Ainako: I'm sorry if I made anyone waited for an update.


The white stallion he rode whisked its head, shaking its coarse mane as if in utter boredom. He caught himself stealing yet another glace over his shoulders, to the direction where he had come from. He left the ancient ruins of what seemed to be a shrine of some sort that still had one pagoda and beautiful patches of wild flowers, despite being abandoned for a thousand years. The place where he had been camping alone for almost three weeks. He would have spent months if he wasn't – to put in figurative form – scooped up like a 5 year old boy who needs to be put to bed but he didn't want to, by an unimpressed father. Except, the father in this metaphor is four men who were riding not too far ahead of him in total silence, obvious they were still angry at the childish tantrum Endymion had thrown when he refused to go back with them.

"Are we heading straight to the fort?"

He had to shout to make sure his voice were heard. He still dared not to ride beside them yet.

"Depends on are you ready to act like a leader you're supposed to be."

Kunzite, his long hair colored like starlight grey, did not even turned towards him.

"Or would you like a dip into that raging river to clear your head first?"

Endymion eyed the menacing river not too far from where they were riding. A sparse vegetation made a natural fence to a cliff that fell about ten adult's height. The water was like a torrent, crashed into jagged rocks with terrible sounds, but it's not as violent as it usually was. It was clear and pure. Somehow that reminded him of Serena. A girl so delicate, so enticing, he dreamed of a life with her. She was quite young, but her minds were matured beyond her age. She phrased her words like a lady would have but still insists on being a 'just a girl who yearns the pretty flowers'. She admitted she has tutors that acted like her chaperones but nothing beyond the fact that she had 'duties' and was to be poised to fit the role she was born for. Endymion was no fool. He knew she might be one of the daughter of a very important family but duties on a female is unheard of. Only men were given duties. Women are to be the support pillars of a family, and none else.

But love made him a fool. He should have asked her more about herself but his brain refused to even thought of it. He swallowed down her supposed stories with not a single doubt. He remembered the night they shared under the stars. She was beautifully radiant and he was the lonely moth, seduced by the light. She was scared, as was he, but not for the shared pleasures between unwed man and woman despite what she said. The fears in her eyes, her lovely blue eyes, speaks more of a fear of a shame. Afterwards when she turned her eyes away looking at the full moon, she whispered meant not to anyone's ears: "Would you ever forgive me, mother?". He didn't pry it from her when she rolled over to cover her face under his chin. She cooed softly as she sleeps. How he wished he could hear her delicate random noises again.

Kunzite's voice calling him to catch up brought him back to the present and Endymion had to chase away the memories of the sweet lovemakings bubbling up his mind. The raging river as if roaring to wake him up too. Sighing, he clicked his tongue and heeled his stallion to move faster. Jadiete gave his shoulder a soft tap as the short haired blond slowed to meet his pace.

"My Lord, have you heard of this forest?"

The other man pointed towards the other side of the river. A forest so thick you can't see beyond the darkness despite being this close. The edge of the woodland creeps to the fall of the cliff. "It's a cursed forest. One say there's absolutely nothing there - not even a game animal, not even a single bug - but people had been trying to test the rumours. Not one of them were ever seen again."

Truly, that sounds ridiculous. A curse? Only heathens believed in curses. But he can see how the stories were born. A forest that thick would have been hard, of not impossible, to cross through. The canopies were dark green, giving the illusion of an ancient woodland.

"What lies beyond there?" Endymion asked without thinking. Jediete shook his head. Zoicite answered instead.

"The Kingdom of the White Moon, if I'm not mistaken."

"White Moon? Does it has anything to do with the Black Moon Kingdom?"

"Long ago, they used to be one. A war broke out some two thousand years ago and the Royal families went different ways. Or so I heard." Kunzite explained. He, too, scanned the trees and seemingly in disbelieve there was anything living within or even beyond it. There was no sound save for the rustling of leaves as the wind touches the canopy.

"This forest acted like a natural barrier to the White Moon Kingdom. They are not a country with any political connection to anyone. They existed in solitude the whole time for at least two millennia."

