Tristan woke well before Theodore did the next morning, feeling the sorrow from the last two days weighing down on his shoulders he walks downstairs to ask the woman some questions.

“Good morning sir!” She says happily and he smiles in response, not wanting to be nasty to the woman.

“I was wondering if you knew somewhere we could buy some supplies? Stuff like fresh clothing, food and all that great stuff.” Tristan says and she nods, placing the rag in her hand down and leaning on the counter.

“I’ve actually got some stuff and fresh clothing in the back, why don’t you go grab your friend and come with me?” She replies and Tristan grins at her happily, running back up to pounce on Theo; the blonde groans and pushes the tall Prince off of him.

“Why are you waking me so early?” He mumbles, pulling the blanket over his head.

“Because Theodore, we need to get supplies and it’s actually not that early. The sun is well and truly in the sky,” the Prince tells him, Theo throwing the blanket off him and getting out of the bed with a frown.

“Why didn’t you wake me earlier?”

“You seemed to need the rest so I didn’t want to disturb you.”

They stare at each other before Theo shrugs and follows the brunet down the stairs and to the woman who tells them to follow her out into the store room. They come to the very back and she begins going through the clothing that has been put to the side, handing the boys two shirts and two pairs of pants each and then grabbing some soap off the shelf and after putting it into a little bag, she hands it to Theo.

“Where can we wash?”

“I don’t have anything to help you bathe here, but there’s a private swimming hole not far from here towards the next town that you can freshen up at,” she speaks softly and they nod, moving to leave before she grabs Theo by the forearm. “Let me give you a map and some food before you leave, I’m sure it’ll be a while before you can get more.”

He nods, and she grabs the bag back to fill it with bread and dried meats as well as a map. He takes the bag when it’s held out to him and nods to the girl again when she ushers them out of the inn, they jump on their horses and begin their journey to the swimming hole.

They were still riding hours later in search of this water hole, Tristan soon getting annoyed with the waste of time.

“Of course you could’ve charm it out of her exactly where this place is meant to be,” Tristan says loudly causing Theo to snort.

“She was pretty but she wouldn’t have told us exactly where it is anyway, she probably didn’t know herself where it is.” Theo muses, running a hand through his hair and looking at his friend with amusement.

“Still, the way she was looking at you made it seem like she wanted to be all over you like a rash,” the Prince tells him and Theo laughs, shaking his head.

“If we had the time, I probably would have let her,” his laughter cutting short at the sound of flowing water, he kicks into the sides of his horse and spurs him through the thick brush to the right of the trail they were following, coming to a halt on the other side at the sight of a large river. The water was rushing but not too fast or strong that the boys wouldn’t be able to wash off the dirt from the last few days.

Theo immediately jumps down from his horse and not even waiting for the Prince before he dives into the water fully clothed, thinking of stripping once he’s in the water. He breaks the surface and sees the Prince just diving into the cool water, that’s when Theo begins stripping off his clothes; his shirt coming away from his chest like a second skin it was that wet and stuck to him. His pants were much easier to get off, and he moves over to set them on the rocky area near where the Prince had tied the horses. Tristan copies him and pulls his clothes off once he comes up for air and the boys set to washing the dirt away, though Tristan kept getting distracted by his smaller friends body. Trying desperately to make sure Theo didn’t notice him looking, he kept his head down but the way the water was dripping down the blonde body was enough to make the brunette’s blood boil and race through his veins.

“Are you okay, Tris? You’ve gone pale.” Theo states, looking his taller friend over and Tristan just nods and turns away to dunk his head before moving to get out of the water; going to the bags and pulling out some clothes, he gets dressed and sets out some clothes for Theodore who copies him a few minutes later.

“So do we know exactly where we’re going?” Tristan asks when Theodore is dressed, turning around to face the younger boy.

“We just have to get to Capsicka and find my dad’s friends, they own the biggest inn in the city so they shouldn’t be too hard to find.” Theo tells the Prince with a smile while he pulls the food from the bag and the map, which he sets down on a dry part of the ground. Spreading it out he vaguely finds where they are and looks how far it is from Capsicka.

“We’re maybe two or three weeks ride from the city, we should make it there in one or two if we stop rarely to look after the horses properly and to rest ourselves.” Theo thinks aloud while Tristan munches on some bread.

“Okay so we better get going.” Tristan says over a mouthful of food.

“Yeah, but we better stay off the main roads. You’ll be recognised instantly with how you look.” Theo tells him and Tristan frowns.

“What do you mean?”

“You look just like your dad, Tris, anyone with a brain would see that.” As soon as the words left his mouth, Theo began apologising.

“It’s alright, Theo. I know I look like my dad and I can’t mourn them all the time, but I am going to get my revenge.” Tristan voice is scarily calm, so calm that Theo feels the hair over his body stand on edge. Without talking again, they put on their skin tight black armour and set off towards Capsicka and following Theo’s idea of staying off the main roads became a bit hard as they had no idea which way to go and the map was not helping at all so without another option they start travelling on the main roads; following the little wooden signs to the city that should help save them from whoever was hunting them.

