She nodded, moving past him to set the basket of eggs by the door before hanging her cloak on a hook. “I need to finish everything else first,” she told him, climbing up a ladder to move up to the hay loft, gathering armfuls of hay for the horses.
He was quiet, sitting to the side. The expression on his face was not like the portraits. It was rather.. cynical. There was desperation in his eyes.
She would set the hay in a large crate that was on the loft’s level, hanging in midair. With the weight of the hay, it began to lower down into the horses’ stall, the pulley system creaking with age. She climbed down the ladder with ease, pulling her hair back. “So, I take it that you do remember why you were in the crypt?”
He raised an eyebrow, almost watching her in surprise. "Why? You ought to know why. The kingdom didn't like the way I ruled and sparked a revolution. I was locked down there as punishment. Everything was taken from me," he said, his hand resting on his chest, where is hearthstone once was. "I don't even know how long it's been."
She tilted her head, folding her hands in front of her. “You have gone down in history as being a cruel tyrant,” she told him quietly, her brow furrowed. “It has been 200 years since you ruled.”
She squinted at him, crossing her arms too, her brow furrowing. "You don't even deny it?" she asked incredulously. "You don't even care?"
He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. "Which part? The fact that I was a tyrant or the fact that I haven't been outside in 200 years? Only one of those is news to me."
She tilted her head, frowning at him as she crossed her arms. "You are a self-proclaimed tyrant," she said incredulously. She shook her head, heading for the door. "I was so stupid to unchain you."
"200 years," she agreed, raising one eyebrow as she looked over at him. "And the first thing you did was lie to a stranger and then threaten the lives of her and her entire family."
She frowned, but she didn't even seem very angry. Angry didn't seem like an emotion she was very familiar with. Instead, she just seemed sad, shaking her head. "I'll be back."
About two hours later, Juniper returned. She looked tired, but she held a plate in her hands, scrambled eggs steaming in the cool morning air.
