Time seemed to speed by as Barton showed Laurence all that the festival had to offer, until the first hints of pink and orange hue began to bleed into the picturesque sky. 

All too soon, it became apparent that they would need to start heading back home so Laurence could get ready for the more formal celebration in his honor at the palace.

Enchanting music was still gliding through Laurence's ears as he and Barton retraced their steps. The prince’s eyes flicked from side to side, watching the lively crowd that surrounded them wistfully.

"Laurence," Barton said, touching his arm lightly, "Don't worry so much about what's to come. You had fun this afternoon, yes?"

As Laurence nodded, opening his mouth with the intention of thanking Barton for suggesting such an outing, a sudden commotion caught his attention. 

Several meters away, someone roughly shoved past a woman, nearly knocking her to the ground. As she struggled to catch her footing, they snatched her coin purse right out of her pocket and sped away. The woman screamed, calling for him to stop, but the thief was already disappearing into the confused crowd.

"Did you see that?" Laurence asked, his voice immediately tightening with rage. "How dare he!"

"Stay here, I'll handle it," Barton tried to preemptively put a stop to the righteous fury he could see burning in the young man’s eyes. 

Unfortunately, Laurence was deaf to Barton’s sensible words, taking off in a dead sprint after the thief, determined to right this wrong with his own hands.

"LAURENCE!" Barton called out, but the prince was long gone, swallowed up by the sea of people.

Like a needle through a tapestry, Laurence weaved between festival-goers, never letting his eyes stray from the dark threadbare cloak of his target. Despite only having minimal training in physical pursuits, he relied on his quick reflexes and natural athleticism to keep him on the thief's tail. 

Though he never looked back, the thief seemed aware that someone was chasing him; he recklessly dumped the wares from the stalls of indignant sellers onto the path behind, hoping to slow down his pursuer.

Laurence would not be so easily thwarted. He calculated the quickest path through the chaos the criminal left in his wake, sliding past pedestrians and expertly vaulting over fallen crates, broken homemade decor, and crushed food items with single-minded focus.

"HALT!" He shouted, but it was barely audible over the ambiance of the festival and increasingly outraged voices of the people they ran past. 

As the thief dashed around a corner into a narrow alleyway, Laurence followed closely behind, his breath forcing itself out in short gasps.

The sounds of musical performances began to quickly fade as he was led further away from the safety of the crowd. Barton's old warnings about the dangers that lurked in Dondor's shadows were far from Laurence’s mind as he pressed on.

With a final burst of speed, Laurence rounded another corner, only to skid to a halt beneath the long shadow of a secluded alcove. The thief he had been chasing stood confidently before him now, flanked by two menacing strangers who seemed hungry for a fight.

There was no escape route other than the way he came. 

Three against one was a little more than Laurence had mentally prepared for, but he wasn’t about to turn tail and run away despite his lacking combat ability. 

Laurence’s chest rose and fell rapidly as he struggled to catch his breath, his glasses fogging up from the exertion. 

"You really let a guy like this follow you all the way here?" Sneered one of the newcomers to the thief, cracking his knuckles threateningly. 

The thief Laurence had been chasing just shrugged a shoulder and muttered, “Just couldn’t shake the pest.” 

"Give back what you stole," the prince demanded once he could speak without his lungs burning, trying to project authority with his voice. "This is your only warning."

"Or what?" Challenged the third thief, stepping closer while grinning sinisterly. He was the largest of them all, standing at least a head taller and twice the width of the rest of them. "You'll toss your glasses at us?"

The three men laughed, their malevolent eyes narrowed in pleasure as they all began closing in on Laurence. 

Though his heart began to pound with fear, the prince stood his ground, tensing his body and raising his fists. 

A blur of movement caught Laurence's eye. 

Against all better judgment, he flicked his gaze upward. 

Before Laurence could fully comprehend what he was seeing, a figure dropped down from above to crouch right in front of him. The long streak of a platinum blonde ponytail trailing after them was the first thing Laurence was able to process about the new person.

They slowly and gracefully rose to their full height. Based on the fitted off-white bodysuit they were wearing, Laurence came to the conclusion it was most likely a man that stood before him.

"Well, that’s quite enough of that!" Ponytail chirped, his tone light and playful to Laurence’s ears. 

The thieves paused, as anyone would, after someone suddenly fell from the sky to stand before them.

Ponytail folded his arms behind his back and tilted his head one side. Everything about what Laurence could see of his body language indicated nonchalance, if not outright playfulness, as he questioned, “Is this really what you want to be doing? All three of you against this one wimp? Where’s the fun in that, hm?” 

Wait—was this guy trying to save Laurence or insult him? 

"Who... who are you?" Laurence asked, taking a careful step back in case he needed to recalibrate for a possible four-on-one battle.

Ponytail turned his head; the long bangs framing his face concealed most of his expression. However, a visible amethyst eye peered at him from beneath the curtain of hair with a searing intensity that sent shivers down the prince's spine. "Someone who can’t afford to let you get hurt," he replied cryptically before turning back to the thieves.

“We’re not suddenly scared because a friend of yours showed up,” The largest thief groused, taking the initiative to stomp forward. 

