1 Kayden meets Prince Elias

The sudden thud sound echoed all around his room as Kayden threw all of his clothes on the bed. He hurried and stared putting some clothes inside a bag. After packing his bag he went to his desk and took out a page and a quill pen, he then wrote,

"To the person who's reading this note, I am sorry to say that I am no longer want to interfere in anyone's life, so I've decided to have a new start from the very beginning as a commoner in a whole new place. Please don't send anyone to find me, as they are never going to know where I am. Praying to his majesty."

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*Huff* *Huff* Kayden was out of breath while he was running inside the woods. He already knew that the soldiers are on their way to find him. But he was no man to give up that fast. He kept running until he found a small cave under a big oak tree.

The Ashlow Woods was well known for the short cut way to the other kingdoms. Anyone can go to other kingdoms by this road of the Ashlow Woods. But the thing is, it gets pitch black after the sun sets in this wood. The whole forest becomes accident-prone zone at night.

'I think I'll be safe here for the rest of the night' Kayden thought while he sat inside the small cave putting his bag on the ground.

'I hope I'll be fine,' he thought.

…

Kayden opened his eyes as the ray of the sunlight reached him. He yawned while getting out of the small cave. His body is having joint pain because of sleeping in the wrong position. Suddenly he felt very thirsty. He took his brown bag from the ground and pulled out a bottle filled with water. Kayden then removed the cap and was about to drink, but that moment he noticed a boy on a horse. The boy was 16-18 years old, wearing a black cloak, sitting on the top of a white horse, and staring at Kayden. Correction: - Not Kayden, the boy is staring at Kayden's water bottle with thristful eyes.

"W-wa-water." The boy muttered. Kayden looked at the boy with a confused face.

"Yeah, it's water. You want some?" Kayden offered the water by extending his hand. Quickly the boy shoved off the saddle, landed in front of Kayden and snatched the water bottle from him, where Kayden not even finished his sentence by that time. In no second, the boy in a black cloak drank all water in one go.

Kayden didn't have any choice but staring at the boy, as if he was still trying to believe if this is really happening or not.

"Thank god, my thirst is completely quenched! Thank you, fellow commoner." The boy squealed out of joy. And there Kayden, still standing, his jaw dropped.

"Y-you literally drank all of my water. That's the only bottle left." Kayden slightly laughed in disbelief.

"Oh my apologies for my sudden weird behaviors, commoner. But I would have died if I didn't consume all of that water. Phew~ you saved my life."

Kayden sighed and murmured, "At least someone didn't die."

"Gosh, my apologies, how can I forgot of not introducing myself?" The boy stood straight shoving away the dust from his shoulders by adjusting his cloak.

"I am Elias Ray Ashdown. Nice to meet you, fellow commoner~" Elias bowed as he introduced himself.

"Oh, yeah. Pleasure to meet you, Elias, it's Kayden…"

"Oh, only Kayden? No last name?"

"Umm…nope, my parents didn't give me a last name I guess. Everyone in my village called me by the name 'Kayden' since I was born." Kayden pursed his lips as he said that and thought 'I should blend in the moment as a commoner. No one should know my real identity.'

Kayden looked into Elias' eyes after he thought that. A wind of awkward silence passed them.

"Oh…Um…yeah. So Elias! How did you end up here? And why were you so much thirsty a few minutes ago?" Kayden didn't only ask to break the awkward silence, but also he was Inquisitive to know what actually happened.

"So, the thing is my courtier…I mean my assistant he advised me to go for hunting. So after hunting nothing, we were on our way to the palace…I mean my home, and I've lost all my men, including my courtier…I mean my assistant. And I was dying out of thirst, I was wandering around in search of water for about an hour."

'Courtier? Palace? All men? This boy might be the son of a royal personality and I can tell that he's trying to hide that fact by seeing the way he was stammering.' Kayden narrowed his eyes as he thought that.

