“The food is so fresh! Thank you Prince Adanian!”

“Thank you, Prince!”

“Long live the prince!”

Similar cries erupted from the campsite, dignitaries and guards all coming together under gratitude. 

“Please! Call me Aiden.”

Prince Aiden smiled sheepishly, holding his own rations atop his makeshift plate. Greens of cabbage and onions, the red of peppers and salty meat with a savory sauce that would have spoiled long before now if he hadn’t used a preservation spell on them. 

“I’m happy to do it if it means we have one more hot meal to fill our stomachs.” He raised his bowl to his companions on this eight week journey to this country’s capital, Jerome. 

They had crossed deserts, faired seas, and each other from the country of Remu, over a three thousand miles away to negotiate trade. Without the fresh produce and food that Aiden had preserved, the likelihood of preserving their good manners was none. 

Crunching on the cabbage slices, Aiden looked around the camp. A sliver of the moon shone down upon them, paling in the light of the campfire his guards had built for the company. 

When one side of his body grew too warm, he switched sides on the log, heating up the other. The desert had cold nights, but here it was a different kind of cold, less bone chilling, yet still made his ears hurt. 

“Your Highness, would you like some?” An accompanying dignitary offered him some dried fruit coated in a thin layer of sugar. Aiden gladly accepted, happily setting down his cabbage in favor of the sweet. 

“Thank you.” Giving a warm smile, the man took his time meandering to the fire on the boundary of the camp, and sat down on the ground to converse with another companion. 

Prince Aiden couldn’t help being treated like a child. His eleventh birthday was approaching, but his country Remu, didn’t recognize boys as men until their thirteenth birthday. Until then, Prince Adanian would graciously accept the gestures of goodwill his people offered him, for they would stop once he passed his trials.

As soon as the man was out of their camp, one of Aiden’s guards came up and plucked the sugared fruit from his hand. 

Annoyed, Aiden allowed his guard, Kiln, to cut off a piece and eat it. After waiting for several minutes, the sweet was returned to him. 

“You have no manners.” Aiden grumbled, sucking on the sweet then spicy red flesh. These were anpan peels. While the fruit itself was sweet, the skin was spicy and often preserved in sugar to heighten the intensity of the flavor. Because anpan grew on a type of cactus, it could endure harsh heat and be produced even in droughts, making it a staple in Remu cuisine. 

With his Talent of preservation, he could have brought fresh anpan peels with him, but some things just tasted better when they were preserved the traditional way. 

“And it will continue as long as I’m in charge of your life.” Kiln spoke, smacking his lips. He too enjoyed candied anpan peels. 

Aiden chewed halfheartedly on the treat, deep in thought. Having traveled all this way from Remu to Abrulemonos, he had seen many kinds of merchants. Tapestries, grains, agriculture, even merchants of flesh, if one looked close enough. They were everywhere, which made him both grateful and uneasy. While he was here to barter trade between the countries, what wares hadn’t he seen? What could his country possibly offer that this country didn’t already have?

The threat of him being taken hostage was a real circumstance that loomed over the company, although it was a different ruler the last time that had happened. This time he was meeting… what was it? Ponpon? Ponty?

He pushed the rest of his treat in his mouth, the burning on his tongue a welcome sensation. Eating meat, cabbage and peppers for two weeks created a deep longing for variation. The next rations rotation were supposed to be fish, and a kind of tuber, both of which he wasn’t fond of. Goddess, he was glad to arrive this week and take a bath after tasting some new dishes at their destination. 

Stuck in a anxious spiral of his own making, he halted. If this Ponpon already had everything, would the trade Aiden proposed be worth it? Would he be sent back empty handed? 

Worried all over again, he got up to pace, rehearsing his responses in his head while he headed to a tree to relieve himself. 

When Kiln stepped in behind him, Aiden snapped out of his thoughts and whirled on Kiln. 

“We talked about this. I don’t need you glued to my back. I’m fine to go for a minute!”

