DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own "Ranger's Apprentice" and the universe of the series. I only own the country Yreshia and it's citizens. All hail the mighty John Flanagan for creating the magnificent piece of art which is "Ranger's Apprentice"! The lyrics in this chapter is a part of "Heart of the Sea" by Jolin Tsai ^^ It's Chinese.

The Mountains Must Be Conquered

Edel slowly opened her eyes, sighing. She had almost expected to wake up outside the castle, hearing Freya call for her because breakfast was going to be ready 'in a second'. But then again, she had hoped for the same every morning the past two weeks, ever since Arajha and her entered the Forest of Slumbers. From the sounds Arajha made it was obvious the tiger still hoped for that as well. ,,Well, we can't do anything about it Arajha... Freya won't be able to discipline us if she isn't here, so how about we just get going and get her back fast?" Edel said, mostly to herself, because the tiger probably couldn't understand human speech, though it sure sometimes seemed like it could!

Edel found some berries, fruits and edible roots here and there in the forest, and Arajha provided fresh meat for herself, though Edel would rather not share the rabbits that Arajha had lying in a pile next to her. Her white fur was stained with crimson blood around the mouth, and Edel swallowed. She didn't mind blood in a battle, but murder of small animals like rabbits still made her uneasy. Though it was probably just the way of nature...

The day passed too quickly. Edel spend most of the day on Arajha's back, riding through the forest as fast as the tiger could run. Which was very fast... Arajha had amazing stamina and muscle-power, which led her to be able to keep running for days if necessary. Edel had learned a thing or two in the palace though, and she stopped Arajha at times to take a quick nap about an hour long. Edel found it increasingly hard to sleep though. She may know all these things about survival in theory, but never had she been away from the palace for long enough to really practice it. Therefore, with her back aching and her mind fuzzy from bad sleep, she rode for longer and longer, sometimes actually falling asleep on Arajha quite a few times.

Arajha knew the feeling of sleeping human on her back, since Freya often took naps on her, so whenever she felt Edel drift off into sleep, she would slow down enough, so that Edel wouldn't fall off. Sometimes, when Arajha sensed extreme exhaustion from Edel, she would shake her body lightly so Edel fell with her head draped next to the tiger's shoulder, lying on her stomach on Arajha's back. Sometimes, in these momentary attacks of unconsciousness from Edel's side, Arajha would also lay down, taking a quick sleep when she felt the need.

But always, the tiger's thoughts were with her mistress, who was aboard the Skandian ship. And so were Edel's. Edel sighed deeply and relieved when they finally got out of the forest. The Forest of Slumbers was a maze once you entered, but Arajha knew her way in there, which was the only reason Edel had dared enter it. The eyesight and navigation abilities of a human could never help in that forest. Edel looked up at the Thunderous Mountains now. They were the natural border between Yreshia and Asrune, and many had died trying to climb them. Edel looked around her. She knew the miners of Asrune had dug a tunnel beneath the mountains, and that was what she was planning to use as means of travelling. Yreshian soldiers usually used wings to get past the Thunderous Mountains, though it was very dangerous because of the constant thunderclouds that were above the peaks.

Yreshia was a country that safeguarded it's secrets very well, and the wings were one of these secrets. Many aeons ago, an Yreshian builder had found a way to use aerodynamics and a special kind of contraption to transport goods and materials across long distances, using only the wind. This idea had been further investigated, and now the wings were the proud emblem of the Yreshian Royal Family. If Freya had her wings, she could have easily escaped from the Skandian ship. Freya was one of the most talented flyers in all of Yreshia, and all the soldiers were instructed by her when they studied at the Yreshian Academy of War, since being able to fly was something all Yreshian soldiers should be.

But Edel was afraid of heights. She'd flown once in her entire life, and it still haunted her nightmares. When it was absolutely necessary, she just played parasite and hang onto another flyer, but she couldn't fly herself. This was why she was rumoured to be 'The Riding Warrior of Yreshia', in Asrune at least. Or as they said: ,,Yezda Voin Kitaya"

As Edel and Arajha walked along the foot of the mountains, Edel kept an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. She had heard that the tunnel was closed off by a secret entrance, because bandits used it to cross from Asrune to Yreshia or the other way around, to escape capture in their homeland. That is why she was keeping an eye out for some part of rock that looked out of place, or a place where the vegetation wasn't the same, or other things like that. Quite hard work of course.

And to be honest, she was doing a very poor job. If it wasn't for Arajha's brilliant nose, they would never have found the tunnel. But Arajha could smell the damp air in the tunnel, and therefore she stopped in front of a large boulder. Edel bit her lip. How in the world was she going to move that thing? It was twice her height and thrice her weight, if she had to guess. She jumped down from Arajha's back, and looked at the boulder with an analysing eye. The boulder seemed strong, but there was a crack down the middle, just barely visible. Edel took her sword, the Qichang zhi Jian meaning Sword of Unison, and smiled wryly. Her sword was a katana, forged by the finest of Nihon-Ja's blacksmiths, and it was truly a blade unlike anything ever seen. She had asked for a sword that never needed to be sharpened, never broke and could cut through solid rock. An impossible request, you'd think...

