Alana paces up and down the training area, her hands clasped behind her back as she gazes at the soldiers training. The sound of swords clashing reverberates around the room, but even that can't distract her from her own thoughts. She couldn't remove the words Vivian spoke to her earlier from her head, no matter how much she attempted to drown them out with the sound of her soldiers training.

It was a few moments later when Chase entered that she was successfully distracted from her thoughts. However, as she turns to her War Wolf, she finds his expression twisted into one of confusion.

"What's wrong Chase?"

"There is an Elf wandering the Kingdom wearing a blue dress and no shoes..."

Alana sighs heavily, and nods her head. "Yes, I know her. That is Vivian. She sent me a latter informing me she would come here. She spoke to me of a quest I needed to go on along with her, but for what I do not know?"

"And did you accept?"

Chase was expectant, and by his tone, Alana could tell Chase would have wanted her to accept it.

Alana shook her head. "Of course I did not accept it. I don't know what this silly quest is about. Besides, I have more important things to deal with here in Laanfier"

Chase is silent, though Alana can feel his displeasure.

"Chase, I am a princess; next in line for the throne. Not only that, but I am also the General of this Army. I can't just leave them. Who will be General in my place, hm? Who will train these newbies?"

"You should have asked what that quest is about. If an Elf walked all the way here to inform you of a quest, it must be of great importance"

Alana growls, her eyes ablaze. "Do not tell me what I should and should not have done. I have responsibilities, not that you would understand"

Chase shakes his head, but says nothing else as he exits the training area. Alana watches him leave with a guilty heart. She knows she shouldn't have snapped at him like that, and she knows she should have asked what the quest is about, but she feels as though it would cause her more stress knowing than not knowing, and she's already stressed enough...

:::

Jakob was essentially stuck up in his room for the last couple of days, not having the mental strength to do much else other than to mill around the castle and find little things to do such as help the staff as best as he could or do clean random parts of his room out of boredom.

Occasionally, he would pick up the book regarding Arraila's history; the same that had the painted portrait of the infamous Alana Flare. He'd been told of her few adventures since he was a little baby, though he never quite knew the reason why. Maybe it was to tell him that he should grow up to be a leader like her.

'Well, that plan severely backfired, didn't it?' Jakob thought bitterly, a huff escaping as he throws the book across the room.

He collapses onto his bed in an annoyed heap, groaning into his pillow. If only he was as strong as the fiery princess herself. Maybe then he could make his father proud.

That thought only lasted a few seconds until he realized how much he disliked his father in the first place. He gave up trying to impress his parents a long time ago, as it was like living in his own personal Underground trying to live up to the high expectations of his mother and father combined.

He rolls over onto his back, lying there staring at the ceiling of his dull blue-grey colored room for a few moments before a bird suddenly flies into his room. It's a beautiful shiny blue bird, chirping its little head off.

Jakob watches it fly around the room before it lands near him, and it's only then that the prince realizes it has a note attached. He snatches the note and unties the blue ribbon of which he recognizes as one of Vivian's. He carefully opens the note and reads it aloud to himself.

Dearest Jakob, my youngest friend,

A darkness is coming; a darkness that you will help defeat. I've already told another of my terrifying vision of the incoming danger, but upon reaching Laanfier, I've come to the realization that it will happen sooner than even I expected. You need to be ready. I know you feel as if you're worthless, but you will play a large role in slaying this darkness. I need you to make your way to the outskirts of Tandour using any means of transportation that you can. There you will meet a man named Wyntar and his closest friend Daevina. Be safe, my dearest friend.

Kind Regards, Vivian

He reads it over and over, his heart pounding. Surely she couldn't mean that...could she? Jakob mulls over it for a little while afterward, his head filled with questions that won't be answered until much, much later. Slowly, however, he did make his way over to the chest that was located in the far left corner from his bed, and carefully unlocked it and raised the lid.

Inside the chest was a dark blue cloak, a leather bound journal of which he hadn't written in since he was 10 years old and still had a large handful of pages left, two daggers and a fake identification. His parents had instructed him to NEVER open the chest until an emergency (and by emergency, they meant if they ever had to flee the kingdom under terrible circumstances), but upon reading Vivian's note several times to make sure he didn't miss any minor detail, he realized that this was, in fact, an emergency.

