Departure

After awaking from my terrible dream, I looked outside my bedroom window and at the sun. Determining its position, it was around the 6th sun cycle. I then left my room and promptly ate breakfast. After that I went and put on my armor and left the castle with the maids bidding be a safe travel. Going to the stables, I got on my horse and made my way outside the main gate of Rivengrand to meet up with Alvor and my accompanying guards.

"Hello, my prince. Did you rest well?" Alvor asked as he saw me pass through the gate.

"Yes, I hope you and guards had enough rest as well." I responded

As I joined up my horse with Alvor's, I see that the accompanying guards have finished packing the supplies into the caravan and were set for departure.

"Shall we make our way to Tanathil?"

"Yes."

Leading the way, I set off for Aerindal's capital, Tanathil, with my guards. The occasion for which I had to go to Aerindal is for the banquet they were holding. There was to be three banquets. The first banquet would be held at Aerindal. The second, at Krantz. Then the third, at Amir. The banquets were part of the truce proposal between the kindoms in order to get the nobles and royal families associated with each other. After the third banquet, the wedding between me and the princess of Aerindal would happen in the couple days after.

The reason why I had to marry the princess was because animosity between our people was stronger as opposed to Amir. The reason being was that the war originally began between Krantz and Aerindal. Amir had joined in later when one of their scouting parties was caught in the crossfire of a battle between Krantz and Aerindal. Although they were once renown for their mercilessness, Amir wasn't too active in the war and only fought in couple battles. In fact, I never crossed blades against the Amir during the war and out of curiosity, I asked Alvor if he knew what the people of Amir were like.

"Alvor, during the war did you happen to fight the Amir?" I asked Alvor, who was riding along side with me.

"I have but, only once. It was before I was assigned to become your bodyguard. They were, quite the opponents." He said with a reminiscent tone.

"How so?"

"The Amir were very skilled at using their sabers and wore light cloths. They lived in a hot desert so it was understandable that they would wear light gear, and what they lacked in armor they made up for in agility. Without cumbersome armor on, they were able to wear down my soldiers, striking them at the weak points in their armor."

"Sounds like a troublesome enemy to fight. Did you win that battle?"

"Nope, they were led by the first prince of Amir. He was quite cunning and countered every strategy I had come up with. He was also gifted with a strong affinity for magic. I saw many of my soldiers get struck by a ball of fire and engulfed, turned to ashes within seconds." Alvor explained with both admiration and fear.

"I see, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for telling me"

After taking a few breaks traveling through a monotonous scenery of trees, we crossed into Aerindal territory. Unlike the commonly colored green and brown trees in Krantz, Aerindal had a variety of colorful trees. The change in scenery was quite noticeable and couldn't missed. Moving further into Aerindal territory we made it to a village which was in great condition.

Villages should be in at least a decent condition unless they are under poor management or constantly attacked by bandits. The reason being, was because of the Rules of War. It was a list of agreements between all kingdoms that had to be followed. It included a rule not to attack villagers or merchants as this was something seen as cowardly and honorless. Any who violated a rule would earn them the animosity of other kingdoms.

Entering the village, I see that it was moslty constructed out of wood instead of the metal and stone used in Krantz. The villagers had pointed ears which was a physical trait the people of Aerindal had. Passing through the village, the villagers avoided making contact with us and just watched us as we made our way. Some villagers were whispering amongst each other and some of the villagers had looks of disgust, hatred, or fear. These feelings they had were understandable considering that we were their enemy till recently. This animosity was something I wanted to fix. I wanted both kingdom's people to understand each other. If only I was able to convince my father, relations between both kingdoms could've been better.

Continuing our way through the village I saw a shop with a sign that had a cauldron on it. It was the sybol used for shops relating to alchemy. It caught my attention because there was a certain plant which could temporarily boost one's own magic ability and only grew in Aerindal. If possible I would like to visit the shop. However, it doesn't seem like the right time and the seller may feel threatened with all my bodyguards around me.

We left the village and traveled for a while before taking a break. The sun was near setting, nearing night time.

"Prince, you seem quite tired. Why don't you take a rest?" Alvor asked me

"It's fine. I can still lead the way" I said as I yawned.

"I insist, besides, we're almost near the capital. I can take the lead from here"

"You sure?"

"Yes, the other guards have already done their rotations for resting. You can leave the rest to us"

"Ok, be sure to wake me up when we get there"

Getting off my horse I climbed into the back of the caravan and fell victim to slumber in no time.

