A/N: After a lengthy wait, here's another chapter. And I'm dedicatin' this one to Xaviera, who's quite possibly the only one reading it!
Chapter 7Kingdom 2: "Man Versus Beast"
Unlike many of the young people of his generation, Valor had no problem with his life. Being a prince was great, especially since he was realistically the only one in line for the throne. Being the eldest, this was already pretty much guaranteed, but since he was also the only son borne to his parents, he had no worry of being overthrown by scheming, underhanded younger brothers.
Yes, true, Virtue was more like a brother to him than a sister, but still he was unconcerned. She had never expressed any interest in ruling a kingdom, and instead her fantasies revolved around adventuring and becoming a knight.
And sure, he was now apparently marrying someone didn't even know, had only met on a couple of occasions, and couldn't remember, but even that wasn't much of a setback. After all, marriage had done nothing to temper his father's lifestyle. So, understandably, Prince Valor had a fairly positive outlook on life.
Usually, Valor was a pretty easy-going guy. He rarely got angry, and never to the point where he became violent. Not that that was entirely testimonial to his disposition, since there were few individuals who would dare anger the crown prince to such an extent.
But of course, there always exceptions to the general rule, namely his sister. In temperament, she was his exact opposite, quick to take offence, one to throw the first punch, and hopelessly impulsive. The last of the three was responsible for the onset of Valor's current, uncharacteristically foul mood, but the other two certainly did nothing to improve the situation.
He had decided to enjoy the pleasant afternoon by taking a ride. There was no particular motivation behind his decision, it just seemed like a princely thing to do. Unfortunately, Valor was not very good with horses, for a prince or otherwise. For that reason, he tended to stay away from them, and had never fully developed his riding skills. It was a fact that embarrassed him greatly and one that he tried to keep to himself, though, inevitably, Virtue had discovered the truth.
The majority of the world, however, remained blissfully ignorant. It was not often that he was even required to call upon that skill, since he spent most of his time at the castle or in one of the local taverns, which were only a few minutes' ride away. That, he could handle. It was only when he was required to travel at any speed above a brisk trot that all hell broke loose.
When Virtue had discovered his secret, she had, as anticipated, teased him mercilessly about it. However, she soon stopped when she realized just how much Valor's failure bothered him. She'd even offered to help him improve his skills, but he'd declined the offer since patience was not one of his sister's attributes, and he doubted that lessons would very healthy for their relationship. Still, she remained sensitive to the issue and considerate with regard to his shortcoming.
That is, until today.
It was a good way into his ride and he'd come quite a distance from the castle—though not as much as would have anyone else—when his attention was drawn to a loud rustling from the nearby trees. His horse, Cautious, had heard it too for he felt the animal tense beneath him.
Oh no, Valor thought to himself, not so bothered by the noise as he was by his horse's reaction to it. "Easy, boy, nothing to worry yourself about," he murmured, giving Cautious what he hoped was a comforting pat.
Just after the words had left his mouth, the source of the rustling came bursting into the clearing, a war cry on her lips. The noise, combined with the image of the fierce black stallion and its rider bearing down on them, was enough to cause Cautious to rear up on his back legs, throwing Valor off to land, conveniently, in a large puddle of mud. Immediately after doing so, the horse bolted.
Valor let out a frustrated cry upon seeing whom the source of commotion was. "Vir!"
"Oops, sorry Val," Virtue replied as she jumped down off her horse. "I didn't realize anyone else was out here." She casually eyed here brother, who was still sprawled in the mud. "Demon and I thought we'd let loose," she continued, patting the horse on the head.
Valor glared at the massive horse, who seemed to be peering down at him haughtily, and then at his sister. She wore breeches, and a tunic, with her long hair tied back out of her face and despite the fact that she had been galloping through a dense forest, she looked no worse for the wear. "What the hell were you doing riding in the woods?"
"It's more challenging," she answered. She glanced around the clearing in which they stood—or in Valor's case, sat—"An open field is so… beginner."
Valor sent another glare at his sister, taking offence at the last comment, despite the fact that he couldn't deny the truth of it. Slowly and carefully, he picked himself up off the ground. On the bright side, nothing appeared to be broken; on the not-so-bright side—
"You look like you've been rolling around in a pig pen."
Valor stared down at his ruined clothes. The damage seemed to be localized at his backside and his legs, just below the knees. Well, if he returned to the castle like this, he could always give anyone who saw him some elaborate tale. A tale of the classic struggle between man and wild beast, that ended with the beast barely escaping with his life, and only because the man was unarmed but for his wits and his courage… Yes, that would do well, and the whole incident could actually end up being beneficial to him, just so long as Virtue kept the truth to herself.
Satisfied with his solution, Valor glanced around. "Where's that damn horse?" he asked.
"Ran off," Virtue replied laconically.
"Yes, I can see that," Valor gave her a look. "Did you see which direction it ran off in?"
