She laughed again, a little deeper. "I'm a dangerous person," she repeated, mocking his tone of voice.
She managed to hold back a full-fledged laugh, but a small giggle slipped out. "I don't sound like that. I'm Zerras and in my spare time, I like boasting about how dangerous I am, getting upset about lost weaponry, and hiding under bridges to scare small children."
"I'm sure," he said, his expression shifting after a moment. "Besides. You know what I did as a ruler. You should understand."
She seemed to think about this, her lips pursing. "Are you... are you happy about that reputation?" she asked after a moment, looking up at him. "Were you happy? Back before you were imprisoned?"
"I had sorts of freedom. I could do whatever I wanted, for the most part. War was.. thrilling, but taxing. Same goes for commanding civilians."
She frowned, tilting her head. "It's nice to have freedom, I suppose," she said after a moment. "But... I don't know."
She was quiet for a moment. "You had to hitch a ride on the bottom of my flower cart in order to avoid being spotted because if you were spotted, you would be locked away," she replied after a few seconds. "Your entire country revolted against you and you lost 200 years of your life. You're completely alone in the world except for an elf farmer who knows that you would have killed her entire family in a second if you had to." She hesitated before shaking her head. "I don't know, Zerras. It doesn't seem worth it to me."
She noticed and her face fell a little. "You don't need to tell me anything," she said quietly, looking down at the ground, watching her feet against the earth. "You have bigger things to worry about."
"That sounds like a majority of my problems," he said. "What's left is that I'm weak. I can hardly defend myself. 200 years away doesn't help that."
"People don't know who you are, Zerras," she said quietly. "Not anymore. I didn't even recognize you. You could start a life out here, you know? Change everything. You don't always have to keep fighting."