The people they passed didn’t look twice in their direction as they rode, probably thinking that they were bandits of some kind with their black clothing and frowns taking over their faces as they travelled. Finding another little shack a few more hours of riding and right when the sky was at its darkest they decided to stop and rest for the night.

Thankfully it was empty when they went inside, it was probably built for travellers like themselves and they were thankful for that as rain started pelting down heavily. It was the start of autumn so they had a good while before winter kicked in and made it near impossible to travel anywhere without a carriage.

Not bothering with a fire, they sit and eat a little of the food to try and preserve it for as long as they could until Tristan started talking again.

“Theo, you know that old legend about men and women that could wield magic after coming back from the dead?” Tristan asks and Theo rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, but they were just stories Tristan.” Theo states, his tone showing no room for talk of this nonsense so the Prince just left it. Finishing his portion and laying down to get some sleep before the sun came up again, Theo soon following suit but he couldn’t sleep as the Prince’s question floating in his mind.

Theo is jolted awake by the sound of hooves and yelling, the smell of smoke storming into his nostrils. Someone had set the little shack on fire. Instantly Theo is crawling over to Tristan, shaking him awake, green eyes meeting gold.

“We need to get out of here.” Theo’s voice is hard and Tristan nods, following his oldest friend as he crawls over to the door only to see it blocked by the flames and some pretty mean looking men on the other side. “Okay, let’s find another way out.”

They move back through the shack, grabbing their stuff this time, just having a enough speed in their bodies to strap their swords to their bodies and finding another entrance to the shack; this one not with fire encasing it and they wait for the few men that are around the door to turn their backs before they make a break for it. Tristan was a lot faster running than Theodore was so he made it closer to the thick brush, turning once he got behind a tree to see Theodore had been grabbed by the collar of his shirt. An ox of a man with short black hair, sculpted eyebrows and a large axe hanging at his hip turns Theo around and Tristan watches with wide eyes as the large man throws his fist at Theo’s face, knocking the small blonde to the ground.

“Where’s the prince?” His voice is gravelly and hoarse, nothing like Theo’s deep melodic voice that responds.

“I’ll never tell you where he is,” he tells him, turning so he was facing the man and looking up at him with cold eyes.

“Then we’ll take you and wait for him to try and save you,” the big guy says and Theo frowns, wiping at his mouth. He goes to stand but gets a boot in the stomach, his arms wrapping around his middle with a grunt. “Just tell me where he is, and then you can die together!”

“No.” Theo’s voice is hard, Tristan’s wide eyes growing impossibly larger when he feels a tremor through the ground beneath his feet. The large man stumbles a bit and takes a few steps back, watching Theo rise slowly to his thick booted feet and his hand pulling the large sword from between his shoulder blades. The man looked surprised by Theo’s strength but begins laughing hard, bringing the attention of other soldiers to his position and in moments more men, slightly bigger than Theo appear.

“You’re outnumbered kid, give up,” one of them says; Theo’s eyebrow quirking in question as he looks around.

“You can’t take us all on,” another said, laughing slightly though his laugh is cut short when Theo thrusts his swords through the man’s face; the tip of it coming out the back of his head.

Gods, he’s got some guts doing that. Tristan thought, watching in amazement as Theo slashes down another man with a single movement; moving so fast it was hard for Tristan and the other men to follow, that is until the man who’d grabbed him to begin with gave the order for all of them to attack at once. Thank the gods Theo is skilled with a blade. Tristan thought when another man went down and he suddenly realised that Theo probably could’ve saved their parents when the other soldier left is the ox man.

“Think you can take me, boy?”

“You’re overly confident for a man who just watched his comrades get cut down by this boy.” Theo mocks, a smirk on his face when the big man grabs a sword from one of his fallen men and bringing it down hard on Theodore’s. The exchange blows, flowing from offense and defence so often, Tristan couldn’t follow; a gasp leaving his mouth when Theo is put on his knees and the big guy jumps into the air, bringing down the sword harder than before with the help of gravity. The swords hit with a loud clang but as soon as they hit, the man is blasted away by some invisible force; Theo takes that as his chance to run. Wiping the blood from his face as he runs towards where he last saw Tristan, grinning when he reaches his friend.

“Let’s go.” Theo says and Tristan follows, feeling dumbfounded by the fact that Theo had won.

“How did you win?” Tristan asks when they’re a good ways away, both of them panting from running.

“I’m just very skilled, Tris.” Theo laughs, continuing to move through the darkness of the night and they soon see some lights in the distance; a town. “We better not stop at any buildings from now on, the towns folk might tell authorities and the shacks are a dead giveaway since they’re mostly abandoned.”

“So where are we stopping to rest then?” Tristan says and Theo shrugs, looking around with blazing eyes.

“We’ll keep walking until late in the afternoon since the sun is almost up and stop when we find somewhere we think is safe.” Theo muses loudly, running a bloodied hand through his hair and putting red streaks through it.

Tristan doesn’t vocalise his agreement, just follows Theo; trusting his friend with all he has left.

His life.