So, he carefully laid the possessions from the chest out on his bed, gazing over them before hiding both daggers in his newly washed boots, hiding the journal and fake identification in a little satchel he grabbed from under the bed and threw the cloak on after he put the satchel over his shoulder.

He then realized that he didn't have a plan of sneaking past the guards.

Jakob curses silently, glancing around the room. He could, possibly, risk going out the window using his blankets as a rope, though his bed was unfortunately not attached to te floor whatsoever and that would cause too much noise. He would simply have to just sneak past the guards and pray to any God or Goddess that was listening that he wouldn't be caught be neither the guards nor his fiery mother that was STILL angry with him for talking back to his father.

He took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly, before he opened the door, fully prepared to face the guards head on. However, upon exiting the room, he found there to be no guards stood outside his door. It was an odd sight to be met with no guards, but he didn't dwell on it for any longer as he made his way down the hallway, heading toward the downward spiraling staircase that the servants and maids use, and soon, he finds himself exiting the castle out the back way without any trouble.

He thought that was far too easy, but he continued his way to the road, where he would take a carriage as far as it would take him. He checks his satchel, wondering if he had any coins in there. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the familiar jingle of coins as he neared the carriages. He made way to the nearest one, asking the driver how close he would take him to Tandour.

"Aye, Tandour eh? I can get ya' as far as the outskirts lad, but that's as far as I dare go"

"That's perfect sir. How much?"

"Four large coins"

Jakob gulped. He had no idea how many coins he had, and upon taking the coins out of the satchel, he found he was one large coin short.

"Would you do this for three large and two small? It's all I have..."

The driver thought for a moment, before he agreed.

"Aye, that'll do lad"

Jakob smiled under the hood, hopping up beside the driver as it was just him traveling.

"Ah, may I ask ya...why Tandour?"

"I'm going to meet a very good friend of mine there" which wasn't a lie. "She and I are going to explore the kingdom, as neither of us have been outside our respective Kingdoms" now that was the biggest lie Jakob had ever told in his life, and he was suddenly very worried that the driver would not believe him.

Thankfully, the driver didn't seem to be very wise, and didn't ask another question. Then, off they were, making a steady pace towards the gate. Jakob then realized he would have to think of a plan to get past the guards there, because they would surely then know he was attempting to sneak away to the outskirts of Tandour.

Jakob gnawed on his bottom lip, making sure his hood covered his face as they inched closer to the gate. Jakob's breathing became harsher, his heartbeat stronger as the guards stopped them at the gate.

"Why is this ones face covered, hm?"

"Dunno, sir. He wanted ta' go to the outskirts 'a Tandour" the driver shrugs.

Jakob coughed, purposefully making his voice sound deeper as he says "I'm meeting a friend there. She and I have wanted to go to the kingdom of Tandour for a long time now sir"

The guard frowns. "So why the face covering?"

"I-I have horrible scars sir. I dare not allow anyone to see them"

The guard looks suspicious of Jakob for a moment, but seems to relax a bit and call for the other guards to let them pass through.

Jakob released a breath he didn't know he was holding as the pass under the thick iron gates that were lifted for them. He hears the loud creaking behind them as the gates were closed shut, and he feels his heart ease just a little more.

"Now lad, I hope ya have some sort of weapon concealed on ya person, b'cause we'll be travelin' along the winding roads of the Old Forest, and bandits will surely be lurkin' about"

The driver's words cause a heightened sense of dread to erupt in the pit of his stomach. The Old Forest was a forest located just outside of Thalaree's borders, and there was no way to travel around it. Legends say that the forest hasn't grown trees since the war a thousand years ago, and since then, the trees have only grown green-black leaves that blot out the sun. It's the closest thing to a second Alekro; the only difference being that the air, though inhumanly cold, is actually breathable.

Jakob hopes that the daggers are enough to protect him, because he doesn't exactly want to die just yet...