The night was calm and the Castle was quiet, everyone was sound asleep…
Except for one hooded figure riding at full speed out through the Castle-gates, the figure rode a beautiful chestnut horse with golden mane and tail. The person had a hood over his head, but if anyone was awake, they would see glimpses of white hair and eyes, blue as a frozen sea.
The rider nudged his horse to run faster, the horse obeyed it's rider's orders and galloped over the huge fields into the dark forest surrounding the Castle.
It was hard to see in the darkness, the only light being the shining from the moon high above the two. This not being a problem for the running beings, both knowing the forest better than anyone else.
After galloping for what felt like forever, the rider slowed the horse to a calm trot, before they came to a slow walk.
"Sorry for pushing you like that Girl..." a young male voice broke the silents, "I just had to get away from that prison." The mare neighed as if to forgive her master. The young man laughed softly and petted her under the mane.
"You always knows how to make me feel better, don't you Girl?" the horse neighed again and shook her head.
The two walked further and further into the forest, deep enough for the moon not to reach their sight, a branch snapped to their left and the mare stopped.
"What's wrong Wind?" the boy's head snapped into focus as another sound was heard.
"Let's get out of here" and they were of again.
With almost no light it was harder to see in front of them, the boy's hood fell, revealing a young pale face, snow white hair and a pair of sharp blue eyes. He looked behind them when another sound was heard, he quickly turned his head foreword when noting was visible.
But not fast enough to notice the thick rope tied between two trees, before it made contact with his chest and threw him out of the saddle.
"Ahh-" he lost his breath for a second when his small body made contact with the hard ground
"W-Wind" he gasped, trying again after he regained his breath again, this time louder. The chestnut mare still didn't show, apparently to spooked to hear. "WIND" he called and tried to stand, a sharp pain in his side stopped him.
"Great. Just great." he said to himself "Can this day get any worse?!" there was a rumble in the bushes ahead of him, he froze and scooted backwards and held his breath when-
A small rabbit jumped out and ran away when it saw the boy. He sighed loudly but panicked when something was pulled over his head. He screamed and trashed to get away from whoever it was that trapped him.
"Ya sure it's him?" he head a rough male voice
"Of course I'm sure. Didn't you see his hair?" another answered, this one a little softer but high pitched. "It's the right brat, and believe me. When we tell the King we have him he'll pay one hell of a price."
"Like hell you will!" the boy shouted and kicked the man behind him, struggling himself free despise his hurt side, and threw the item from his head. He took a good look at his ambushes, one was big and beefy, and the other was thinner and muscular. The big one almost growled and pulled out a dagger.
"We need him alive" was all the thinner man said, the big one chuckled
"I'll just teach the brat a lesson"
"Bring it on" the boy whispered with a smirk, he reached for the thin silver sword attached to his left hip. Before the man attacked.
The boy crouched low to avoid the dagger and slashed the man's arm with his own sword, the man cried out and clutched his now bleeding arm,
"Ya little shit!" he growled "Ya'll pay for that!" he went for the boy again, this time with a new tactic. Instead of going high, he went low.
'How predictable' the boy smirked and braced for the low blow, but the moment he lowered his sword, he was hit in the face with a hard fist- with a lot of strength behind.
He lost his balance and almost fell to the ground, however- a hand grabbed hold of the front of his tunic and threw him headfirst into a tree. His vision was blurry for a second and he could feel something warm run down his forehead. "Urgh..." he was grabbed again before he fully regained his sight and was slammed into the ground for a second time that night. He cried out in pain and heard two voices chuckling above him.
"Not so cocky now, are ya brat?"
"If you're done playing around, maybe we could get going."
"Not yet, I wanna have a little fun with 'im first.." The man pinned him down and held his arms above his head and he felt a thin strap around both his wrists
"Get OFF!" he growled
"This is what happens when ya mess with us brat" the man said and pulled out his dagger, this time putting the sharp point against the smallers chest. The boy panicked and struggled to get away, "Don't move, it'll only hurt more" then the tip easily sliced through the thin tunic and dug into skin, slowly being dragged down towards his stomach. The boy cried out and trashed underneath the much bigger male, he could feel tears collecting in his blue eyes and saw blood running down his front. He had a hard time registering anything after that, he only noticed when a new voice was heard.
