Maric whistled merrily as he pounded in yet another fence post with the large makeshift wooden mallet he had crafted for that very purpose. He'd been living here for some time with Nimue, and yet it was still strange to wake up to find his horse sleeping downstairs. Deciding that Hephaestus needed more room anyways, Maric had decided to build him his own corral and stall. While the stall was already built, the fence was still not quite finished. This was the last post however, and after that he'd just put in a few crossbeams and he'd be finished the job.<br/>As he worked away, the paladin wondered if Nimue would return by then. Not even a day had gone by and he already missed the soft touch of her hands in his. He hoped that she would return soon, as he had a little surprise for her. That day they had first met, she pestered him about learning to fight, and he was willing to teach her until he got a little... overprotective. Maric's excuse was that he didn't want to have her get hurt in a training session or something like that. However, she was persistent, and she had many fair points as to why he was being unfair, so today he was going to show her the wooden practice swords he made so that they could spar.<br/>The knight shook his head as he moved on to tying up the crossbeams. He had never thought he'd see the day when he'd be with a woman like her that could hold so much sway over him. She'd even been making him think about forgetting about waiting till after marriage for certain things, though that wasn't exactly because of what she said or did. Maric just wanted to make their relationship work, and he wanted to be as close to her as he could. He guessed they were already sleeping in the same bed, but they hadn't gone that far yet.<br/>His thoughts of his love were interrupted however by the cooing of a bird. Looking up from his work, he saw a pigeon sitting perched on the post he had hammered in a few minutes ago. Looking down at its leg, he saw a note tied to it. Maric swallowed nervously, hoping for anything but the worst. His hands shook as he untied the note from the courier's leg, almost fumbling it as he tried to open the message.<br/>A sigh of relief escaped his lips. It was from his squire, not the guild. The knight smiled with a feeling of pride as he read the letter. His squire always had a difficult time enchanting pigeons so it would home in on a select person. Apparently he would be here by tomorrow morning. However, the squire warned him that there was apparently a paladin heading this way as well.<br/>At least that was better than a letter from the guild, Maric thought. If they were sending a paladin here, that meant they were going to hear him out. All he had to do was show the representative that his claims were sound. That couldn't be hard cold it?