"Father, Aerindal has offered us a truce. We should accept it now before anymore lives get lost." I pleaded

"No, We can win this war. I will not accept a draw!" The king exclaimed

"Please king, I have been attending to many wounded soldiers. They don't want this war. Please accept their proposal before it's too late." Sven who was pleading with me bowed.

"I will not accept this proposal. This truce is a sign of defeat for us and Krantz has never lost a war and this won't be the first!"

"This war was never meant to be, father. It was an accident you made that started this war, so why don't you have the pride to accept your mistake."

"I have the pride to keep our kingdom's honor. Now, leave this throne room right this instance! I will not have you tell me what I should do and not do!"

"Damn it father! We have been at war for too long. It has already been 18 years. How long are you going to continue this?"

"Please king, the prince only wants peace between our kingdoms. There are too many wounded and the amount keeps rising. This has become a meaningless war." Sven tried to reason.

But, before my father could respond a horn could be heard. The sound started to get louder and louder, till I finally woke up. I looked around me and I saw arrows hitting the floor and aimed at no particular target. One of the guards had sounded the horn which would be blown in the event of an attack. Quickly realizing the situation, my groginess faded and I leaped out of the caravan sword in hand.

"Alvor! What's going on!?" I shouted

"We were riding towards Tanathil until an arrow had flown past me and was soon followed by a flurry of arrows. We think it is most likely bandits but we can't see the enemy. It's too dark."

The guards, realizing I had awoken circled around me and casted a shield which formed a dome around us. It was nightime and the trees seemed to obscure my vision. I could only see shadows of people running through the forest.

"Someone cast an illumination magic. We need to identify the enemy." I ordered my guards.

As a bright light started rising from the dome, I examined the trajectory of the arrows and soon noticed something. Leaving the dome, I quickly ran towards a figure which was visible due to the illumination magic.

"Prince! Where are you going!?" Alvor shouted in the distance.

The figure wasn't as fast as I was and I quickly reached him. Tackling him to the forest floor, I looked at him and he had clothes which didn't seem they were made for fighting. I was right. The wannabe assasin struggled to release himself from my grip. I made my way back amidst the flying arrows to Alvor and guards who were unharmed and still in the protective dome.

"Prince what is the meaning of this?" Alvor questioned me.

"Alvor take a look at him. He is just a boy. He doesn't have any armor on and this doesn't look like something a bandit would wear."

Alvor examined the boy and quickly caught on to what I meant.

I pointed my sword at the throat of the boy and started to shout.

"If you don't want this kid to die, I suggest you reveal yourselves and lay down your arms!"

The flurry of arrows was stopped and slowly people started to reced from the woods. They had pointed ears and had clothes fit for a regular folk.

"Please let the boy go, all we wanted was to scare you away before making it to the capital." One of the people said.

"Trying to ruin Krantz's reputation by scaring us away from attending the banquet." I responded

Silence. I guess I was right.

"I'll let the boy go besides, I wasn't planning on killing him anyways."

Before releasing the boy from my grip I told him to stay put. Looking into the supplies of the caravan I found some medicine and gave it to the boy.

"Sorrry if I grabbed onto you too hard. Take this medicine and it should help heal the bruise on your wrist."

"Th-Thank you for the medicine" the boy thanked me and went back to the people surrounding us.

"Please don't do this again. If word got out that villagers from Aerindal attacked the prince of Krantz, relations between our countries would get worse. If you guys are willing to keep what happened here a secret, I will keep it a secret as well."

The wannabe assasins were just villagers. After noticing the trajectory of the arrows, I was able to determine that they were fired off by people unskilled in archery. The clothes of the boy had further proved my hunch that they were just commonfolk.

"Sorry for attacking you, we didn't think this through. Many of our families had lost someone important to us in the war. We wanted some form of revenge against Krantz and after hearing about your departure to Aerindal, we thought this could be a chance to do something."

"It's ok, I forgive you all. Nobody got seriously injured but really, please don't do anything like this again. I understand how you feel, I too, have lost important people to me. But violence won't solve everything."

"Thank you, but why are you so kind to us? We were the ones who attacked you."

"I just want our kingdoms to get along better, that's all."

I then got back on my horse and ordered my guards to get going. Leaving the villagers behind we continued our way Tanathil.

"Merciful as always." Alvor told me as he rode beside me.

But, you forget Alvor; that there was a time when I wasn't so merciful.

After a while of traveling we finally made it to Tanathil.