The guy’s height and build would’ve already been intimidating to most people, but compared to the shorter and trimmer frame of the blonde that had just dropped in, he looked like an absolute mountain.

“Okay!” Ponytail clapped his gloved hands merrily. “I suppose we’re doing this!”

With lightning-fast precision and impossible flexibility, Ponytail flung his leg straight up and delivered a powerful kick straight into the hulking thief's jaw. Blood sprayed from the man’s chin as he stumbled backward.

Wasting no time, Ponytail followed up slamming the heel of his boot into the dazed man’s chest, sending him sprawling on the ground like a starfish. 

He did not move again.

The other two criminals didn’t waste time looking after their fallen comrade. They immediately tried to charge Ponytail, clearly thinking that the two of them together would be able to take him out quickly. 

However, Ponytail was fast. Laurence had never seen anyone move quite like him.

He expertly avoided the thieves' comparatively clumsy strikes, countering with his own precise and devastating jabs to their soft spots. 

The mesmerizing display of calculated strength and agility left Laurence in awe.

In a matter of moments, there were three unconscious men littering the ground. Ponytail stood over the cloaked thief Laurence had initially been chasing, bending down to casually rummage around in the man’s clothes. 

He finally pulled out a coin purse from one of the pockets, lightly shaking it to hear the currency jingle. “Quite a lot in here!” He mused.

Instead of stepping around the thief, Ponytail went out of his way to plant his boot directly on the guy’s stomach as he started walking back toward Laurence. 

A slight wheezing noise followed; at least the man was still alive. 

Fully facing each other for the first time, Laurence was able to take in the expression of smug pride on Ponytail’s face as he held out the retrieved coin purse toward the prince and said, "Your Highness, I believe this is what you were after."

‘How did he know?’ Laurence wondered. Had the man been watching him long before deciding to intervene?

Laurence carefully took the coin purse, his brow furrowed with confusion as his eyes roamed appraisingly over the totality of the other man’s form, before finally settling on the diamond crest emblazoned on one side of his chest. 

It was a crest Laurence saw everyday on the uniform Barton wore. The uniform all those sworn to defend the kingdom wore.

"You’re a Loros Knight?" Laurence stammered in disbelief. 

It wasn’t that he doubted the man’s abilities, but his overall appearance was a little... 

Ponytail had fair skin that looked soft and unblemished, nothing like the often tanned and experience-roughened appearance the knights Laurence was more familiar with had. His hair was a pretty trail of blazing starlight that bled into a setting sun down his back, as if the end of it had been dipped in berry juice and left to dry into a faded pink. 

He had a lean build that was wrapped in a unique one-piece uniform. There were two diamond shaped cutouts just above the hips, and all Laurence could think was that they looked ripe for easy stabbing! 

Why on earth would anyone choose to wear a suit with that sort of design? For aesthetics? While sacrificing protection!?

“I am not a Loros knight,” Ponytail replied while grinning brightly. “I cannot think of a fate more disgusting than being a knight of this kingdom.” 

Offended on behalf of his loyal knights who endured backbreaking training to rise to the level necessary to protect their land, Laurence scowled. He had the utmost respect for not only those who had proven their strength, but also the kind hearted ones who regularly volunteered to patrol the city streets to personally look after their citizens. 

Knights like Barton.

“However,” Ponytail continued, ignorant or uncaring of the prince’s obvious displeasure. “It just so happens I am a different kind of knight, Your Highness. Though I have neither sworn allegiance to the King or to the throne, there is one individual I am obligated to serve.”

Laurence watched on, agitation fading to uncertainty as the man before him swept down into an elegant kneel, gently grasping the prince’s hand and cradling it reverently in his gloved palms. 

“I exist to be Prince Laurence’s knight. Nothing else, Your Highness.”

Two irises reflecting the violet glow of dusk drilled straight through Laurence, seizing the breath from his throat.

“What—?” Laurence stuttered, swallowing nervously. “Who—?”

Before Laurence could properly formulate the right question, Ponytail jumped to his feet, abruptly ending whatever moment they’d been captured in. He took the prince firmly by the wrist and began speed walking back the way Laurence came, sparing no thought for the catatonic thieves strewn across the cobblestone.

"I think it’s time to leave this place, don’t you?" The man insisted, his nonchalant tone incongruent with the implied urgency of his speed. "Dark alleyways are hardly a safe place for helpless princes to dawdle in."

Indignation quickly overtook any gratefulness Laurence would’ve previously been willing to express. “I was hardly helpless,” he insisted, trying to snatch his wrist back, only to be completely unable to break the knight's unwavering grip. 

Was such strength natural? Or was Laurence uniquely weak? 

“The way you trembled in your boots when you came upon the thief's allies says otherwise, Your Highness!” Ponytail refuted breezily.

Laurence grinded his teeth. "Who sent you? Are you really my knight? How did you even know where to find me?" He questioned bitterly. 

No response.

Nothing but their quick footfalls, the soft jangle from the retrieved coin purse, and the reemerging sounds of the town festival greeted his ears.

Why wouldn’t the irritating man answer? Was this some kind of elaborate trap? 

Truly, Laurence had never felt such a whiplash of negative emotions assault him as thoroughly as they did in the scant minutes he’s spent in this knight’s presence.