Out in the woods the sun was rising slowly. Svetlana had been awake most of the night, keeping the fire kindled. Hildegard was still sleeping but was restlessly turning around which Svetlana assumed was due to her nightmares.
She didn't feel great about letting Hildegard go through her nightmares for the sake of finding Prince Fried, but until they heard back from Rickard and Boris, this could be their only lead.
Svetlana looked absentmindedly into the centre of the fire, hypnotised by how it lost brightness with every passing moment the sun made it further over the horizon. Eventually she could see the flame no more and could only confirm the fire by the soft warmth that occasionally kept the morning humidity at bay.
A moment of serene silence was broken by a hawk cry echo above her in the tree tops. It was distant at first but became louder and clearer quickly. The hawk made every attempt to be noticed, though it was hoping most of all to be notice by Svetlana specifically.
Svetlana reached into her backpack and pulled out a smoke flare, which she then promptly launched into the air for the hawk to follow. Though the flare itself was silent, it woke Hildegard from her nightmare.
"What's going on?" Hildegard in a rush, "How is it morning already? You didn't wake me for guard duty!"
"Never mind that now," Svetlana said while looking up, "There is a messenger hawk in the sky, it's probably news from Rickard and Boris."
Svetlana was somewhat pleased that the urgency of the situation allowed her to avoid explaining herself to Hildegard.
Without delay the hawk flew down, following the smoke signal and swiftly landing on Svetlana's arm. She removed the message tied to its legs and read it to herself before summarising it's content.
"Rickard found a book that will help us, and he's on the way to meet us with it now. He's told us he wants us to meet him near the south side of the forest and he's included a rough sketch of whereabouts we should meet."
Svetlana inspected the map, raised an eyebrow, then handing over the sketch to Hildegard. She in turn did the same. The map certainly was rough.
"Unfortunately," Svetlana then continued, "We seem to have lost Boris. He says he's likely alive but we don't know when we would be able to reach him again. He's apparently coming by carriage, he doesn't suppose we'll have difficulty finding him."
Svetlana avoided mentioning the last part of the message: We were not alone in that library.
"Let's have breakfast and head out," Svetlana suggested, "If we do we should be able to reach that area in the afternoon."
Hildegarde nodded in agreement then immediately started rummaging through her belongings for the remaining loaf go bread.
"You seemed to be having nightmares again," Svetlana brought up in an attempt to change the subject, maybe even pry for information, "What did you dream of this time?"
Hildegard broke the last piece of bread in half then handed one over to Svetlana.
"I dreamt of a strange coloured desert," Hildegard eventually began, "I was alone for most of it, but I think I saw the prince."
Svetlana stopped herself midway raising the bread up to her mouth.
"Is he alright?" Svetlana said quickly, "Did you get to talk to him? Where is he?"
Hildegard shook her head and sighed.
"No," She started before pausing for a moment, "I think it was him, but every attempt at getting closer just had him taken further away from me. I even tried to run at him to get closer, but he just got sucked into the ground away from me."
Svetlana chewed her bread pensively.
"Something is definitely actively keeping us from finding him, we must be on the right tracks."
Svetlana got up with a renewed vigour.
"We should head out as soon as we can," Svetlana added, "I want to get to this place before Rickard does."
She pointed at the rough map with a look of confusion and a sprinkle of disgust. Hildegarde tried to hide a smile but nodded in agreement.
They both got up, and each assumed a job, Svetlana readied the horses while Hildegarde put out the fire. Before long they had packed up and were riding on horseback through the forest heading southward.