Merida barely registered him as she watched her sister. Annabeth smiled, "I love the garden, it's so big. We don't get to plant anything that beautiful. Normally we only plant ugly vegetables. Like root veggies." She frowned at the thought. "Root veggies taste good but they don't look pretty. Not like this garden." As the three of them followed the king little Annabeth looked like she was about to wiggle out of her skin and as she saw the horses she squealed happily. "They're so beautiful. We get to keep them?"

"You realize that giving us two, obviously well bread and expensive horses will put a bounty on our heads right?" Madoc looked at the King, unafraid. He was the protector now. Even though Merida had done a great job taking care of them so far, Madoc felt he needed to step up and protect his sister from this man. He was a serious young man, and if given the chance he could become a great scholar and tactician. He had a quick mind. Madoc was the one who helped Merida figure out what to purchase and what to get ready for the next planting season. Madoc was smart but had no formal education. Merida had wanted to use some of the money the king gave them to fix that.

"Madoc, that is not an appropriate way to speak to your king." Merida hissed, gently smacking him on the back of the head. Although she agreed with her younger brother you couldn't really refuse a gift from the king. He understood very little about peasant life, didn't he? "We appreciate the gift but he has a point. You have already given us a lot and the way our lower class society works, someone will want to kill us for the horses, and they have no fear of retribution from family members."

"Does that mean we can't keep them?" Annabeth said, her face dropping as she stopped jumping around and trying to pet the horses.

"No, if the king still wants to offer them I will not refuse a gift from the king," Merida said picking up Annabeth. "We will just have to be careful okay?" She asked in a funny voice before blowing a raspberry on Annabeth's cheek.

"Okay," the little girl giggled. Merida had to put her down at that point though, she wasn't so young that Merida could carry her like she used to. At the very least, Merida could prevent too much sadness in the girl's life though.