Kai and Aaren trek back through town towards the cave, "It's called The Cave of Death" Aaren explains as they go. "Everyone who goes in never comes back, and everyone else just assumes their dead, but there's a legend about it." He rubs his pale green eyes tiredly, "they say anyone who enters the cave will find that which they want most."
Kai rolls his eyes and looks at the cave's mouth up ahead, "that's ridiculous, how can a cave grant what someone wants the most?" Aaren just shrugs and looks at the dirt path with heavy eyelids, "nobody knows, nobody has ever made it out of the cave alive."
The prince smirks at Aaren, "you know if you're that tired I could just carry you." Aaren laughs a little and yawns in response, Kai shakes his head and picks up Aaren, tent and all. "Go to sleep babe, I can set up the tent and such." Aaren tries to mumble a protest but Kai doesn't let him and keeps heading for the cave.
Soon Aaren is asleep and Kai is walking into the cave. He puts Aaren on the ground next to the cave wall and lays a cover over him then walks around a little to explore. Kai doesn't really find anything of interest in the cave, certainly not the thing he wants most... except for Aaren is inside the cave so... he smiles at his boyfriend and lays next to him.
"Maybe we'll find something in the morning," he whispers and falls asleep. Through the night Kai tosses and turns on the ground as dreams and nightmares haunt his thoughts. In the dream he's being chased by a large machine that seems to be a box of metal on wheels. His legs feel like lead and he can't seem to run faster than the strange box, the last thing that happens before he wakes up is the machine running him over and a sound like laughter echoes in his ears.
Kai sits up suddenly and gasps in fright, his face is pale and he's sweating from the nightmare. With wide eyes he looks around the now light cave and realizes Aaren isn't there, however there are loud noises outside. "He's probably talking to someone out there," he mutters to himself while getting up to leave.
Stepping out of the cave into the bright sunlight of day, Kai sees the bright blue sky and fluffy clouds, the tall green leafy trees, and looking around he sees... metal boxes on wheels from his dream? Kai jumps out of the way just barely when one of them almost hits him. The prince can see a man inside one of them which only furthers his confusion.
When he jumps out of the way of the smaller box he hears a loud noise and turns to see the large machine careening right towards him. Kai's eyes widen in fear thinking he's going to be killed and just like in his dream he tries to run but to not avail. The machine hits him from behind and he falls onto the street hitting his head on the hard black pavement.
When Kai comes too his head is throbbing and he has a ringing in his ear. When he tries to open his eyes he gets very dizzy and practically blinded by a strange bright light. "He's awake," Kai hears a soft voice call out and footsteps coming to his side.
He cracks his eyes open just slightly so he can see but not enough to look directly into the weird light that seems to be mimicking the sun. What Kai sees is a young woman with dark hair and a worried look in her eyes, she must be the one who spoke. Next to him is a man who resembles Aaren with his dirty blond hair and sparkling green eyes.
"Aaren?" Kai asks, "what happened? Where am I?" He tries to sit up but the man pushes him back down gently, "I'm not Aaren," the man says firmly, "my name is James." Kai just stares at him in shock and looks around wildly, "but- but then where's Aaren???" that was when he noticed that James and the woman are wearing strange clothes and he's surrounded by strange machinery.
"you're at the shenandoah memorial hospital, my truck accidentally hit you and the drivers brought you here." Kai focuses on James again and has a confused expression, "what's a truck-? and what are all these machines?" The young woman begins to explain calmly that a truck is a machine that takes people and cargo places on wheels while James just watches him.
"what's your name?" James asks the prince finally, "who are you?" Kai doesn't really have an answer and he fears for his life because of what they might do to him if they found out he's a prince.