Princess chants an excited "tepteptep" as they head for the park, her pointy hooves stepping high. She smiles at Lil' Buddy before running in a circle around the group, careful not to trip anyone.
"Let's start with drawing up some plans, then." He sounds sincere about it, too. He's only known her a little longer than Lawrence, but he likes her. She's intelligent and treats him respectfully -- it's only her taste in men that he finds questionable.
But talk of engineering will have to wait, because Lawrence is finally telling them what happened. The beginning part of the story is old news, but as soon as the older man brings up Reynard, Caspar's eyes light up in surprise and a perverse sense of delight that someone else hates the winter spirit as much as he does.
"Reynard. I should have known he was involved." Caspar gets a scolding look from Adia for his words, but he shrugs unrepentantly. He's done backing down on this particular difference of opinion. The guy is worse than your garden variety jerk, he's dangerous.
"He buried the dead after the Khan invasion," she says quietly. "He takes that responsibility very seriously..." She remembers how tired and haggard he looked, and yet he persevered, committing himself to a task that no one else wanted. Caspar can fault him all he wants for his behavior this past Winter -- and frankly, Adia's none too happy about it, either -- but she doesn't see how Reynard can possibly be in the wrong here.
Lawrence's admission leaves the pair silent for quite some time. Adia's expression is sympathetic, but she has no idea what to say. Caspar has a whole lot he could say, but he wisely uses the time to whittle down his options into something acceptable.
"I don't know him as well as you thought you did, but I'll bet he was pretending just as hard. But you can only pretend for so long." He meets Lawrence's gaze without judgement. "So who finally killed the corpse for good? That's what set him off, right? Was it Anna?"
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"Let's start with drawing up some plans, then." He sounds sincere about it, too. He's only known her a little longer than Lawrence, but he likes her. She's intelligent and treats him respectfully -- it's only her taste in men that he finds questionable.
But talk of engineering will have to wait, because Lawrence is finally telling them what happened. The beginning part of the story is old news, but as soon as the older man brings up Reynard, Caspar's eyes light up in surprise and a perverse sense of delight that someone else hates the winter spirit as much as he does.
"Reynard. I should have known he was involved." Caspar gets a scolding look from Adia for his words, but he shrugs unrepentantly. He's done backing down on this particular difference of opinion. The guy is worse than your garden variety jerk, he's dangerous.
"He buried the dead after the Khan invasion," she says quietly. "He takes that responsibility very seriously..." She remembers how tired and haggard he looked, and yet he persevered, committing himself to a task that no one else wanted. Caspar can fault him all he wants for his behavior this past Winter -- and frankly, Adia's none too happy about it, either -- but she doesn't see how Reynard can possibly be in the wrong here.
Lawrence's admission leaves the pair silent for quite some time. Adia's expression is sympathetic, but she has no idea what to say. Caspar has a whole lot he could say, but he wisely uses the time to whittle down his options into something acceptable.
"I don't know him as well as you thought you did, but I'll bet he was pretending just as hard. But you can only pretend for so long." He meets Lawrence's gaze without judgement. "So who finally killed the corpse for good? That's what set him off, right? Was it Anna?"