Maric was glad to hear how determined Nimue was about being able to wield a sword. He had known she was a determined individual. Even more so than himself. At her last sentence however, his mood dimmed. Her fingers clutching at his clothes and the tone of her voice made it obvious that she did not want to speak of it though. And the changing of the subject only strengthened his suspicions.<br/>"I think that you will." Maric said after giving a comforting squeeze. "He is a kind boy. Full of aspirations to be a brave knight in shining armor."<br/>Maric paused to chuckle, remembering when he first took the boy as his squire.<br/>"I have to say, he had the most downfallen face that I had ever seen on a boy his age when I first started to train him." He continued. "The lad was about twelve and had thought that he'd be immediately slaying monsters and being a knight in shining armor to all in the kingdom. Imagine his surprise when I had him running drills and putting on leather armor. Anyways, Faren is now nineteen I believe, so he's been with me for about seven years. And yes, he has a young mare named Susan. And you can assure Layla that she won't steal Hephaestus away. Those two never really showed much interest in each other anyways."<br/>Hopefully the dragoness would not be jealous. Faren would be so distressed if she ended up being killed by Layla. The boy had raised her as a foal. Maric gave him an allowance when he had first started his training since they couldn't go earning money from doing jobs. He was allowed to spend it on anything he could that would help his training, and so as soon as he earned enough he convinced Maric to take him out to buy a horse. To his disappointment though, his master would not allow him to buy an older one, and could only buy those that were barely old enough to sell. Luckily, it ended up working out in the end as the boy loved that horse almost as much as that lass at the flower shop. Another grin escaped Maric's face. Now his squire would not be able to tease him about not having a woman to love anymore.