"Pardon me, did you say something?"
A voice brought Dal out of his fatigued haze of thought- not that he was thinking of anything in particular. Dal got good at immersing himself in a sort of soupy haze just before travel, almost like a meditation, and it generally tended to make long trips a little easier, though it left Dalsarad anything but alert as to what was going around him.
Meeting the rider's gaze, he could only respond with a similar "What?" It was then that he realized the young rider looked slightly familiar; he had no idea why, just had one of those faces to Dal.
"Were you addressing me, sir...? Please excuse my discourtesy, it has been a difficult day, I am a bit distracted."
Before the young man could reply, the rider's head turned as she spoke to someone standing on the other side of the horse.
"Y-yes, my lady, I prefer mares. I find they are much more reliable, even despite the occasional opposition or mood swing. You're from the wilds, aren't you!"
"Aye – and you're Edessan, at least I think so. Never know these days."
Looking up and over the horse Dal caught sight of red hair and a pair of eyes that were looking back. Startled, Dal cast his gaze back at the horse.
"Name's Mhairi."
At first Dalsarad thought the reply came from the rider, but she had her hands over her mouth. Must be the name of the Weld, then.
"Dalsarad- feel free to call me Dal." He exclaimed, raising one arm as if Mhairi didn't already know he was there.
"Alright, we're moving out!" The order was distant, but clear and lough enough to hear. Dal's gaze was straight ahead of him as the carts started rolling. He ran a hand through his hair as he tried his best to zone out into the syrupy haze state of mind he was in moments ago. There was a Weld in the caravan? For some reason Dalsarad hadn't expected that. There was probably dozens, to be honest. Thankfully, Dal wasn't like his uncle- the way Dal saw it, people were people and unless he had a rational reason to dislike them, he didn't care where someone was from, what titles someone had, or the bloodline someone was birthed in. Not to say he didn't understand why his uncle was so paranoid of them- to be honest, Dal would probably be suspect if throngs of strangers had suddenly shown up at their farm and walked all over their land.
"Don't straggle. This is a refugee caravan, not a social club. If you haven't got a real weapon, make sure you get one of the guards to sort you out."
A gruff-looking man with an equally gruff voice was riding up towards Dal and the others. Must be one of the guards. He frowned at the veteran but understood the haste. The last thing they'd want would be to run into the Varyan army on the way out as they encircled the capital, as Dal figured they would try to do.
"I'm alright." replied Dalsarad, placing a hand on the hilt of his saber.
Dalsarad returned to looking straight ahead of him but didn't allow himself to zone out again; he wanted to socialize, regardless of what the guard said. He glanced back up and smiled at the rider-
"Said you'd had a difficult day- anything you'd wanna share with a simple farmboy?"