When Aidan woke the morning sun was just filtering through the windows. He felt much better, though he was hungry again. He would see about a visit to the stables before he left, there was at least one of the horseboys there who wasn't bothered by what he was, and would generally direct him to a complacent animal. He rolled over and smiled to see Damien, curled up and still sleeping peacefully, next to him. He reached out and brushed back a strand of the boy's sandy hair. Damien opened his eyes and smiled up at him. "Hi Dad."

"Hi. We should probably get up."

"Okay." Aidan had, much to his relief, gotten a change of clothes. Damien had been likewise freshly dressed, in clothes much finer than any he'd ever worn before, so they both looked and felt much better when they descended from the room and made their way out into the courtyard. It looked like somebody was preparing for a parade, with soldiers lining themselves up and people leading out horses. Of course I guess this is going to be a parade of sorts, thought Aidan with a wry smile. Tara is certainly making her point loudly here.

"Ah, there you are!" Avery greeted them both with a smile, but then hustled them over to the stables. "You'll need to ride, of course."

"Of course," said Aidan, with a bit of a sigh. He wasn't really much of a horseman. "Please don't put either of us on a war charger this time?" he asked. "I don't think I'll ever recover from that little incident, and I don't think Damien rides at all. Do you?" He looked at his son, who shook his head. "Something nice and sedate, please. But while you're doing that, I have other business here. I'll be right back." He'd spotted his friendly stableboy going past. A few minutes later and that was taken care of, and Aidan felt infinitely better.

Mounted on a ridiculously showy palomino gelding, he was able to resign himself to being in the middle of a circus for the time being. Damien was on a large white pony. Or perhaps small horse, it was somewhere in the tenuous ground between the two. It seemed placid enough, and Damien seemed delighted with it. Avery got everything arranged to his satisfaction and the parade was ready to set out. Standard bearers with flying pennants and banners sat on matched horses at the front. Two of them bore plain pennants in Tara's blue and silver, two more bore Tara's banner, with the silver circle on a midnight field studded with silver stars, and the one in the center... Aidan nearly fell off his horse laughing when he saw it. Brianna had been threatening for years to actually make the thing, and it seemed that she'd finally gotten around to doing so. The central banner was blood red, with a stylized yellow flame in the center, and crossed daggers in the middle of that. It was Aidan's banner. Brianna had invented it years ago as a joke, and Aidan hadn't expected to ever actually see the thing.

As if the thought had conjured her, Brianna appeared by his stirrup. Her hair was as much silver as brown now, but she still looked as fit and muscular as ever, and although she probably hadn't needed it in years, her sword was still belted at her side. "Hey! You weren't going to leave without saying hello, were you?"

Aidan grinned down at her. "Well, I figured you'd be far too busy these days!"

"Ha! Not so busy that I couldn't make you a little present." She grinned back. "I'd intended to send it to you for whatever occasion came up next. Solstice festival, probably, but this seemed like too good of an opportunity to waste."

"You're a horrible person. Bad enough I have to be in the middle of this dog and pony show, but that thing..." He rolled his eyes dramatically.

Brianna just laughed. She sobered a little and said, "This dog and pony show is Tara's way of showing the rest of the world exactly what she thinks of their opinions of you, I suspect. She's pretty upset. I guess you were asleep most of yesterday, but you should have heard some of it. Avery and I only just managed to talk her out of sending a rather undiplomatic message to the King of the Wood. Normally they get along well, but she wasn't too happy about somebody who is technically his subject running through her kingdom putting up wanted posters for one of her friends. She did send him a letter eventually, but it was a little more calmly written. Though she made it very clear she expected him to keep a better eye on the humans inside his borders! He does tend to ignore them at times."

Aidan shook his head. "I didn't intend to cause a diplomatic incident."

"Of course not!" Brianna smiled. "Tara and I are both putting the blame for this right were it belongs. Anybody with two brain cells to rub together can see that you're harmless, except maybe to items that just happen to have been left lying about in strangely unlocked rooms. If they weren't such idiots they'd have just let you take the boy. Speaking of which, you must be Damien! Hello!" She grinned over at Damien who smiled a little shyly back. He was feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the new faces and all the bustle and noise. There were nearly as many people in the courtyard right now as lived in the whole of Stonewood. "But I won't keep you waiting. I just wanted to say hello, and take the credit for my beautiful handiwork there. Avery looks like he's going to pop something if this whole circus doesn't get moving soon." She waved and strode back into the castle. Aidan waved after her.