The sound of a steady trot was the only thing that echoed out into the still forest. As the horse, with a dark coat to match his master's hair, made its way tiredly through the forest. The Prince frowned and petted his friend's neck in something of an apology, as he walked by its side, leading the grand animal through the trees, whilst simultaneously playing with the hood that had been specially crafted for this mission. The raven came to an abrupt stop as he grit his teeth in guilt. He was forced to dig his feet into the ground to prevent himself from turning back to take one last look at the castle in the distance, his home. It pained him to leave, and he didn't want to cause his parents or anyone worry about him, but he needed to do this. For the good of his future, and his parents'. But he doubted they'd understand his need to do this. Only Ultear knew something about his thought process, and she had promised to give him a couple days' head start, before telling his parents and helping in the inevitable search for the runaway Prince.

"Sorry…" He whispered, wistfully to the night. And though Ackerman couldn't understand his Master's grief, the majestic equine did nudge his friend in some kind of reassurance that he wasn't alone. Looking into his horse's deep but warm eyes, Gray leaned his forehead against his partner's and closed his eyes to breathe in the comfort that the beast was offering him. Though, he couldn't get himself to say the words of gratitude, he trusted that the sensitive animal accepted it regardless. When he opened his eyes, he begrudgingly pushed strength into his veins and tugged his horse onwards, towards their future.

When Gray woke up that morning, there was a certain urgency to the air. But it wasn't one that Gray hadn't felt before - and it brought a small smile to the drowsy raven's lips as he immediately recognised that his cousin must have organised an unprompted meeting, again, as he heard the exasperated conversations of the servants that rushed through the halls. His dark eyes gleamed as he looked out the window at the cool morning that was coming to fruition before him. Stretching until he was on his back, he sighed quietly as he faced another day where he had to just barely gulp down any and all emotions and fears. Well… maybe that wasn't true, he knew that he could always talk to Ultear.

Clambering off the bed, the still half-asleep Prince wandered into his ensuite bathroom - or, as close to a bathroom as you would find in this time period. Smiling, when he saw that two buckets of hot water had already been prepared whilst he slept, he stripped out of his bed-robes and took a seat on the stool that hovered by the drain that was attached to his bathroom, and began to clean himself. Afterwards, the raven-haired prince came out of the bathroom, scrubbing his hair with a cloth in attempt to dry it somewhat. He opened his closet door and began to pick out some of his nicer - and more comfortable - clothes. When he was satisfied, he fixed his hair, opened the window to let some of the early Autumn air into his room, and finally left his sleeping chambers.

He made his way quietly down two flights of stairs, an air of hesitance hovered over him, as he collected himself and tried to banish the thoughts of his failure the previous night. Entering the dining room, he bowed a greeting towards his parents, waiting patiently for his Father's usual grunt that roughly translated into: 'Welcome, sit.'. Nodding his appreciation, Gray knelt down at the opposite end of the chabudai to his mother, and after a moment or two, he risked a glance up at his parents. His Father seemed to be somewhat hung over, whilst his Mother was all too obviously forcing a gentle smile onto her lips. Flinching inwardly, Gray bowed his head once more in apology, desperate to say the words out loud but unable to, due to the restriction that he had always been under - speak only when spoken to.

He sensed the servants leaving the room, to allow the royals some privacy and he knew that he had disappointed his parents beyond what he had originally realized.

"I'm sorry." He dared to whisper under his breath, as he stared down at the chabudai.

"I don't understand what the problem is, Gray." His Father sighed, sounding more tired than anything, but there was still a hint of uneasiness in his voice that concerned the Prince far more than it would normally. Because normally, that tone of voice was directed at some kind of conflict or matter that usually didn't involve him. "There were multiple women that attended the ball last night that would've made wonderful brides. So I don't know why you can't just pick one and settle down. Do you know how bad it makes our reputation look, now that we have failed to find you a bride after two gala's with that very purpose?"

"I understand that I made a mistake last night, and I'm truly sorry for what the embarrassment that I've brought to our family." Gray shuffled back a few paces, and bowed to his father in a sign of his dearest means of atonement.

"I don't understand how you could be blind to the women that were there last night." His Mother sighed, her voice lacking the anger of his Father's, but there were still negative emotions twirling beneath her flat tone. "But out of all the women that offered themselves to be your bride, I saw so much love for you. I didn't see any of that greed that you spoke of."

