Glorious eyes that smile and burn.
The title is taken from the 31 Days theme for December 5, 2008.
Balsa thinks that it might have been the look in his eyes that convinced her. She has never had the opportunity to see nobles up close, but she has had, on several different occasions, been exposed to the scions of rich folk, and the rich were the closest approximate she could get to what was facing her now. She found it strange, then, how there appeared to be a world of difference between the brats she had dealt with before and the boy pressed against her back now, taking refuge in her warmth even as they went on horseback through one of the continent's most treacherous mountain paths.
Soft as he is and still unused to hardship, there is something quiet and untouchable within Chagum, a quiet strength and firm resolve that not a lot of people, much less children like himself, are ever gifted with. He's an old soul, with adult concerns and an adult penchant for taking some things a little too seriously and it worries her a little, because she believes that thinking too much has never done any good for anyone. It is for that reason, then, that she makes it a point to ruffle his hair when he least expects it, and give him every opportunity within her power to act like the child he actually is.