But the blacksmiths of Nihon-Ja had succeeded, after many years of failed attempts. They had thought it impossible for her to wield, for the katana was six feet long and extremely thick and heavy, not Nihon-Ja-ish at all. But Edel could do anything she put her mind to, and after many months of training, the katana felt like an extension of her arm. She couldn't fight with any other sword now, because it was way too light. She raised her sword and looked doubtingly at the boulder. If the katana did not fail her now, then she would personally propose that the blacksmiths of Nihon-Ja was made official craftsmen of the Yreshian Army's weapons.

She took the right stance, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Her ears tuned in to every sound around her, her legs steadied, her arms clenched the hold of her katana closely, and then... She brought the sword down. With a loud noise, as if a thunderbolt had hit the boulder, the boulder was slashed into halves. They fell to the sides, forming an opening into the tunnel.

Edel grinned happily, putting the katana in it's sheath. But in order to enter the tunnel, she had to turn sideways because the katana was too long to be able to pass while it was in it's sheath, going from her right shoulder to her left ankle. Six feet really was too long, once in a while. It was only a few inches more than her height, but still...

Arajha got in without a problem and Edel caught herself wondering if the tiger really was only a tiger, and not some kind of witch that could transform itself. In the end she decided it didn't matter, as long as she helped get Freya back.

~X~

Freya smiled, having found something useful she could do at last! She watched the sun set, colouring the seemingly endless sea a deep red and she heard a voice. ,,Oi, kid! Time to work." She turned around, smiling at the Skandian who yelled. She nodded, running to him.

Her job was to give all the Skandians their food. It was actually quite tiring, since they ate what seemed to be giant portions, and after dealing maybe a fourth of the plates to the Skandians, her arms were already protesting. She decided she definitely would join Edel's training session when she got back to Yreshia. When she was halfway through the servings, her feet found some rope to trip her, and she screamed in surprise. She heard feet shuffling, and just before she hit the ground, a pair of big, muscular arms caught her and the food. The food was unharmed. Thank god, she thought to herself.

As she turned her face to thank the man who had caught her, her azure eyes widened. It was Erak... Erak had caught her. As Erak helped her back on her feet Svengal laughed. ,,Take good care of our food, Freya," he teased and Freya made a face and stuck her tongue out at him, though she was still shaken. Erak had caught her... That was perhaps the last person she'd have imagined to catch her if she fell.

,,If you want me to take good care of your food, then don't leave rope in places where chickens can trip," she come-backed and Svengal laughed, when he heard her use the nickname they had given her. Chick... Was it because she was so small and fragile-looking next to the mountains of men that was all around her right now? Because among Yreshians she certainly wasn't small. She was actually quite well-balanced on the height scale. With her 5"10 feet she wasn't the smallest person in the world, that was for sure. She had been told in History lessons that Yreshians used to be a very small people, usually no larger than 5"1, so she was happy.

When she was done dealing out the food, she returned to her cabin, thinking of what had passed earlier. She never expected Erak to catch her. He wasn't an unpleasant man at all, he just seemed to dislike her, because she kept distracting his crew in order to pass time. Actually, Erak was anything but unpleasant. He was kind, she just had the feeling, and he seemed like he was getting used to her, as they spent more and more time together on the ship. He had also let her get the bed in his cabin, as he said he liked sleeping with the rest of the Skandians, and as a royal hostage, he supposed she should be treated accordingly.

Freya sat on the bed, her feet dangling, because it was humongous like most of the Skandian furniture. She let her pale fingers run across the bedsheets and she couldn't help but sigh. She liked the Skandians, a lot, but she missed her home.

,,Freya?" She looked up and saw Erak in the door. She smiled, jumping down from the bed.

,,Yes?" she asked slowly, and Erak entered the cabin with a plate.

,,Your turn," he said with a small smile, and Freya smiled proudly. It had taken some time, but slowly Erak had begun smiling to her. It made her happy when he did.

,,Can I eat on the deck? It's boring to eat alone, and I suppose you have a ship to sail?" she stated with glittering, blue eyes and Erak shrugged. At least he didn't have anything against her company. Erak carried the plate up to his station by the steering oar, and as he went back to work with leading the ship in the general direction of Hallasholm, Freya sat next to him on the ground and began eating her food. She was content enough. It was a very different experience for her to go through, and as they said: "What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger."

,,How long will it be until we reach Hallasholm, Erak?" she asked curiously and Erak looked thoughtful for a few seconds, until he answered her.