"Oi! Wha's goin' on here?" a man emerged from the trees and run to the two men, he knocked the big one away from the boy and focused on the other one, "What th'ell do ya think yer doin'?!" he growled, talking a protective stance in front of the injured boy, who now had tears freely running down his pale cheeks while he struggled to get his breathing under control
"Non of your business. Now, step aside and no-one will be hurt." the thin one said, the new man reacted badly to his response'
"As if no one already hasn't" he growled and attacked the two, after a lot of hitting and kicking the two men retreated.
He cursed as he knelt down to the now- unconscious boy, he has a gash on his forehead and the slice-mark would get infected of it wasn't taken care of. At least the boy breathed regularly now.
-0-
The Boy's PoV
The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the unbearably pain on my chest, it felt like it was on fire! I also had a headache, silently praying I didn't have a concussion.
"Good, yer awake" A voice said, My eyes shot open and I sat up- or was about to if my chest wouldn't have protested
"Easy there kid, yer fine. Yer safe" the voice was calm and soothing
"Wh- Who are you? Where am I?" I asked the man- he was tall, had tanned skin and blue-gray hair. He wore a dark green tunic along with gray pants and brown boots. When he turned to me I saw that he also had a thick brown bracelet on each wrist and tattoos on his arms, looking like nothing I've seen before, it looked like some kind of tribal markings. And his eyes was really green.
"Ah'm Aster, I took ya into my hut to heal. Wha's your name?" the man named Aster asked
"Jack." I answered shortly, not needing him to know anything more. Aster nodded and asked another question when I said nothing more,
"What were ya doing out there? Those two lugs didn' seem very friendly, so ah guess they weren't with ya." He looked at my now bare chest wrapped in a white bandage.
"I-I was out riding, I had an argument with my father.." which was kind of true,"And then I hit something and fell of my horse an- My Horse! WIND! I got- I gotta find her!" I panicked, only now remembering my chestnut mare. I tried to get up from the bed I was lying on when a strong hand held me down.
"If yer horse is a brown mare then she's fine" he reassured
"Sh- she's safe?"
"Yeah, she's in ma barn, Ya can see her once yer wound is better" he calmly said.
'Thank the Moon she's safe' I thought when another thought entered my head
"How long was I out?"
"Couple of hours, sun's soon rising."
"I have to get back home, or someone's gonna notice I'm gone" I sat up again, this time much slower and with the help of Aster,
"Fine, ah don' like ya up and about just yet. But ah'll come with ya, where do ya live?" he asked and handled me my blue tunic and dark cloak.
"Um, by the Castle of Moons." I answered
"Good, then we'll be there before the sun sets."
-0-
When I had reunited with my beloved horse we took of. I insisted that I would be fine on my own, and that he wouldn't have to come with the whole way, but Aster only snorted and said "Yeah, 'cus that went perfectly good last time ya did." or ignored me and kept walking.
After hours of walking, and even more time just sitting still because "Yer not supposed to be walking at all yet, ya need to rest yer wound." we finally arrived at the Castle.
"I can get back from here. Thank you so much for everything. I wouldn't had made it on my own, I owe you my life." I said with an honest smile.
"Yer welcome kid, just promise me ya'll stay indoors when it's dark 'kay?" I nodded and led Wind through the Castles huge gates, I left her at the stables after taken care of her and her equipment, before walking towards the Castle.
At the port, a boy- two years older than myself- came running towards me.
"Jack! Where the hell have you been? North and Tooth have been worried sick! And what happened to your head?"
"Don't worry Jamie, I just hit a branch, I just took a nightly ride." I tried with a smile
"You have been gone all last night and all day. You know I can read you like a book, we'll talk later, just so you know. Right now the King wishes to see you."
I groaned "I should have guessed. Guess I see you tonight then."
"If he let's you go that easily" I turned away from my best friend and walked through the ports whispering to myself;
"He won't be able to stop me"
-0-
Outside the great doors that I know led to the great hall and the throne room, I stood for a minute before pulling myself together and opened the doors.
There he sat, on his huge silver throne with a crown on his head. The King over the entire Moon Kingdom. The hall was full of other royals, no one even close to posses the power the King held. Everyone turned their heads to look at me when I entered.
The King looked at me with his blank face, never once pulling a muscle, I felt small compare to him and his power. But still I held my head high and met his gray eyes with my own blue ones.
"You wanted to speak to me." I started with a calm voice, then it dropped slightly with venom as I called him the one thing I hated the most about him,
"Father..."