The Thicket

The stream babbled, cutting a shallow gully through the sparse thicket. Anya dismounted and smoothed her green dress, near black, embroidered up the sleeves with the forked lightning of her house. Her grizzled guardsmen and simple country maids dismounted and began building a fire to make tea for lunch. The sky was clouded, and a sparse mist hung in the gully, but this thicket reminded her of her estate to the east. Her family produced lumber, wool, and ale since being raised to nobility. Her parents had mismanaged and squandered the family’s power, but she intended to reclaim her birthright.