Fuming with the sticky residue of an old argument, Kiln avoided Aiden’s eyes and didn’t move. 

A snide reprimand forming in his throat, he stopped when he caught the sound of something in the surrounding forest. Or rather, the absence of sound. No birds, crickets, nor the wails of a Kovo filled the night. 

Kiln reacted first, placing his ear to the ground. The campsite grew quiet, the other guards had already alerted everyone to be quiet so Kiln could hear the disturbance without interference. 

Calm confusion crossed Kiln’s face. 

“One? They’re small. And another. It almost sounds like a… remwyrm?” Kiln focused in on the sound.

His beloved remwyrm was back home in Thaluk, being cared for and doted on. Sandy skin and calloused pads upon muscular appendages made for easy travel across the dunes of Remu’s northwestern regions. However, this scraping, thundering noise sounded like a remwyrm had swallowed two others, its large footfalls twice the size of the beasts he raised. 

“Umber one and two, here!” Kiln called out, getting up from the ground in one fluid movement. Because it sounded so big, and he had his Highness Adanian with this group, he couldn’t take the risk this would be the same kind of beast they had back home. 

Two men grabbed their weapons, a spear with a blade that looked like a teardrop, only the center was open to prevent it from getting lodged into its target. Indentations ran all the way around the blade, stopping before it finally joined into a point. Tassels hung from the bindings, colorful thread and beads, representing different achievements that the bearers had accomplished after reaching manhood. 

Placing themselves around the Prince, the rustling grew louder, the thumps as drums in their ears. Blood roared in their ears as their body dumped adrenaline against the unknown of what was to come. 

Crick! Crack! 

Sounding much closer, trees fell, crashing through the forest, and an uneven thumping of a running gait could be heard as if working through obstacles. 

Gripping his sword in the shape of a claw, Kiln took on a fighting stance. But what flew out of the fell trees wasn’t the beast he was expecting, but a girl.

Her clothes grimy and crumpled in many places, soot was smeared on her desperate and terrified face as she was catapulted into Kiln.

Umph! 

Kiln fell backwards in an effort to avoid stabbing the girl, gripping the clothes of her as if they were the nape of a kitten. She must have been the small steps he had detected a minute ago. 

Barreling behind her into the camp, the largest remwyrm Kiln had ever seen emerged. Large rivulets of slime swing from its parted mouth, lined with small teeth meant to saw at the flesh of its prey. The prey Kiln held in his grip. 

Scaly, furless skin cover its body, ending in long claws the shape of crescent moons and sharp as swords on the end of each toe. It had no eyes, but instead had the keenest sense of smell, using it and the small tendrils on the end of its long and rounded maw to taste the air. 

“Dammit!” Asura spat, attempting to wriggle free from Kiln’s grip. 

“Let go of me!” 

Dropping her onto the ground like a sack of potatoes, Kiln was momentarily stunned by the ferocity of the little girl in front of him, like a kitten spitting in front of a dog. 

The blind beast moved its head side to side, inhaling deeply, smelling the entire company of the men in discovery. Without warning, it scurried forward, eagerly tracing the scents to its new prey. 

Asura grunted with effort, stomping her shoes against the ground in an attempt to divert the beast’s attention to her. She pulled out a bottle of what looked like spices and sprinkled it as she ran. 

Whining, it skittered to a stop, scratching at its nose as the dust of the spice reached its sensitive nose. 

Boom!

Using its tail, it swept up a plume of dust from the ground, diluting the abrasive scent and scattering debris across the camp. 

“Cover!” Kiln yells, and dove for Prince Adanian, only to find him shielding Asura. She looked flustered and confused, caged underneath the young Prince, his eyes closed as he braced against the debris raining down on them. 

Thwoom!

The tail moved with such strength it dislodged trees, breaking branches the size of furniture and flinging it arbitrarily. Seeing a sizable branch headed towards them, Asura raised her hands, meeting the embrace of Aiden as she did so.