Volume 01: Start Again
Chapter 18: A truth and a lie
"Ha, so as my escort you shall take me back to the capital." The young prince said as a grin began to cover his face.
As I stood looking at the young prince, I suddenly had a very bad premonition. Feeling this, I immediately ran over to the young prince and tackled him back into the bushes where he had just crawled out from.
*KSHHH*
Landing in the bushes I covered the mouth of the prince before moving our bodies to the deepest parts of the shrubs making sure we could not be seen from the outside. Not long after I did this the sound of footsteps closed in on our position accompanied by the red light of burning torches.
"FIND THE BOY!" A loud croak came out from the small cluster of trees that surrounded the shrubs and bushes we were hiding.
As if reacting to the sound of the voice the young prince in my arms tensed up and began to shiver. Looking down at the young prince I could barely make out any of his facial emotions as the bushes were just too dark for me to see but feeling the tension of his body, I could tell that the person out there was a strong character.
"Captain, we have three scouts searching to both the south along the tracks and east across the tracks for any traces of their movements. We will catch them soon as we cut them off on their east and west attempts to get to the capital." Another deep croaking voice sounded out, but this voice was familiar to me as it had been the same one of the frogman I had scared off.
"You better hope we do." And just like this, the voice that was called Captain disappeared from the surrounding area along with all the other footsteps I could hear.
Listening on for a couple more minutes in the bushes I finally came to the understanding that all the frogmen must have already left the area. Discerning this I let go of the prince and began to crawl out of the bushes as I had once seen the young prince do.
Getting out of the bushes I wiped off the dirt that had accumulated on my pants. "Come on we need to start moving or they may send people to trek backward to retrace their steps after they can't find us ahead," I called out to the prince who was still in the bushes.
Not soon after my words, the swishing of leaves sounded once again as the young prince came crawling out of the bushes. Looking over the nice clothes of the prince I could not help but shake my head at them.
"Take off your coat and overshirt. Leave only your white shirt." Calling out to the prince I motioned for him to hurry.
Watching the expression of the prince change was rather odd as his previous scared face turned to one of worry as he looked at me and his clothes.
'What is he worried about?'
"Wwwwhy, do you want me to do that? I am fine like this, aren't I? I don't want to take off my clothes." The voice of the prince told me all I needed to know about why he had such an expression.
Smacking my hand against my face I said, "The Rose Kingdom insignia is too easy to spot. If we want to travel even one percent safer, we need to get rid of it."
"Ooooh okay. I will do as you say then." Looking over at the prince I noticed he was still hesitant to remove his clothes. Seeing this I took the hint and turned around so he could begin.
After a minute or so had gone by the prince called out to me, "I am done we can get going."
Turning back around I was surprised to see that the prince now looked to be a rather regular kid who was just wearing some expensive-looking pants. Knowing that I obviously could do anything about his eye-catching pants I just moved on.
"Let's go." Calling out to the prince I began moving past him into the forest.
"Where are we going?" The young voice of the prince sounded out from behind me as I heard his feet scurry to join me.
"The capital? Right?" Just saying this I continued forward out of the small line of trees.
"Haha. That is really funny. I meant what are we going to do since those people will be waiting for us?" Calling out once again from behind me the young prince tugged at my shirt.
Moving his hand away from my shirt I merely shrugged my shoulders and continued forward.
In doing this I really had no bad intentions as what I had said was mainly true. I did not know what we going to do or how we could get into the capital without being caught beforehand.
Continuing till I stood before the slope of the train tracks, I once more climbed back to the top. As I got to the top of the tracks, I looked back to see the progress of the young prince only to notice that he had just slipped and was now tumbling down the side of the slope. Seeing this I could not help but chuckle to myself as I looked downwards at the defeated prince.
Watching the young prince throw a small fit at the bottom of the slope I watched on as he once again ran up the steep slope. I called out for him, "Hurry your highness."
After slipping once more he wiped himself off and then looked at me with a rather annoyed face as he once again began climbing the slope this time without fail. Now joining me on the tracks I lead him forward as I had been before.
A couple of minutes went by as we moved down the railway in complete silence. Breaking this silence was the young voice of the prince.
"Sir, I forgot to even ask your name. May I know it that way I can know who my savior is?" Hearing these words, I could not help but pull out a small grin as the voice of the young prince sounded very sly. Had it been anyone else with less life experience they maybe would have given the name immediately to the nice acting prince.
'It must be due to me teasing him so much.' Looking over the sly demeanor of the prince I chose a different approach.
