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~~((National Rescue Dog Day - page 17 of 20))~~
This was Hector's second time seeing Lorent from the air. The trip to Sair had afforded him the opportunity once before, but he'd been considerably more distracted by Lynn's presence during that flight.

He was able to get a better look now.

Ambassador Stoutamire hadn't been kidding when he'd said that Lorent had a lot of forests. That was all Hector could see across the entire horizon. Were there even any cities in this country?

Ah, yeah, he managed to spot an occasional building peeking up among the trees here and there. Wow, did they really just build their towns in the middle of the forest like that?

Suddenly, he felt a little bad. He probably should've known a lot more about this country, considering how close it was to Warrenhold.

Well, hopefully, this trip would help change that.

"Is Garovel complaining to you?" said Roman, who was sitting next to him.

"Hmm?" said Hector. "Ah. No? Complaining about what?"

"About not bringing him along," said Roman. "I just left, and Voreese already won't shut up."

"Ah... well, now that you mention it, I'm sure Garovel will get around to it, eventually."

"I'm tempted to tell her to go bother Garovel instead of me, but if he's not annoying you already, then I'm afraid she might infect him with her whining."

"Heh. Oh, uh, by the way, thanks again for your help with the Bank."

"Don't sweat it." After a beat, Roman bobbed his head to the side. "Well. Okay, maybe you can sweat it a little bit. That's ten million troa I've got riding on you."

Hector's laugh was a moderately nervous one. "I'm sweating it plenty, I promise..."

"Seems like it's going pretty well, though, yeah?"

"So far."

"Well, even if it all goes pear-shaped, don't worry. I'll bail your bank out for you."

Hector blinked and looked at him anew. "Really?"

"Hell no! Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how much money you're talking about?"

Hector's expression flattened, and he went back to looking out the window. "Suddenly, I'm starting to miss Voreese."

Roman snorted a laugh of his own.