"It's the last settlement!" The chief guard declared for formality's sake as he came out of a door that was barely holding on to its hinges.
An elderly man followed and went back inside after the team departed.
The Chief guard and the rest of his team moved a considerable distance away and gathered in front of the prince.
Damn it! The prince had been cursing endlessly in his heart.
After all, he'd been part of the inspection.
He looked up to the sky. Where was she?
There was a carriage waiting with two horses.
"Retire to your rooms," Prince Relik ordered without concealing the rancour in his tone, and disappeared into it.
Half of the team shifted into their werewolf forms and ran ahead.
Eventually, they reached the lodging that was provided for them in the fifth major clan.
"Shedrik and Finnick, come with me." The prince spoke, walking away.
As soon as his back was out of sight, the composure was shattered and the remaining team cursed to their heart's content.
Meanwhile, Shedrik and Finnick entered a dimly lit room.
As the prince began to undress, they respectfully turned their backs.
"Did you observe the guards as I instructed?" Relik asked quietly, watching himself through the mirror.
"Very carefully, my prince," Shedrik answered.
"Good. Replace the weak ones."
The chief guard didn't show his surprise.
Relik shed his outer robe, leaving only a thick black tunic. "Take some rest. We will descend the mountains tomorrow."
"What-" Finnick, the chief guard blurted.
"As my king commands!" Shedrik responded at the same time with bright enthusiasm.
The chief guard gritted his teeth and shot Shedrik a glowering look.
"Do you have a problem," Relik paused," Finnick?"
The aforementioned freed his jaw forcefully to answer. "No, my prince."
"Then, you're dismissed."
"As my prince wishes."
Finnick bowed and left.
"My prince?" At least, Shedrik waited for the door to close before rounding on him.
"Run my bath."
His personal aide jabbed a hand at the prince as he stated angrily. "You do it yourself."
"What will people do when the personal aides' maltreatment of his prince is revealed?" Relik deadpanned.
Shedrik went red in the ears. For a moment, he had the urge to knock Relik's teeth out.
"We'll..." Relik was about to affirm his order when his ears twitched.
The door burst open with a bang. A tall man entered with a boiling aura.
"Is it true?"
"Absolutely," Relik responded, regarding him.
Why wouldn't it be true?
Shedrik heard this internally and sucked down his annoyance.
Relik went to sit on the bed, looking bored. "I want a bath," he reiterated.
He was ignored.
"Why is that? I meant, why should we descend the mountains tomorrow? I thought we agreed to take a look at the place."
"Yes," Shedrik quipped in. "We have all the time in the world. You are-"
"Not anymore."
"What?"
"To the sentence you said before," Relik pursed his lips, "not anymore."
"Relik."
"Ander."
Ander looked dark.
Upon hearing this information from the guards, Relik had clearly made up his mind. And they hadn't even known upfront.
Relik rose from the bed, his tunic billowing around him. He picked up a letter bearing a crimson seal and flung it to Ander.
Ander caught it and unfolded it. Shedrik shuffled over to see.
As they read, their expressions mirrored one another, shifting from shock to disbelief, and then to unease and shock again.
"Thirty fucking years?" Ander complained, his voice laced with incredulity. Why wasn't this mentioned earlier?
Shedrik's face was pale as he asked, "How?"
Relik's eyes narrowed. "Did you not read the letter?" He asked Shedrik suspiciously.
"Why would I read the letter meant for the prince?" He rolled his eyes.
Ander's question came rapid-fire. "Who gave it to you?"
"The highest lord gave it to me personally," Shedrik replied.
"Have you confirmed it by invocation?" Ander rounded on Relik.
"I forgot my jewel stones," Relik told him, settling back in his bed.
"And you're planning to descend the mountains tomorrow?" Ander had never seen such audacity.
"Wait," Relik put his finger under his chin in fake thoughtfulness, "is Ander, son of Benit, the highest Lord of the first major realm afraid of creatures of the night?"
Ander scowled, unimpressed.
Shedrik's mouth curled in disapproval. "I saw that you were about to leave behind something so important, so I picked the jewel stones for you," he offered.
"Really?" Relik's face warmed. How did you manage it?
"It's not important. Confirm the decree with your father. I'll have someone send it to you."
As Shedrik turned away, Relik bellowed. "Run my bath!"
The aide's response was immediate. "As my prince wishes."
The door was closed with a soft click.
"My aide is getting stubborn," Relik whispered suggestively.
Ander barked. "Hold your tongue!"
Relik held back the laughter rumbling in his chest.
