The Starborn wasn’t wrong about that. The city didn’t bother her, nor the people in it; there were just different paths to go at different times. Leaving the military grounds at night meant going through the northern half of the Antiquine District to get home, which meant she would sooner cut through the Aurecine or Sorokyne districts to get home. There was far less people who might cause trouble for her on foot without Hayima’el in those two rather than going straight through her home district. She was not afraid of people, but she was realistic about her chances. Her bull camel had a vicious bite and his kick would shatter bones; and without him she was a girl who looked like slim pickings. And to the desperate, she likely was.
She listened intently to his answers. So Sandworm had to be somewhere between two and five years old, if she had to guess judging by what she knew of Wyverns, if her Rider had been in the service for six years, and he had started with her as a hatchling. Hilana considered this information, and was smiling broadly when he told her just how big the beautiful creature they were riding was. “They had better find something bigger for her then, Dominus, because she is beautiful and perfect, even if she gets bigger! Do you know how big her parents were?” Hilana wanted to know. Maybe big parents made for big offspring; maybe it was some sort of lottery. She didn't know, but she was interested in trying to find out.
When he explained further about the nature of the patrols and flights, she imagined that that made sense. She had imagined that there were regular patrols from the sky around the city, though that they were less common made sense, too. That made her fortune all the sweeter. “I am very lucky!” Hilana agreed. “What drew you to the Praeventores? Where is your favourite place to go? Have you flown outside the Kingdom? Have you been to the far south of the Expanse?”