Whilst his face was hidden by his arms as he was still bent over, trying to win back his parents' forgiveness, his expression broke free of the still, cool exterior that was expected from royals, and it formed one of shock and revelation. Had he missed something? Had he been expecting the greed that was inevitable from some nobles so much that it blinded him to some form of genuine care that had actually been there last night? Had he really messed up that badly?

"Rise, Gray." His Father sighed, clearly able to sense the guilt and despair that was coming off his son in heaps. As the Prince steadily rose into a kneeling position once more, he fixed his visage, but still didn't dare look the King in the eye. "We'll discuss this again later." Sympathy finally broke into the King's voice, almost sounding like he wanted to scoop his son up into a hug and forgive him. And even though there would be no one but the Queen to witness it, his Father still restrained himself, no matter how much he wanted to let the issue go.

"Onto other news," The Queen's voice rose into her steady and confident tone, and soon servants flooded into the room and breakfast was being served, almost as if on cue. "Your cousin has decided to make a visit to us this afternoon."

Barely able to keep up with the sudden change of mood, Gray paused for a second as his brain clicked into this newest point of discussion. Settling back down at the chabudai, Gray copied his parents as they picked up their chopsticks and began to dig into the dish, which consisted of steamed rice, miso soup, grilled fish and various other side dishes.

"Yes, I figured that was what was happening." The raven forced a smile onto his face, though he was genuinely happy about the chance of being able to see Ultear and her husband, Lyon, once more.

By the time that the sun had risen, both Gray and his horse were completely exhausted. It hurt to put one foot in front of the other and they were both struggling. Groaning, as they began the ascension of one last hill, they began the final stretch to the tiny village of Myrtle. When the pair finally reached the top, there was a collective sigh of relief that passed between the two royals. Leading the dark horse into the town, the Prince rubbed at his tired eyes and adjusted his hood over his face and tried to avoid eye contact with as many people as possible.

"Excuse me?" He grumbled quietly to a person who was running a stall for fruit. Still keeping his head down, Gray tried to make it look like a sign of respect to the large man with the intimidating scar by his eye.

"What do you want?" The man responded, his voice was more impatient than annoyed though, which relieved the hidden Prince.

"Is there a stable in this town?" Gray asked.

"Yes there is. Take the first left and it's at the end of the road." The stall-runner replied. "You're new to town?"

"I'm just passing through." The raven whispered, bowing a quick thank you to the man before turning away and following the man's instructions - which thankfully didn't lead to a trap, but a real stable. The transaction with the stable employee went smoothly, and Gray was on his way within a quarter of an hour.

Heading to the town centre, where he hoped there would be an inn, the raven was shocked out of his reverie as a ruckus began to make itself known, and whatever was wrong seemed to be getting closer. Looking around worriedly, Gray squeaked in surprise as a carriage that had obviously been taken over by rogues bolted past. Itching backwards, to hopefully stay out of sight as his heart lurched into his throat as his hood fell down, he reached to replace the tattered brown hood, when something snagged his periphery. Spinning around to look, he was moving before he knew it.

"HEY! LOOK OUT!" Gray dove forward, and just as he managed to shove her out of the way, his world was swallowed by pain and his senses stopped everything except agony. His body felt like it was fire, and he felt himself coughing up blood as the object that hit him simply barreled over him, without any concern for him. Curling into a fetus position, he attempted to protect his definitely broken ribs from anymore pain, as he groaned quietly, his voice hoarse.

He could faintly hear someone gasping and when someone rolled him over, onto his back, he whined. In his right ear, he heard someone calling for help, shaking his desperately up at whoever he had saved, as he bit back tears of pain.

Feel free to point out any spelling or grammar mistakes, they're all very useful to me.

Why yes, I did name Gray's horse after Mikasa and Levi. This chapter is more of a filler chapter than most of the chapters. I just really needed this one to get the story to where I needed it. I'm really excited for the future chapters. I don't know if this counts as a 'light angst', but I have a really bad habit of including angst wherever I can, so something like this was kind of guaranteed. I hope you're enjoying the story so far, it will hopefully get more interesting very soon. See you soon.

Chabudai = Short-legged tables that are very common in Japan.

Word Count: 1783

~ Jaci