“Um, actually Dames, I gotta get the herd settled. I’ll show them to the field they can sleep in tonight. The south field is still just used for growing grass, right?” Before Damien could even reply, the blonde had started walking away with the strangely named demon-horses right behind him.

Like he had stated before; Aerithen plus being in Kansas City equals weird shit happening. At least this gave him time to be an excellent best friend. He went up the path, quickly going through the door and heading straight for the kitchen. The house was decorated in an older style, mostly with things from about five hundred and twenty years ago when the house was first built. The wallpaper was a light shade of green with a floral pattern, but it wasn’t faded with time. Like all things old it had needed to be replaced. The oil lamp on the entryway table was from his grandfather’s time, and the glas was beginning to crack along the bottom.The rug on the stairwell was becoming threadbare in the center. The antique Grandfather clock at the end of the hall was faded and needed to be repainted, and one of the hands was bent upwards towards the glass.

He was an adventurous child that loved to climb, okay?

Once he reached the end of the hall, he turned right and then left going through the door of the kitchen. He nearly ran into Adanna as she was hurrying through the door, but she quickly sidestepped him and spun around with a bright smile on her face.

“Sir Damien! The pumpkin seeds have just finished roasting as you asked. Dinner will be ready in an hours time. Is there anything else I can do for you tonight?” Her silver hair was pulled back into a braid and her blue apron was streaked with flour. She was still young even by Yumboes standards.

“Thanks for that, Adanna. I don’t think I need anything...well, actually, would you be able to draw up a bath in the guest room with Brandon? We’ll be having a guest tonight and he’s been traveling for a while, so I’m sure he’ll want to clean up.”

“Of course! I’ll fetch Brandon and we’ll begin as dinner is served. Anything else?”

“No, that will be all.” She nodded and did a slight bow before running off down the hall. She was very energetic and it sometimes seeped into the other house occupants, as well. Damien turned back to the kitchen and saw Gram Tamma in front of the sink peeling potatoes.

Gram Tamma is the epitome of the “Grandmother” stereotype. Her dark mocha skin was wrinkled, she was short and plump, her hair a salt and pepper bun with a dozen laugh lines on her cheeks surrounding the kindest smile on Earth. And she gives the best hugs. Even though Damien towers over her by about a head she can still get him feel like a small child.

“Need any help with those, Tamma?” He walked over to the sink and reached to pick up a spare knife, but she quickly smacked his hand with hers before he could even touch the handle.

“Now boy, I know you have your soulmate out there. If you want to do something for me, go and get the big pot from the pantry for me. I’m gonna be making some soup here in a minute.” Damien couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he went to do as he was told.

“He’s not my soulmate, Tamma, so just quit saying it. Aerithen’s my best friend and nothing more.” He pulled the pot in question from the shelf of the pantry and carried it into the kitchen.

“Oh, I know he’s your soulmate. I could see it the moment you two met as children. You two were always together as much as you could be, and the only thing that ever separated you was when fall came and the caravan had to go back south. You can’t hide anything from these old eyes.” She turned her head to look at him and smiled, pointing at her eyes with the small peeling knife she held. Damien scoffed at her.

“Whatever you say, Gram.”

“Don’t sass me, boy. I can still whoop your hind end. Now put that on the stove, and go get a small sack from that cupboard there. We’re gonna put the pumpkin seeds in there for the little rascal. That boy and his seeds, I swear I’ve never seen anyone enjoy them as much as he does. He’s like an alcoholic, he can’t function without them when he’s here in the summer.” She huffed out a few more loving grumbles as she continued peeling the potatoes.

“I can agree with you about that. He has a bit of an obsession with them. But at least it’s not something unhealthy, like sweets or alcohol.” He saw Tamma stop peeling potatoes and give him a side-eyed look.

“Says the one that only eats desserts made with cream and sugar.”

“Well they’re the best kind!”

“Mm-hmm.” She went back to peeling the potatoes, and he rolled his eyes.

“If that’s the only thing you’re going to make me help you with, then I’m going to go up and change.”

“Go on then. Little Blue will be back by the time you get back down here.” Damien walked over and leaned down to kiss her on the cheek. She patted his head before shooing him away towards the door. He went to the door and started thinking about how much spare time he would have for the rest of the week.

Since his father was away on unexpected business in St. Louis all official royal duties handled by the King fell onto him. His mother handled all of the other matters came up, such as building permits for hospitals and official members office buildings, those kinds of things. But it seemed that since everyone was incapable of handling something as trivial as a breaking and entering case, almost everything was coming to him for approval.

And he had even gone so far as to make plans to leave town with Aeri for a week. They always went camping this time of year so they could escape from what was expected of them from their families. And from the entire Territory, in Damien’s case. Being Crown Prince was NOT easy. He was expected to remember every noble’s name (Nearly impossible), know how to handle food and water shortages in times of drought (he almost always made his tutor frown with his solutions), and be able to talk circles around someone when discussing politics (HA! That was a really funny expectation).

Which is why he went against tradition when he turned thirteen and decided to join the Siad Almunkar. There was no law stating he couldn’t join them, so his family agreed to his wishes and let him go to the training grounds in the Rocky Mountains, location classified for obvious reasons. So, he went and started his four years of training while having the obvious stereotyping and prejudice of royalty being thrown at him by the other recruits. Well, he made damn sure to prove that he wasn’t some pansy-assed moron with a silver spoon shoved where the sun doesn’t shine, and he earned the respect of his instructors within a year and a half. It took until a rockslide collapsed one of the smaller barracks at noon one day for him to earn his peers’ respect, since he had the first instinct of going in and digging out the unlucky bastards that had skipped out on training exercises that day. They were all alive, though they were pretty badly beaten.

Anyway, it really seemed like the world was against him for his friend to be here and they couldn’t do anything. He looked to the window and saw the flickering colors of the Nightmares as specks off in the distance. There had to be a good story behind that, and he’d be damned if he wouldn’t ask Aeri about it. He felt a smile tug at his lips as he thought of how such a lazy blacksmith could befriend a herd of terrifying horse demons.

A knock suddenly sounded on the door, startling him out of his thoughts. He suddenly realized that he’d somehow managed to get to his room, undress, and redress himself in the time he had been lost in thought. And wasn’t that unusual.

“Sir Damien, Master Aerithen has returned to the house, and the guest room and bath have been prepared.” Adanna called out from the other side of his door. She was loud for such a tiny thing.

“Thank you, Adanna. That’s all for the night.”

“As you wish, Sir.”

He grabbed the loose cotton shirt from his bed and quickly pulled it over his head. The scars on his chest pulled as he did so, but there was no pain. And now it was time to go and relax.