[Little does she know that she's playing right into it all, never realising that even this little instance here is changing her. Slowly. Gradually. If only because she isn't completely shutting herself off.

When he speaks, she listens. Intently. Settling on his words, she seems to understand. At least marginally. She never spent time with animals in Alexandria. She would hardly know if they ever feared her. But then, animals are not the same as soldiers. The ones here, as she's thought before, seem to see right through her heavy mantle of obligation and expectations.

Leaving a hand atop Iris, carefully stroking her very soft fur, Beatrix nods slowly.]

I see. I would not have considered you to cause them apprehension. I suppose that is because you had bypassed that before you and I met. Whatever the past held, it would seem it does not hold the same as the present.

[Settling onto her free hand, she eyes Eustace closely.] I also would not have taken you for a farm boy. I had thought you were a soldier, actually.