To Catch a King

The morning they left was freezing. To Jask, whoever kidnapped the prince picked the wrong time to do it, since winter was quickly approaching and every day would soon be glacial. Already, she was wearing her standard thieving uniform under layers of warm clothing. Since she wasn’t much of a conversationalist, she and Andreas didn’t speak much, only saying hello to each other when meeting up with Lukas at the stables before they left.

Leaving Hena was much easier than Jask had expected. Once the guards at the gate saw her and Andreas’ pin, they were let through without a single search. Who knew what they would have done if she wasn’t wearing a pin and they knew that she was the bandit that everyone called “Ghost”.

She glanced over at Andreas. Clearly, he wasn’t used to the cold. The way he layered himself up showed that it was so. She remembered that during the briefing, it was revealed that he grew up on the coast in a Native village that was protected by treaties from when the country of Ferilis was first claimed and colonized.

“So you’re the infamous Ghost?” he asked, noting that she was staring. Thankfully, Jask’s dark skin didn’t show that she was blushing at being caught staring.

She nodded.

“Hm,” he said, looking forward. “I’ve heard about you back at home. Surprisingly, news from Hena regularly comes to Talehaven. There have been regular news of your…exploits and my family loves it.”

Jask raised an eyebrow. His attempt at conversation wasn’t the best, concerning it was about her, but it was welcome. She was sure that it would be awkward if the two of them were on a mission together, but they didn’t know that much about each other. And if they didn’t talk to each other at all.

“You don’t speak much, do you?” he asked. He pulled his horse in front of hers. Looking back, she could see that they were still within the gates. If the guards were still watching, they’d think something was wrong, and probably send Lukas out to see what was going on. She looked at Andreas.

“No,” she said. Since he was so surprised, he let her pass without comment. She observed the fields in front of her. They reached nearly as far as the eye could see, with the edge of the forest several miles of the west. She knew that beyond the forest lied Daemis, which she was sure they would gather more supplies. They were going nearer to the coast, nearer to where Andreas was supposedly raised, and then on to Challus. In Challus, they would once again restock, since it was nearly a week away from the nearest village. From then on, they would have to try their best to find Prince Victor.

She knew that there would be no way that Prince Victor could be found in a month. She just hoped that the queen, Lukas, and Andreas realized it. With how big Ferilis was, looking in one village would take at least three days, and that was if she didn’t break any crimes while there.

Andreas stared after the thief, still a bit surprised that she spoke. Her silence wasn’t something he could get used to; he grew up in a family full of chattering girls, with Talehaven more like a huge, constant family reunion where everyone spoke to each other. The men in the military always spoke, even if the person they were talking to didn’t want to be spoken to. In short, everyone spoke. He expected at least a little bit of conversation with Jask.

And she only said one word to her since they started traveling.

He spurred his horse on to catch up to her and didn’t say anything else. By the end of the day, they had reached the edge of the forest. Because Jask was clearly uncomfortable in the open fields, Andreas led her a bit inside of the forest, making sure to guide her to the nearest river and tether the horses to let them rest.

He observed the forest around them. Some of the features were familiar; when making his way to Hena after graduating from the Academy four years ago, he had made his way through this exact forest. Plenty of times since then on his days off, he had entered the forest for to hunt, fish, and gather medicinal herbs, not trusting the medicine in the city.

He knew that there was a mark in the tree that he had tethered the horses to, and that near the tree were some hunting weapons hidden in an abandoned foxhole. Ignoring that for the moment, he helped Jask start a small fire before heading to the river to refill their water flasks and gather his weapons. Looking back at Jask, he could see that she was busy finishing making camp. He had a bit of time to go hunting, since he knew that sooner or later she would ration the food.