,,If this speed keeps up, two days," he told her and Freya smiled a bit. So fast... She couldn't believe weeks had already passed. She wondered how Edel had reacted to her disappearance... Not good, she imagined. And she hadn't seen any Yreshian scouts in the sky, so she assumed her parents were waiting for ransom notes. Erak noticed her looking at the sky, and couldn't help but ask.

,,Looking for saviours?" Freya looked up at him and shook her head with a small smile. ,,No. If father and mother had sent scouts after us, we would have seen them ages ago. Do not doubt Yreshians just because we do not possess ships," she said with a crooked smile, which suited her but didn't suit a princess at all.

,,I wouldn't dream of it," Erak replied dryly, which the princess apparently found funny, since she began giggling. Erak snorted silently, before returning to his work with full concentration. Though he still heard it when Freya began singing:

,,Xiang bai mu da pu shuo mi li

Xiang ai qing hai lang mang duo qing

Xiang jia lei bi hai de re li

Mei zuo hai dou xiang yi ge ni

Yan zhe hai an xian qu lu xing

Wo yao huan you mei ge ni

Cong chi dao yi zhi dao bei ji

Ai shang ni mei zhong feng qing"

Erak turned to her, raising an eyebrow. What language was that? He vaguely remembered the soft sounds, without any really harsh pronunciations from the other Yreshians, so he supposed it was Yreshian.

,,That's an annoying language," he grunted and Freya laughed a bit.

,,Why?" she inquired with an interesting note in her voice, and Erak shrugged while keeping an eye on the sun that went down in the horizon.

,,We had to talk to some of your people when we pulled into the harbour, a few days before catching you. Their accent when speaking the international trade language was weird and made it hard to understand," he complained and Freya grinned.

Skandian ships didn't raise suspicion in Yreshia, because the country was too far away from Skandia, and therefore their raiding ships didn't come by Yreshia normally. Of course they were well-known to the army and the royal family, but the common folk didn't know anything about the Skandians if they hadn't heard about them from adventurers, or had seen them themselves, or knew someone who had.

,,Is my accent hard to understand?" she teased and Erak allowed a smile to dawn unto his face. Freya really liked his smile. It wasn't beautiful or anything like that, it was the same tough and raw smile, that she had seen on Edel's face when she fought. It had a kind of strong energy about it, and it made Freya's heart feel at ease.

,,No. I assume, as a princess, your accent has been taught away," he speculated and Freya giggled slightly as she nodded. In order to be a good political leader, she had to be completely understandable by all people, Yreshian and non-Yreshians. Therefore, she had been taught to speak many languages fluently, without even a hint of the annoying Yreshian accent. Edel had too of course, because she was another princess, but she didn't use it in political ways. She primarily did it to be able to talk understandably with the adventurers that came to Tian'anmen, the capital of Yreshia, and hear their stories.

,,Your assumption is correct, Erak. Because of this I can speak fluently Yreshian, Nihon-Jan and Araluan, among other languages. But I am afraid I have never been taught Skandian," she told with a pleading smile and Erak grunted.

,,I have no time to teach you" he growled and Freya nodded understandingly, looking on the rowers. ,,But someone else might," she said, letting her sentence end in a suggestive manner. Erak looked down at the rowers.

,,We're sailors, Freya, not teachers," he ended the discussion and Freya shrugged. ,,Then I guess I'll just have to listen carefully when we get to Skandia," she said with a smile, and Erak snorted, leaving her alone.

~X~

Edel groaned as her and Arajha walked through the darkness. She hated darkness, and had it not been for Arajha's rough fur beneath her palm, Edel would have panicked a long time ago. She kept her left hand on Arajha's back at all times, and the other hand was constantly on the hilt of Qichang zhi Jian. Darkness made her edgy, especially the damp and pushy kind of darkness that roamed in the tunnel. She felt like she was walking and walking, but not getting anywhere. Arajha purposedly had eyes that could see through darkness, and Edel began to understand why the merchant had suggested she bought Arajha for her sister way back then. There was no better guardian for a peaceful princess than the white tiger.

It was fierce in battle, kind in peace, had immense strength, could see through darkness, could smell and hear practically anything, and it was a brilliant pillow. Plus it was gorgeous to the eye. And most importantly, for Edel at least, it was a great sparring partner. And since she was terrified at heights, she used Arajha as transportation while Freya soar through the skies.

Edel wanted to get through the tunnel as quickly as possible, and that's why she was still walking many hours after they found the entrance. She felt sleep gnawing at her eyelids, and she became scared of blinking, thinking she'd sleep while walking if she did. Eventually it became too much and she made a sound to Arajha, that immediately stopped the tiger in it's tracks. She sunk to her knees and Arajha laid down behind her, letting the exhausted princess sleep with her back to the massive body behind her. Arajha executed a deep and relieved purr, telling Edel that the tiger was just as tired as her.