20th Day, Summer of 508 A.V.
Eris closed her eyes, inhaling the fresh scent of the forest. Everything else seemed nonessential just now. Killing her last target, leaving Joel, stealing coin from the rich woman’s purse… All those things were part of life – a life she’d left behind when she entered the forest – and Eris was content with that. Maybe in a few hours she’d have to go back and continue on the road alone, without her teacher there to guide her, but at the moment there was nothing in the future. She pulled out a small, leather-bound sketchbook and a pencil from the folds of her jacket. The girl tested the sharp point of the pencil on her finger, just as she might have tested her dagger before setting out on a job. She looked forward to the time when the pencil would have worn down from its contact with the paper, its edges becoming soft and rounded – all the better to shade with.
Eris focused on the horse standing about a hundred steps away from the tree she was perched on. Eris had always preferred to climb a tree when she could, finding comfort in being just a little further from the dangers commonly found on the ground. Now, with her back comfortably leaning against the thick trunk, she examined the horse grazing in the clearing. Rhine perked up her ears, as if sensing Eris’s gaze on her. The woman smiled affectionately, complimenting her Gildling’s alertness in her mind. Eris had never attempted to draw a horse before. Looking at Rhine now made the task of sketching the animal seem more and more daunting.
She squinted, holding the pencil in front of her to approximate the proportions of the horse. The horse’s head seemed to fit into the torso about three and a half times width-wise. The legs were two heads long. She quickly made a few marks on her paper to indicate the top and bottom of her drawing, as well as the overall width.