"Would they side with us if we make a formal proceeding? It sounds like they're not in talking terms with the Black Moon either." Nephrite chimed in. "And we would really need an ally or two. Prince Dimand and his army is, realistically speaking, beyond our reach with what we have for the time being."

"However promising it sounds like, there are two factors we need to make sure of. One, not counting crossing this accursed forest, we are looking at at least three months of marching our men to the borders of this White Moon Kingdom. And two, in three months, what is left of our motherland would already been swept away and conquered by the Black Moon already. That does not considering the odds that the White Moon would throw us out of her gates before hearing anything we can propose." Kunzite rarely showed any signs of pessimism the whole time Endymion had him in his service, but right then, it's very clear in his eyes.

Earthland was a flourished land far away from here. Small, but flourishing. The people tend to the farms as her soil were rich and plenty. If he were to be born two generations ago, Endymion would have been heralded as Prince and future King. But the monarch had to succumbed to invasion and the royal family was abolished. Now the people had to pay their tribute and tax to the new ruler. Prince Dimand ascended to the throne when the King suddenly died a year ago, and the first proclamation he had was to root out the rebellion. Endymion's father had gathered many men in secrets to claim back the land, but he caught a fever he never recovered. The duty now falls in his hands. He tried his best to follow the shadows of his father but Prince Dimand were already on his heels and they had no choice but to flee the land where they were born. He was running away from the whispers saying how incompetent he was compared to his late father when he fatefully met Serena. She made him forgets all his worries. A life with her would be close to bliss. Gods, how he wished he could just run away with her.

"They are doubting you because you doubt yourself, my Lord Endymion. Your men can only imitate what you showed to them." Jadeite said reassuringly. The three men he trusted with his life nodded in agreement. His worries must have shown so clearly in his face for them to read.

"I know. But how can I be like Father?"

"You cannot, because you are not your Father. You are yourself. Be who you are."

"People always says that. Yet when I take a step I chose myself, they quickly say I chose wrong. Do I be myself, or do I be what they want me to be?"

Kunzite said nothing for a while, when finally, "Be the man YOU want to be. Do you want to be a leader? Do you want your homeland back? Simple men like us can't think very far like you. We merely follows. I'd say if you decided to surrender to Prince Dimand, the rest of the men would too. We are severely outnumbered and scattered. But surely Dimand would have our heads decorating his castle walls the next hour you put down your sword."

"I will never surrender, Kunzite. You heard me swear by Father's grave I will carry on his fight. We WILL be taking back what is ours." Endymion raised his voice rather angrily and Kunzite smiles when he heard the fire in his liege's words. The other men might doubt Endymion as their leader, but never him. Zoicite, Jadeite and Nephrite shared his trust. They will take their land back or die trying.

"Then we need to reach the fort as fast as we can before sundown. Too much time we had wasted standing around in the same place. We fear Dimand's army would have reach us if we wait any longer. The men grows restless and... my Lord?"

Whatever Kunzite was saying, Endymion barely listened. His eyes caught a glitter way up ahead on the opposite side of the cliff, right at the very edge of the silent forest. He had seen the old shield of his ancestors tucked safely within his belongings back at the camp. Father had shown it to him when he was young. A horse-like creature poised to flight was carved as the blessed symbol of the family. A very peculiar horse except for the pair of large wings and a golden horn right at the center of its forehead. The gold horn was emphasized quite remarkably on the family signia too. Not once in Endymion's life had he ever wondered if the pegasus are real. It surely was just a figment of a man's wild imagination, he thought. But there he was, looking straight at the creature in mid-flight. The pure white mane tossed in the wind. It leapt from the cliff and disappeared before he could point to his retainers to what he saw. Instead, their eyes saw a figure of a maiden flailing and running towards the edge.

As if time stopped for that one moment. Endymion screamed his lungs out for her name, panic flooded his thoughts. There was the woman he love. The woman he never thought would have seen again. And she was falling right into the raging river.