Alice couldn't believe this day had finally come. The dwarf in charge, Durin, had actually let her join and the Jarl's wife had supported it and offered encouragement. "Thank you, thank you both," was all that the blonde could say. Then when the food arrived, served by a new girl, the brown-eyed human took the dwarf's advice, sat down, and ate. The stew was as delicious and hot as always yet Miss Zukion had to control herself to eat at her normal speed. [i]"You know very well you shouldn't eat too hurriedly. There will be time to grab gear still, Durin said not to worry about that and a guard always obeys their commander, unless the commander gets in the way of doing what's right. But now is not one of those times, just finish up the stew.[/i] So the village girl scraped up the last bites, got outside, and dashed to her house.

Her hood fell behind her as she flew past buildings and people, allowing the chill wind to strike her face and her hair to rise behind her like the cloak, but she kept running. The golden-haired child only stopped when she was at the entryway of a modest home, there she took a moment to steel herself before opening it to the smell of her mom baking bread in the kitchen area and humming a traditional jaunty tune. [i]"She hasn't been like this since before Dad died.[/i]" The girl thought sadly as she snuck past to the place she kept her weapons. As Alice reached the place and opened the chest, the blonde girl thought of the few memories she had left of her father. As she slipped on her leather breastplate, she thought of when he had caught her trying to get into his armour. As she clipped the quiver onto the right side of her belt and filled it with arrows, she thought of when she kept begging him to play while he was fletching some until he finally caved in. As she placed her bow on her back, she thought of when he took her to the training yard and let her try the bows there though they seemed immoveable at the time. As she buckled her sword and sheath to the left side of her belt, she thought of her dad's promise before he went to give her a sword lesson like she been asking for to see if she really wanted to learn it. Then as she strapped the shield onto her back, over the bow, she thought of that day, when Dad was expected to be home and instead was delivered his possessions and the news of his death. She shook her head before she brought back the hurt and pain, today was finally the day she could enact justice upon the bandits and see that no others experienced what she experienced, though revenge was also a powerful motivator. 

With this she left the room and sought to sneak out again. But this time, her mother caught her. "Hello Alice, where are you going?"

"Out hunting again," Alice replied. It was the truth, but she knew her mom would throw a fit if she found out it was [i] Bandit [/i] hunting. "I shouldn't be gone long."

"Well, just take care then sweetie," her mother said. Then she gave her daughter a hug, "Try to come back soon. I couldn't stand to lose you too."

"Don't worry about me, Mom," Alice replied as she disengaged the hug. "Just take care of yourself and your new little one. It probably isn't healthy for it if you're scared to death." Then Alice smiled and waved her farewells as she walked out the door. Her pace though was slower as she went back to the tavern. The brown-eyed teen pondered the while if her mother would be in a similar state she was after Father's death or would soon recover with the new child. But as she reached the tavern, she pushed all such thoughts out of her head. This had been the day she had waited for, she was not going to waste it. With that, she opened the doors and stepped in, prepared to go with the company into the woods.