ARDUINNA
The trees part to reveal not one lady of the woods, but two. Arduinna, though, is perched high above, impossibly elegant upon a curving branch which has no right to hold her weight. Her hair is a wild halo of fire about her face, her golden eyes watching keenly as the interaction between king and war chief and shield goes on.
The boy had come to her - the one with feathers in his hair, whose eyes she had taken for interfering where he did not belong. She supposed he did belong now, if the blighted king was anything to do with it, but she had told him all the same. There was nothing she could do to cure the whole woods. (Yet).
So Arduinna stayed silent, a listener in the leaves, to hear what these Grounders had to say for themselves.
Nature, nurture heaven and home
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown
Sum of all, and by them, driven
To conquer every mountain shown