After Jask started the fire, she took their materials out of the horse’s packs and started to ration it. According to what Andreas had said before they left, it would take at least four days to get through the forest to Daemis. There were two of them and Jask was pretty sure that Andreas ate at least three meals a day while she was limited to two. And that was if they were going in the right direction. If it actually did happen, Jask was more than happy to have Andreas come along. Before that day, Jask had never left Hena. She was raised in the streets and alleyways; she knew how to navigate buildings better than she knew how to navigate nature. Andreas’ hunting skills could help them survive if something ever happened to them in the forest.

After rationing out their supplies, Jask started to cook the meat and finish setting up camp. It wasn’t hard because they had no way of setting up shelter. There were only two rolled up cots that had thick blankets sewn onto the top, some weird invention that Lukas apparently came up with to help soldiers who had to sleep with shelters. He just called them sleeping mats, and from what she had seen when in the palace, they were extremely popular and Lukas made a lot of profits from the invention.

When finished, she sat and watched the meat, waiting for Andreas to come back He’d been gone for a while, and since the meat was finished cooking, she tore off a small piece of bread, a tiny bit of cheese, and ate it with her meat.

Andreas returned soon after, carrying a small deer. From what she could see (since he was dragging the deer by the hind legs), it was a doe. Grunting, she stood up and helped him drag it by the fire. There, she watched him carefully skin, gut, and messily behead the dead animal before taking the untouchables to the river and dropping them in. When he came back, he began to slice the meat up, salt it, skewer it, and put it above the fire. After a while, she couldn’t watch anymore and went out into the woods to throw up. There was only so much she could see when the food she’d be eating for the next few days was being prepared.

Since the deer took a while to cut up, Andreas decided to speak.

“We need a plan,” he said, looking straight at Jask.

She glanced at the deer he was currently cutting up and then at him. He could tell that she was disgusted, but he wasn’t bothered. Hunting and skinning animals was something that he had long ago gotten used to, so it didn’t bother him. He looked over at the deer’s pelt, knowing that he could sell it in Daemis, and then back at Jask.

She nodded. He figured that she wouldn’t say anything at all, so continued. “Lukas was wrong when he said it would take about four days—not including this one—to get to Daemis. It’s only going to take two. I’m going to push us as far as we can so we can minimize the amount of time it takes to finish our mission. That means we’re going to go without a few breaks for a while.” He could see Jask’s expression darken in disagreement. He knew that it wasn’t fair to her that they had to quicken their pace; obviously she had never searched for someone or something before, had never left Hena. It was plain to see.

“Once we reach Daemis, we’re going to sell that deer pelt over there and get more supplies. We’ll search for information there before leaving. Once we get out of Daemis, we’ll figure out something else. Are you okay with that?” He inwardly cringed, knowing she wasn’t. Surprisingly, though, she nodded. He faked a smile. “Alright, then. I’ll ration up the deer meat if you want to take a quick bath in the river.” Jask nodded and stood up, leaving soon after.

As soon as she was out of earshot, he groaned. He knew that he had taken over as being the default leader although the two of them were a duo. He’d formulated a plan and only asked how she felt about it afterwards, never taking into account if she wanted to add in anything. He felt like banging his head against a tree. Him taking the role at as leader, even when he wasn’t, was something that his teachers back at the academy and his father had commented on. They had both said the same thing: everyone is a leader, and one set person can’t lead an entire group.

Slowly, he divided up the remainder of the skewered meat, wrapped it in leaves that he knew were edible, and put them in the pack that he was going to keep near him. When Jask finished bathing, he would apologize for taking over, but the plan would still be in effect. They would still wake before dawn, quickly make their way through the forest, and camp right before sundown. The next day, they would do the same and reach Daemis right before nightfall. He gathered extra wood to put on the fire and ate the meat, bread and cheese Jask had left out for him.

There was a rustling in the bushes and Jask stepped out, wearing a tunic and trousers, her daggers stuck in a belt. She put her clothes in her traveling pack—he heard the clank of metal and was sure that she had more weapons—and got into her sleeping cot. Right before she turned over to avoid facing him, he cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry for just making the plan without your consent,” he said. “It was rude of me. I’ll take tonight’s watch; I don’t sleep much, anyway.”