"I will answer your question if you answer one of mine," I responded still leading us down the tracks.
Taking in my words I could feel the slight hesitation of the young prince behind me as he did not answer right away. After walking for a couple more meters he finally responded.
"That is fine ask away."
"Why did those people want to take you?"
"Ah!"
*thud*
Turning back, I looked down at the young prince who had gotten himself a face full of gravel from the train tracks. His gaze soon met my own as he looked up from the ground but quickly moving, he picked himself up off the ground.
"Ahem. They wanted to take me because I am worth a lot to my parents The King and Queen." The young prince spoke out quickly as if hiding something.
Smiling with my boney teeth I shook my head at the prince. "I doubt it."
Placing my hand onto the shoulder of the prince I looked him dead in the eyes with my eye empty sockets. As I did this the young prince bent backward trying to stay away from my scary appearance.
"If they wanted to send a message to your parents then they would have just killed you and there would have been no chance for you to escape. So, I will ask you one more time, or I will leave you here and you can try to find a way back alone." Gripping the shoulder of the prince I spoke out directly trying to show him that I may be serious about leaving him.
Hearing my words, the eyes of the prince widened, and his body began to lightly shake.
"No don't leave me. Please. I will tell you. Just please don't leave me." The prince fell down to his knees as he grabbed ahold of the hand I had on his shoulder and began holding it within his own hands.
'I guess he really is still just a small child.' Seeing the small boy of no more than thirteen on his knees made me feel a little uncomfortable but I sucked in such emotions as I had to figure out what situation I was stuck in.
"Tell me then."
"I was supposed to stay with my uncle the Grand Duke in the south for a couple of weeks learning the sword arts from him. But my visit was cut short by an unexpected meeting that was held by all the human clans in the south. After this meeting Uncle came straight to my room telling me how I had to go back to the Capital to see my father. But before I left his residence, he trusted me with an important letter for my father. He told me it was a matter of national security and thus had to send me back to the capital early. No one was supposed to know I was coming back to the capital and as my uncle wanted it to be a secret, he sent me with a small team of guards. But as our group moved into a small forest our carriages were overtaken by the Frogolians you heard. They came from everywhere and fought ferociously with all my guards leaving me no chance but to try and escape. Then as I ran, I saw you up on the tracks and after that, you know." The prince retold his previous actions as he stayed kneeling on the floor.
*sigh*
Letting out a soft sigh I nodded my head at the story as it made sense considering I already knew what was happening in the south. "Show me the letter." Speaking out to the kneeling boy I stared at him to see what he would do.
Reacting to my words the young prince immediately let go of my hand and moved his hands to cover his stomach area.
Seeing the part of his clothing he was covering I could not help but think about why the Grand Duke would send such a small kid to deliver something that was so important. As if guessing that I found where he hid the letter the young prince moved away from me trying to create some distance between us.
Knowing that I could probably not get the letter unless I killed the prince I just gave up on the idea and would just settle for knowing the story.
"Fine. I won't ask you about it, but you should not tell anyone else you have such a thing until we get back to the capital and you hand it to your father." Helping the prince back up onto his feet I turned away from him and returned to walking down the tracks.
"Wait."
Hearing the voice of the prince I turned to see what he wanted.
"Your name?"
'Ah, I forgot.' Thinking to myself for a little bit I turned back around and continued walking.
"He…" The prince was about to say something when it was cut off by my own voice.
"Mikael Fe'i."
As I moved across the train tracks, I could hear the mumbling of the prince's voice behind me, "Fe'i…Fe'i."
Choosing to ignore the boy's mumbles I kept a lookout for anything that may be of danger to us. Walking under the moonlight for another hour did not go unanswered this time as off in the distance I could spot the slight appearance of man-made light.
"A small town." Happy I called out the sight right away.
Hearing my words, the prince who was just walking behind me ran up to my side to get a closer look and as he did, he also called out, "It is a town. We should go there so we can sleep and clean up."
Looking down at the boy I put on a rather blank expression as if telling him to shut up and as if recognizing this look the young prince closed his mouth.
"We have to clear the town first. Who knows if there are any of those frogmen waiting in the town for us? We can't just stroll in and expect no one to notice our presence in such a small town." I said as I began to walk to the edge of the tracks sliding back down the slope.
Without saying a word, I listened as the young prince followed right after me also sliding down the hill. Now heading for the town, I made sure to find a good place for us to scout out the entrance of the town.