Two and a half months pass. Springtime has come again to the village. The snow has melted, leaving budding undergrowth and muddied ground. Sounds of the wildlife returns to the Wildwood - and the threats that can bring.

Entering the village is a group of Foch, carrying a four-legged beast twice the height of a man and half the width of the Wildwood’s namesake trees. Those carrying it are laughing with each other, celebrating a successful hunt.

Behind them is another group, this time a group of humans. Looking down from the walkways of the village, Elenora and Lianna look out towards them.

“They finally come. They didn’t keep us waiting too long, didn’t they?” Elenora said.

“Yes. Why do you want me handling trade relations?” Lianna asked.

“Hmmm… I think that’ll be for the best? I trust your abilities,”

“In negotiating a trade deal, or chewing out Mr. Gillan?”

“I think you know the answer to that, Lianna,”

Lianna sighed, and gave an annoyed glance at Elenora.

“You’re just like her mother,”

“Is that a problem?”

Lianna shook her head.

“I suppose not. Just drives me nuts.”

Elenora gave a satisfied heh. She turned to wander off elsewhere in the village.

“Good luck, Lianna!”

Thomas Gillan - the reinstated captain of the caravan located outside the Wildwood - entered Elenora’s office. Sitting at her desk was actually Lianna (not that he knew that), who was waiting for him to arrive. Behind him was an assistant of the Fredericka convoy, with some sample goods. The assistant placed the goods at the desk, as Thomas took a seat.

“You must be Mr. Gillan, yes?” asked Lianna.

“Indeed. You are…?” asked Thomas.

“My name is Lianna Miradottir. You can call me Lianna. Normally, Elenora, the chief here would handle these, but I am acting in her stead.”

Thomas nodded.

“Before we begin, um…” he asked.

Thomas had a nervous, almost shameful look on his face. Lianna noticed, but didn’t call it out.

“Is Samuel around? I would like to apologise,”

Lianna looked at Thomas, giving him a hard stare.

“Well. About that,” she began.

Her tone sharpened with her glare.

“I’m personally disappointed in you. You clearly should have known that he wasn’t able to keep up with the tasks you were giving him. But you gave them to him anyway. Why would you think that was a good idea?”

Lianna stood up after the first part of her speech. Thomas, for his part, sat and took the verbal lashing.

“Then, when he ran away, you didn’t send someone to find him right away, spending ten days doing nothing. What if he had died? What kind of a person were you?!”

She completed her speech, then recollected her emotions and sat down.

“I… was trying to live up to the standards my father set,” Thomas said.

“Those standards are terrible! You should have realised that times of war call for different things than times of peace, right?”

Thomas sank in his seat slightly.

“...Yes, I do now. I didn’t… then,”

Lianna leaned back in her seat slightly.

“As long as you realise that, I suppose that’s good enough,” she added.

Thomas regained his posture. Before he moved to the main subject of negotiation, he asked one other question:

“Is… Samuel upset with me?”

Lianna shook her head.

“I can’t answer that. But I wager the answer is ‘no’, if you want my personal opinion anyway.”

Following the negotiations, the assistant collected the samples from the desk to bring back to the caravan.

“May I ask, is Aria around? I wanted to speak with her,” Lianna asked.

Thomas looked at Lianna with a confused look.

“Aria? The commander of the convoy?”

“Yes. Is she around with the group? I didn’t see her earlier,”

“Unfortunately, she’s busy with the caravan. Is it something urgent?” Thomas asked.

Lianna shook her head.

“No, it’s not, I suppose. Her child wanted to see her if she was around, but I guess that’s not in the cards.”

“Aria told me that she wanted to leave Samuel to the task she gave him. Something about how he needs to decide it himself,” Thomas said.

Lianna stood up from her chair and stretched. She slowly started to walk to the side of the desk.

“Hm, yes, I did hear about that. Well, I suppose that’s well enough.” Lianna said.

She started to make her way to the exit door. Thomas stood up to follow her.

“My sister wanted to talk to you, by the way. She’s better at emotional stuff than I am, so if you’re feeling bad about what you’ve done, I suggest you talk to her.” Lianna added.

“Okay, where is she?”

Lianna, exiting the door, pointed towards the eating hall.

“She’s over in the eating hall. A lot of the cooking is done by her, so she’s there a lot. I have to go find Elenora to give her the run-down of the negotiations, so in the meantime I suggest you head that way,”

“Thank you, Lianna,” Thomas said.