"Okay so you were wandering around in search of water until you found me?" Kayden repeated.

"Yes, you are correct."

"You could've drank the freshwater from the streams or lakes. I bet there are more than a thousands of lakes in this forest, after all the rivers of the Kingdom of Senscrusine flows through this forest."

"I know right?! But believe me Kayden, I have searched everywhere but didn't find any stream neither a lake nor a canal. Right Silky?!" Elias looks at his while horse, Silky which was standing like an obedient companion all the time. After Elias looked at Silky, she nodded, like she was understanding what Elias is talking about.

"Oh okay, let's see if we find a canal or any lake or not 'cause I need to carry water with me, along with that I will help you to find your crowd."

"Nice idea!" Elias expressed his emotions through his words.

…

"Kayden you can think that maybe a lake can be hidden in a spot like this" Elias stopped and showed Kayden the spot he was standing. They were walking down the forest path as Elias holding the halter of Silky and Kayden was looking at the map he was carrying. But suddenly Elias jumped and started waving to get Kayden's attention. The thing that Elias was showing to Kayden was looking like a cave which was hidden by countless hanging creepers.

"But the twist is, there's no lake inside this cave. Basically there's nothing inside these types of caves." Elias moved his hands around to make the moment more dramatic.

"How can you be so sure?" Kayden smirked, making Elias get confused of himself.

"I was literally searching lakes in all these kind of hidden caves, but didn't even manage to find one. Do you want to see the truth? Fine, let me show you." Elias held the hanging creepers and softly pulls them vertically.

"Ta – Da~ I know right, there's no lake." Without looking inside, with pure self-confidence, Elias smiled.

"Umm…Elias, I can clearly see a lake with crystal blue water flowing," Kayden said.

"Wait, what?" Elias turned around immediately and saw probably the most beautiful view he has seen in his entire life. The pure green trees were moving as the cold wind passed them. There was a lake filled with clear water surrounded by beautifully shaped trees.

"This can't be a real scenario. This has to be nothing but a mirage." Elias' eyes widened, and his mouth dropped as his eyes were exploring the view.

At that time Charles the courtier of ' Prince' Elias was searching Prince Elias with all the men they had. At some point they reached near the hidden cave, the brown horse of the courtier saw the white tail of Silky, the white horse who was standing outside of the cave and waiting obediently for her master and master's friend to come back.

"NEIGH! NEIGH! {Translation:- There she is, my Silky!}" The brown horse of Charles neighed in joy and half jumped to get Charles' attention.

"Oh-oh, Rion-rion, easy boy." After Charles saw Rion started to squirm, he was patting his mane to make him calm, but Rion didn't stop his squirm, on the other hand, he started running towards Silky.

"Neigh! Neigh! {Translation: - Silky! I am here for you, you are safe now!}" Rion again neighed.

"Oh I see, Rion, you have found Prince Elias, that's why you were neighing and started to wriggle.

"Neigh~ Grr~ {Translation: - What is this loser doing here? I was running to the other side with master just to escape from this annoying loser. Now he's back again}" Silky rolled her eyes.

"Good boy Rion, I will reward you when we get to the palace." Charles patted Rion. He got down from Rion's back. And he motioned for all the soldiers to come down off their horses and follow him.

...

"Elias, have you finished drinking water?" Kayden said as he finished filling up his bottle. And Elias was squatted down, peacefully drinking water, as if his life depends on it.

"Oof Kayden drinking this sweet flavored water makes me feel like I am in heaven~" Elias said in a soft, satisfied tone.

"Haha. I know right. But we have to move now. I will go to my destination after you find your men." Kayden puts his bottle inside his brown bag.

" Okay~ Fine." Elias got up and dusted off his cloak.

They were about to go until…

"HEY FREEZE! AN INTRUDER WITH THE PRINCE!!!!" In a flash Kayden was surrounded by the soldiers aiming spears towards him.