Ander paced the bedroom. His frustration threatened to burst out of his chest.
"Thirty years to find the princess? And they let you stay for seven years in seclusion, and we've wasted one year casually staring at the backs of women? We haven't even reached the largest realms yet."
A glint caught his eyes and he marched to where the territorial maps lay.
His eyes were distraught and his jaw, tense as he studied the region of Clawcrest.
The nightly creatures were rampant down the mountains and the inhabitant clans didn't have the luxury of completely securing their districts like those up above.
"Tomorrow, we might see our first blood warfare on our blades," Relik mused aloud.
His broadsword was propped by his bedside. The hilt twinkled in the dim light.
"We have our protective candles. We should practice our spells more," Relik added softly.
Ander faced him.
"I already told Shedrik to replace the weak guards. The highest Lord of the fifth clan will give us the supplies that we need."
With an unreadable face, Ander told Relik, "Excuse me."
And Relik was left alone. He sighed.
Almost immediately, a knock sounded on the door and a female voice announced that his bath was ready.
Relik chuckled and tried to reach Shedrik through his mind and felt that there was a barrier.
"..."
The bathwater was warm against his foot as it slowly sank in. The other one followed until Relik was immersed under the sweet-scented liquid. He leaned back and closed his eyes in deep thought.
Where was his betrothed? Did her mother not know that she was crucial to the territory?
Or, was she not happy that the Moonlight princess was fated to the werewolf prince?
The moonlight princess, by the Silver's moon's reappearance, was supposed to be nine years of age.
She should bear the mark of the moon on her back.
Either, she was hiding or someone was hiding her.
Was she hurt? Relik opened his eyes at the thought and sat up.
"The news has been sent out to all realms, and you haven't come out yet," he muttered to himself.
Could it be that she was born with a defect? Perhaps, blind?
Or her family were from the most remote areas?
At dusk, Relik did as Shedrik asked and invoked the power of the jewel stones to establish a communication pathway with his father.
By the end of a peaceful discussion, he felt conflicted.
The letter didn't lie.
At the crack of dawn, the prince, his aide, five guards including the chief guard and five soldiers rode out of the fifth major clan.
The tall mountains loomed closer, their peaks shrouded in the white clouds.
They arrived at mid morning. At the clearing, the band circled the area carefully. The rocky terrain illustrated in the territorial map was an understatement.
There was only a path that allowed the passage of two horses at a time.
Flanking the path at both sides were all kinds of rocks, the small and mighty. Some steeped, huddling beside themselves and teetering precariously like they would soon fall.
Some reached out like claws, poised and ready to strike the unsuspecting iindividual.
Squirming with discomfort, Relik understood why this region was called Clawcrest.
Shedrik rode up to him. Relik gave him a meaningful glance.
"We rest here," Shedrik announced.
After an hour, the group continued their journey with the prince in lead.
Shedrik and the chief guard followed behind.
A storm of dust was kicked up by the pounding of horses' hooves. The dry air was mixed with minuscule rocks.
Their faces suffered.
However, they pressed on, determined to reach the foot of the mountains by nightfall.
The path ahead was the only way out. There were no detours.
Deep into the mountains, Relik's horse slowed abruptly.
"Damn it, move! You ahh-"
It was sheer luck that saved Relik from being thrown off as the horse reared up, its hooves pounding the air.
"What's gotten into you?" The horses in the back almost bumped into each other at this abrupt halt.
Relik held the ropes like a lifeline as the ground tilted below him.
"We need to cover a long distance before nightfall. What's with your horse?" Shedrik grumbled bitterly, and coughed.
The dust was thickening by this racket.
The chief guard stared ahead with a grim face. "Silence!"
The horse continued to stir, so Relik palmed a hand on its hump, raised it and landed it with force.
The animal made a pitiful noise, but before its legs buckled, Relik had already teleported to its side. He supported it so it wouldn't be wounded.
The dust dived straight through his nose to his lungs. He heaved and coughed. His eyes stung.
His chin raised to the horizon.
"..."
A small dark figure was blurred by the haze of the setting sun.
Relik's heart lurched violently as the unmistakable stench hit him.
"Is that a nightly creature?" Shedrik asked shakily as he tried to focus his tunnel vision.
The ominous silence answered.
The stench became stronger, overpowering their senses.
More figures appeared over the mountains, cutting off the path forward.
Fear gripped Relik's heart.
He had never seen them this closely before and so clearly.
He now knew two things.
Nightly creatures in Clawcrest rose before nightfall.
And he'd led them right to the centre.