Bridge sat, still as death, cursing her life and cursing Darion Mograine with every fiber of her being. She was too proud to tell him, or confirm to the lich, that he'd probably given her too much horse. This was like sitting on a gnomish bomb, one wrong move and it'd explode. He was just waiting for any direction to bolt in, any excuse to blow up on her. He danced along sideways, his ears swiveling, sucked up underneath the saddle, chewing ferociously on his bits. He was so far behind those bits that she had no hope of slowing him down if he did bolt, but any attempt to get him back on them would be an invitation to go. So she sat, and did her best to ignore his head tossing, crab scuttling progress. She had no doubts it was probably very impressive...from the ground.

"Thanks oh, so very much, Darion." She muttered, making certain that no part of her lower legs touched the horse, anywhere at all, that her weight remained poised in the exact center of the saddle. Whatever had possessed him to think this was a fine idea?

"One of these days, I hope to ride like you do, Brigitte." He'd been all sunny smiles on that day, riding his fat little bay pony alongside her shining new charger. "Thank you for teaching me..."

Well, that probably had something to do with it. But it had been absolute ages since she'd given him a leg up on the pony she'd bought him in Brill, a lifetime since they'd ridden the cart tracks under a canopy of leaves. So long since she had started teaching him to ride. But she remembered. And she hoped he had not forgotten...

"He remembers everything."

And his lich noticed everything. That should annoy her, yet it oddly didn't. It was very open in the fact that she was never alone. That it was not the same as those who had twisted and manipulated her before.

"You move, and you are not with us. Of course I watch over you. And things have changed on this route from the last time you rode it. Things that you may require my input or intercession with."

"Which are?" The horse pinned his ears back at her voice, deciding that he was bored with scuttling sideways and wanted to hop instead. Not exactly an improvement, but again, pushing him forward was an invitation to disaster.

"It didn't matter that you sold out the Scarlet positions on this route. They had already fallen by the time you did that. Poor choice of location, very, very poor choice of location."

Bridge really wished she didn't know at least somewhat of what it meant. She had never liked the site chosen for the one tower, something about it had just been...wrong. So, very, very wrong. She even vaguely remembered writing a missive to that effect...had she even sent it? Why had it even been built, when she had not agreed to it? Or had she said that she did agree when she didn't? It had happened before. But none of that mattered now, she was herself, those positions had, in the lich's delicate verbiage, fallen. Fallen to whatever it was that she'd sensed in the area. Fallen to something other than her mindful treachery. There was some twisted peace to be found in that.

"The other side is good?" She'd never come at this route from here, she'd always started from New Hearthglen, coming up from the south. Once she made it onto the plains, she'd be fine, but she'd certainly never cut through Wyrmbane's foothold to get anywhere. She hadn't needed to, Wintergarde commanded the heights of the mountains to the east of her usual path.

"Yes. It will join up to the way you know once you hit the flat ground. You'll know it when you get there."

If she got there. She was running out of time, eventually she'd have to point this horse in a direction with the intention of going there. The forward element traveling with her was almost ready, and she was supposed to lead the way.

"Ready when you are, General."

Never? But no, she could not show that. She waited until he'd flounced around to where his head was pointed in the direction she wanted him to go, sat down deep and growled "Hup!" at him. At least the way she wanted to go was up, at a fairly gentle incline...until it wasn't. Hopefully, he'd wear himself out before they crested it and began the drop on the other side down to the plain below. Hopefully, the element could keep up. Hopefully, she'd keep her seat.

He surged up the hill and she kept him pointed at the snowdrifts along the side of the icy trail. Let him wear himself down on them, less chance of slipping, more chance that the element would keep up with her.

"If you can't stop your pony, if you're getting too tired...you take the bottom side of this rein..." She stood beside Darion's pony, who was more willing to stop at any time than go, exactly as she'd wanted. "...pass it over his neck and hold in your other hand. Do the same with the other side. Then rest them against his neck. See what that does?"

Darion studied it for a long moment, pushing his hands down into the correct position. "It makes him pull against his own neck...not my hands anymore."

"Exactly."

It took over an hour of pushing him through the snowdrifts, bridging his reins and switching him back and forth across the path to keep him moving but not covering ground before he finally started to settle and the forward element could catch up. "He's a bit hot today." She stated when their commander finally pulled up even with her.

"Nooooo...we hadn't noticed, ma'am. Calming down now, though. Been awhile since you've had him out? Too much grain, too much stall time?"

"I would not know. This is the first time I've ridden him." She had no idea what had happened to him in the time between New Avalon's fall to the Ebon Blade and a couple of days ago, when he'd arrived here by lich. But the statement earned a respectful silence as the man chewed on her words.

"I've been told you know the route."

Bridge stared up a path she had never seen before in her life. "Yes." Technically, she did know the route, even this part of it. And they were days away from the tricky parts still, the parts where she'd actually need to know exactly where she was going. This was just going to bring her down and out onto to the snowfields of the Dragon Wastes. From there, she'd have to orient herself and plot her path.

"Hmmm." He managed to remain just barely on the polite side of dubious, but she let it go. Their plans had never included this. This wasn't supposed to be the 7th's theater at all. The plan had always been to get Fordragon's units through one of the gates. Their plans were years behind those her people had been operating under...the Scarlet Crusade had had their punishing Icecrown Citadel defeat years ago, when the gates were new. They'd pivoted away from that plan then, searching for an alternate way. This alternate way.

"I know the way." Let him doubt. It didn't matter one way or the other, she knew the truth. And he'd learn it soon enough. He was under orders to accompany her, and as long as he did that, and kept his doubts to himself, she was fine with it. She had other things to worry about, getting herself and her explosively tempered mount down onto the plain alive without making it look like she was worried about it at all...that was firmly at the top of her list. They had a long way ahead of them before they even hit a spot where they could camp and she had no intention of wasting precious daylight convincing anybody of anything. And thankfully, she could wrap herself up in the Ebon Blade's infamously surly reputation now. She wasn't expected to be graciously polite and refined any longer. Only to be slightly more approachable and reasonable than an average death knight...it was refreshing. She was free from all of those expectations that others had placed upon her. She was free to sort through them and discard what did not work... Puppet, prophet, zealot...and keep those that did. Paladin, general, mother.

She relaxed her grip on the reins, letting the charger surge its way through the snowdrifts, delicately hinting which direction she'd prefer he go. Thankfully, he had worn through a good amount of his fire and accepted the hint, turning south and beginning the descent onto the plains below. They had a good, long way to go, and waiting now served nothing. If anything, it ran the risk of courting a disastrous setback, would the Crown try to replace Fordragon's ill timed venture? Sink back into the idea that somehow, they could get through the gate? Name another overall commander? It sounded like a terrible cycle, nothing she wanted to play a role in. The 7th was veteran, trusted, and in place here. They'd been good enough for Hyjal, good enough for Silithus, they should be good enough for Northrend. Let Darion play nice with Tirion, throw the weight of the Ebon Blade behind Fordring's new order. That was good. But it wasn't going to be enough, they needed more than shining champions to get this job done, they needed battle hardened troops holding ground on the glacier. And that meant getting Wyrmbane's units through...and she'd do whatever it took to get that done. She couldn't play paladin with Tirion's new order, Tirion's new Crusade, but she could be a general alongside Wyrmbane. This was the way she was going to support Darion, the best way that she knew how.