Till Death Do Us Part

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"Any animal you got, I can communicate with. I can't control them or anything like that, but I can talk with them." Eliza said. She stroked his horse's mane a bit, glad she could give them a ride.
 
"That's pretty amazing," he told her honestly. Other people's abilities always amazed him, and John's fascination with them tended to take precedence over his job. Luckily, he didn't meet many like himself. "I can make fire, but it still need fuel."
 
"I noticed that. Fire is such a beautiful thing. Powerful and destructive, but warm and life-giving." Eliza said, smiling. She was starting to like this knight. Maybe they weren't all bad... no! She couldn't think like that! That kind of thinking would get her caught.
 
John chuckled softly, nodding. "I have much experience with its destructiveness." He smiled widely, then added, "I first discovered my ability by lighting a woman's hair on fire when I was ten. She was a mean old crone, rich and very snotty. Called me a gutter rat."
 
Eliza burst out laughing. She had a loud and borderline obnoxious laugh. Nothing like how ladies' laughs were supposed to be like. "Oh Maker, I wish I could do something like that to some of those people when I was young! The bullies wouldn't have bothered me back then if I lit a woman's hair on fire!" She said, laughing.
 
He smiled, then. First genuine one in months. "I never had problem with them. Just the adults." Probably because he made an effort to be intimidating to other people, even when he was young. Then his smile fell as he thought back over what she had said. "You had problems with bullies?"
 
"Just like every other kid in existence. It wasn't anything bad though." Eliza said. She didn't have the best childhood, but it wasn't worth discussion. She felt herself relaxing against him a bit only to stiffen and straighten up. There was no way she was getting familiar with a knight. No way.
 
He could feel how her posture changed, although he immediately assumed it was from the pain in her leg. "Are you alright?" John asked quickly, looking at her. He was worried that the bone had shifted or something.
 
"I'm fine." Eliza said, giving him a quick smile. She was getting too comfortable with this knight. She had to stay alert. This was the man that would throw her into jail as soon as he found the gem. She couldn't let that happen. She needed that gem. The kingdom needed that gem.
 
John nodded slowly, accepting that she just had something on her mind. After a few minutes of riding in relative quiet, he decided to break the silence.
"Where are you from?" he asked, a bit apprehensively. The town became visible off in the distance.
 
"Lived in an orphanage in some town I can't remember the name of. I've been travelling since I was young." Eliza said, watching a few birds fly by, chirping about what the king was doing on his trip to Almalia.
 
"You too, then?" John asked, a bit surprised that she had grown up an orphan as well. He was beginning to like this woman. It had been a while since he'd made a friend, and he idly hoped that he wouldn't fuck it up.
 
"Mmhmm. Apparently my parents just didn't want a child messing up their image." Eliza said, listening carefully to when the king would be back.
 
"Huh. You know that for certain?" John asked, looking at her. "Could have been that they thought you'd get a better life that way."
 
Eliza laughed. "You find out strange things from animals." She said, watching the birds fly away.
 
John chuckled, nodding. Animals probably did know some weird shit. If every person in the world, or even just a fourth of them, talked to animals as much as he did? Fuck yeah, they'd know some strange things. "You learned that from an animal?"
 
"I learned a lot of things from animals. What the king was really like, who the head of the guard was, why Margaret cheated on her husband. Basically any piece of gossip humans got, animals hear it." Eliza said, watching a gopher get nearly run over a horse.
 
"You learned who I was from animals?" John asked, hardly able to believe it. It made sense, of course, considering the amount of birds, let alone animals in general, at the castle, but it was still hard to believe.
 
"No. Now I know." Eliza said with a smirk. That trick always worked on people.
 
Ah, she'd played him. "Clever," John told her with a smile. Then his face assumed a comically serious expression, and his voice was dead serious and extremely dramatic. "Now you know my greatest secret," he paused for effect, then added, "I am the captain of the palace guard."
 
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