Jask stared at him for a moment. She didn’t resent Andreas for taking over. She just thought he was a bit pushy. Maybe it was because he was a soldier and they were normally pushy, or maybe it was just his personality. While she didn’t like that he asked for her opinion after he had obviously thought of the plan, she soon got over it. She was normally a lone person with no one to rely on. She wasn’t equipped to survive in places that wasn’t bustling with people, and after soaking in that freezing river she came to actually agree with what he said. That plan of his was for the best.

“You’re forgiven,” she replied, and turned over, immediately falling asleep.

The next day, nothing particularly special happened. Jask felt a bit more comfortable around Andreas, and they were pulling the horses through the forest with no problem. She had expected the terrain to be much unlike Amersen Fields, the large expanse of land they had to travel through to get to the forest. Instead, the forest floor was relatively flat, with occasional tree trunks gracing the ground. Of course, there were dead leaves covering the ground and the brisk cold winds were reminding both of the travelers that winter was near. Both of them had bundled up and made sure that the horses were properly warmed, fed, and packed after waking up and dispersing their camp.

Andreas skillfully led them through the forest, occasionally stopping to get medicinal plants that they might have needed on the journey and remarking on what was and was not edible. He greatly enjoyed being able to be in the forest again; it was his element. Being a child and running through forests with his father had been something that he had always loved. That, and the hunt. When he was smaller, he would catch rabbits and birds while his father caught deer, turkey, and the occasional wildcat.

Now that he was back in the forest, he felt freer than he did when he was back in Hena. He loved looking at the trees, displaying his tracking skills. When he thought about his tracking skills, though, he frowned. He had noticed that Lukas had put him and Jask on a set path, not giving them any leeway to search on their own. Basically, Lukas was leading them out of the country.

“Jask?” he called out, turning to face her. “Something isn’t right about this. Why didn’t Lukas give us our own way to look for Prince Victor?”

Jask shrugged. She hadn’t thought of that. All she wanted to do was find Victor, finish out her life as one of the Elite, and enjoy the money she had, sometimes thieving on the side since Elite Soldiers were least likely to be suspected of thievery. Lukas and his carefully thought out route for her and Andreas hadn’t crossed her mind.

“This is weird,” he said. This was more to himself. “Maybe when we get to Daemis, we can find some more information on Victor. We can pretend to be following Lukas’ route, but maybe we can deviate a bit. Since we’re going to Challus after Daemis, we can do more proper tracking there. Then…”

Jask ignored his muttering as they trudged on. While Andreas was too busy trying to figure things out, she could keep watch to make sure that they weren’t being followed. Unconsciously, her hand strayed to the dagger in the belt of her tunic. Better safe than sorry, her father used to say. She grimaced inwardly. Better safe than sorry…right. Being the oldest person to join a heist and then getting himself killed definitely wasn’t the safest thing her father had done.

Jask made sure they stayed within hearing distance of the river, remembering from a map of Ferilis that the river came out of the forest a mile or so from Daemis. She and Andreas walked on, and around mid-day she at a bit of cheese and a few of the edible berries Andreas pointed out to her. Andreas ate the meat that had been provided for them by Lukas, and some of his bread. Neither of them spoke to the other, too deep in their thoughts.

“Final night in the woods,” Andreas sighed to himself. Being in the woods would be something he would miss. From Daemis to Challus, there was only open land—meadows, actually. While rabbits and birds dwelled there, he would miss the trees that he wanted to climb, the crunch of the leaves beneath his feet, and the abundance of herbs that waited in the forest.

Jask, who was taking night’s watch, seemed to sigh in contentment. He could see how she was uncomfortable in the woods, but this forest wasn’t that bad. There were just a few animals that they needed to stay away from to keep safe.

Watching the sky through the leaf-barren trees, Andreas drifted off to sleep, dreaming of hunts in the forest, where he belonged.