"He ran off that way," she said, pointing in the direction with her thumb.
"How the hell am I supposed to find i—him?" he muttered glancing in that direction.
Virtue grinned and leapt up onto Demon's back—no small feat for someone of her slight stature. "I could help you find 'em," she offered.
Valor eyed the pair skeptically. "Don't you think you'll just scare him off again when he sees you two coming?"
Virtue considered this thoughtfully, her nose scrunched up in a very unprincess-like manner that would have earned her an instant reprimand from their mother. "Yeah, I suppose. He does of kind of live up to his name, doesn't he?" She pondered the situation further. "Well, he wouldn't run away if he saw you, would he?"
"How am I supposed to know what that stupid horse will do?" Valor replied, rolling his eyes.
"And yet you wonder why they don't seem to like you?" Then, with a slight inclination of her head, she said, "Well, come on."
"Where?" Valor replied eyes narrowing as he had an idea of what she was going to suggest.
His sister sighed. "To find your 'damn' horse, as you so eloquently put it. I'll take you to him on Demon, but before he sees us, you get off and walk calmly up to him, and then bring yourselves home."
Valor looked at her skeptically before gracing her with "Are you insane? You want me to get up on that—thing?" The horse, seeming to understand his words, or at least their nature, let out a snort to convey his offence.
Virtue crossed her arms over her chest in a manner that indicated her impatience. "Don't be such a baby, Val. I'm going to be the one riding him… you just have to sit and not try to scream or fall off."
"Hey," Valor protested feeling his own irritation rise. "That screaming thing only happened once, long ago, and I thought we'd agreed to never bring it up again. As for the falling off, that was thanks to you and your hell beast here."
"For your information," Virtue replied, her infamous temper beginning to show, "The screaming happened twice; I never agreed to anything; and the falling thing would never have happened if you and that oversized mule you call a horse possessed at least one iota of skill and discipline between the two of you."
Valor had found that there weren't many things in this world that could get him angry. Being mocked, however, was simply something he had never had an opportunity to get used to, even if his sister had a tendency not to hold back on such things. So, of course, he couldn't let the insult simply pass by. "Let me refresh your memory," he hissed between clenched teeth. "It doesn't count as twice if it happened on the same occasion; my horse is not a mule of any size; and we had an implicit agreement that you would never again mock my riding abilities!"
"You know, I was offering to go out of my way to help you find that horse of yours, but since it appears that my efforts aren't appreciated, I guess I'll just go home and leave you to do it on your own."
"Yeah, why don't you do that? I don't need your help." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Even if it was your fault in the first place."
Virtue had just turned her horse in the direction of the castle and begun her journey back, but she couldn't resist pausing to throw back at it him, "It was not my fault!" Then, with an abrupt movement, she urged Demon into a gallop, and soon enough the two were beyond Valor's scope of vision.
Valor glanced about the field, his anger quickly giving way to concern as he realized just how difficult his task was going to be. Running a hand through his hair, he asked aloud, "Now, what direction did she point to?"
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Valor didn't know how much time had passed since he'd begun his search, but his feet screamed that it had been too long. He was just about to give up and begin the humiliating walk back home when a nearby whinnying caught his attention. He abruptly turned and saw Cautious standing not ten meters away, watching his master.
"How long have you been following me?" he declared before realizing that he was talking to a horse that was not about to answer back, and decided to pretend it had never happened. Instead, he began to walk towards the animal in quick, determined steps. However, as he reached out for the reigns, Cautious danced back just out of reach.
"Get back here, you stupid animal."
While Cautious, unlike Demon, did not appear to understand the words, he certainly wasn't soothed by the tone of his master's voice. Each time Valor attempted to grab the reigns, the horse would pull just of reach, until it became a sort of game between the pair. Eventually, his frustration reaching a peak, Valor threw all care aside and leapt at the animal.
Cautious reared back at the abrupt movement, causing Valor to fall forward, directly into yet another mud puddle. Vaguely Valor wondered where all the mud puddles had come from since it hadn't rained at all in the past several days. But all such concerns were pushed aside as he landed face first in the grime. Well, so much for minimal damage.
Sitting up, he calmly wiped away the bulk of the mud on his face, allowing him to restore his vision, and then spat out the amount that had wound up on his mouth. He turned his head to face Cautious, who had settled down to watch his fallen master, and fixed the horse with a single stare.
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A stable-hand was the first to see the pair as they arrived back at the castle, a single filthy man on foot leading a very contrite-looking horse in determined, yet unhurried steps. It took a moment for the hand to recognize the mud-covered figure as the prince.
"My prince!" he exclaimed, running forth to grab the reigns from Valor. "Were you attacked? What happened?"
Valor sighed and began his tale, wincing inwardly as the dried mud on his face cracked with each movement, "It was a classic struggle between man and wild beast…"
"And?" the hand prompted, the bewildered look still on his face.
"And the beast won."
TBC
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