As the week wore on, Aushen found himself feeling worse and worse. Luckily, as his sister wasn’t very attentive, he was able to downplay it to the stress of travel. In spite of how he felt, and the cramped feeling of being in a carriage all day, he had to say he enjoyed the experience to some degree. He’d never had the chance to see so much of his kingdom with his own two eyes. 

Seeing the land and people pass by filled him with even more resignation, and at the same time, more nervousness. He constantly felt the weight of ‘not being good enough’, no matter how hard he tried. He knew none of his siblings wanted the throne- none of them felt that anyone could be a better crown prince than Aushen.

Aushen just wished he could believe that too. 

Day wore on to night, and in spite of the season being autumn, in the north it was now cold enough to snow. Aushen drifted to sleep watching the snowflakes dance against the full moon, and dreamt of a memory he’d tried forgetting many times.

-

“…eight, nine, ten! Ready or not, here I come!” A six year old Aushen shouted and laughed, tearing around the courtyard in search of his companion. 

His sister, only four, was no good at hide-and-seek. She’d get bored too quickly to seek or to hide, and just wanted to play with her dolls. Meyron was only two, and the attendants wouldn’t let him play in the courtyard unless Nanny was with him. Nanny was fun, but all of her attention had to be on Meyron and the new baby Deluc, not to mention following all of Odessa’s whims. In terms of playmates, that left only—

“Vall! I found you!” Aushen jumped on his companion, an older boy named Valleus. 

Valleus laughed along with the prince. “So you did, so you did. You’re getting good at this, I need to find better hiding spots.”

Aushen shook his head. “Nuh-uh, I know every place in the courtyard. I’ll always find you. Plus, you’re too tall!” As if to accentuate his point, Aushen hung off of Valleus’ arm. 

Valleus chuckled. “Yeah, yeah. If the trees here were bigger, I’d climb to the top; then you’d never find me!” 

Aushen smiled brightly at his companion. “Well then I’d learn to climb them, and I’d come get you!”

Valleus’ heather-gray eyes closed as he smiled. “You’re going to be the tree-climbing king of Kumbra, is that it?” 

“Yeah!” Aushen laughed, hugging Valleus tightly. 

The twelve year old smiled down at him, ruffling his hair. “Okay, one more game, then you need to go in for your lessons. What do you want to play?” 

Aushen suppressed the urge to complain about attending his lessons. Whenever he did that, Valleus would scold him, saying he couldn’t serve a king who hadn’t done his lessons. “How about… hide and seek again!”

Valleus laughed heartily. “You only picked that because you know you’ll win!” 

Aushen reached up to cover the boy’s eyes. “Well start counting and do your best!” 

“One, two, three…”

A bump in the road shook the carriage and stirred Aushen from his dream. He blinked a few times, then sighed. “Still dreaming of him…” he muttered to himself. 

“What was that?”

The question gave Aushen a start. “Odessa, you’re awake?”

She chuckled lightly. “Of course I am; how could I sleep through all this?” As if in response, the carriage hit another bump in the road. Aushen could see her features take on a more serious expression in the moonlight. “Bad dream?”

Aushen shook his head with a cough. “No, no, just old memories.” 

His sister frowned. “Aushen, you don’t look so good… are you okay?”

Before he could respond, Odessa reached across and laid her palm against his forehead. “Aushen!” she gasped. “You’re burning up!” 

Aushen narrowed his eyes. “I’ll be fine—“ His sentence was interrupted by another cough. He’d never felt so hot, so uncomfortable, in his life. He wished he could climb out of his skin. 

Odessa knocked on the back window of the carriage. Behind them was a smaller area that was not inside the carriage but still partially covered, and well protected from the elements. Aushen’s attendant Olef and Odessa’s lady-in-waiting Mary were there. The window had a small sliding area that could open so they could talk to one another. 

“Please, get them to stop the carriage! Aushen is very sick!” Odessa cried out. 

Aushen shook his head, although he knew in the darkness no one would see. “We may as well get to the Northern Castle, we’re almost there.” His voice was slurring; even he was caught by surprise at how sick he sounded. 

The carriages ground to a halt. Aushen was impressed by how quickly word had gotten to the front. 

Odessa raised her eyebrows. “That was awfully quick.” 

Aushen heard footsteps approaching the carriage, crunching in the snow. He began to make a mental argument for continuing their journey at least to the Northern Castle, which would probably be a better place for him to recover regardless, but his train of thought was derailed by shouting outside. 

“What’s going on...?” Odessa voiced his thoughts unknowingly. Suddenly, the slat in the back window flew open. 

“Your Highness, Princess! We’ve got trouble! Someone’s attacking our caravan!” Olef shouted. 

In spite of his fever, Aushen dug through his travel bag for his dagger and jumped toward the carriage door.

“Aushen, what are you thinking?!” Odessa tried not to scream, but she was beginning to sound hysterical.

Aushen trained a serious gaze upon her. “Odessa, it’s a full moon against the snow. They’ll deduce in ten seconds or less which carriage we’re in. Hopefully they’ll just try to take our belongings, but if they’re after us, we need to split up. There’s no sense in letting them take both of us.” 

Odessa knew exactly what he meant- Aushen intended to draw whoever it was away from this carriage, leaving Odessa safe. 

“But you’re unwell!” Aushen turned to face the door, ignoring her arguments. Adrenaline had kicked in, making him feel much more capable than he did a few minutes ago. 

“I’ll be fine,” he said. Without turning back, he threw open the carriage door and leapt out, slamming it behind him.