The travelers' new orders meant that they had to go down a different path entirely from what was expected. However, that also meant that they would be able to stay in an inn much sooner than expected as well.
Considering how they all looked after weeks and weeks of traveling and spending much of their time outside, the apprentices were certainly due for a bath. Irene didn't want to say it out loud, but the older Leif and Felix got, the worse they seemed to smell.
With all of Leif's voice cracks lately whenever he felt awkward and the way Felix seemed to have grown half a foot since she met him the year before, she wondered if that was just the normal path for boys. Would they ever wonder why she didn't grow as they did? She often tried to lower her voice a little bit, but would it not be enough one day?
Surprisingly, she hoped that they simply thought she was small and weak forever and didn't pay any more attention to it than that.
