... 'Long eyelashes!' She looked him up and down, eliciting an embarrassed response from the man. Though he definitely had muscles underneath, with clothes on he looked quite thin. Probably due to a lack of decent nutrition before arriving in their company, considering how earnestly he ate his meals.

"What if weren't traveling with a man, but with a woman? With the right clothes and a bit of makeup, I guarantee he'd be more beautiful than any other woman in the room." She then flipped the parchment paper over and illustrated her ingenious idea to get Little's opinion on the matter.

He quickly understood her intention and nodded his head in agreement. Though he was not displeased with the clothes they gave him, the trousers were not nearly as comfortable as the flowing robes he started out with before they gradually got torn apart and layers lost while trekking through the mountains for days on end. The skirts the women here wore, though still foreign, were much more similar to the clothes he was used to. He was actually excited to have the chance to try on the other garments people here wore.

Charlotte's jaw dropped once again. Her Lady was too quick on her feet with the strangest ideas and amazingly this man in front of them agreed at the drop of a hat. "Well, if you insist, milady," she gave in. "I think I may still have a couple of dresses long enough to reach his ankles from when my mother thought I'd grow tall enough to rival a giant."

"Thank you, Charlotte!" Ava rushed over to her side and gave her a tight hug. "You're the best Lady in Waiting ever!" Charlotte blushed with happiness at her Lady's overly kind words.

Little then stood up as if to join them, but Charlotte quickly threw out her hand to motion him to sit down. "No, this is my moment," she said triumphantly, giving him a sly smile.