Ridley

To keep news of the princess's disappearance under wraps, I was allowed to take only a small team with me. I brought Percival, along with two older knights, Thomas and Erica. We had been traveling together for only a day, but I'd already heard them whispering amongst themselves that it wasn’t fair for me to be our leader. They had been knights for years while I had just come out of training.

I tried not to feel too guilty about it. It's not like I had chosen the position. Yet, for some reason, I still felt a stab of something deep in my chest each time I caught one of their whispers. 

At one point, Percival had come up to me, clapped a gloved hand on my shoulder and said, “It’s alright, Ridley. Sometimes even being perfect has a cost.”

As we continued deeper into the forest, I began to notice a twist to the trees, the foliage growing closer together.

Percival glanced at me, arching a brow. “Looks like we’re about to enter the Dark Forest. Nervous?”

I shook my head. “Not really.”

“I thought as much," Percival said with a sigh. "Does anything scare you, Ridley?” 

“Not being useful." I thought for a moment. "And maybe dying.”

Percival snorted. “Maybe dying? Well, I’ll take your word for it.” His gaze swept over the twist of vines and roots curling across the narrow path, nearly overtaking it. “Why did they name this the Dark Forest anyways? Couldn’t they have come up with something more original? Maybe the Crooked Wood or the Archaic Acre?” 

“I think the Dark Forest is a perfectly fine name.”

“It’s Alterians like you who cause us to have such boring and cliché names for everything. Like, is Prince Vandel even known as the Evil Demon Prince of Darkness everywhere or did Alteria just come up with that on our own?”

He was starting to get ever so slightly on my nerves. I couldn’t let that show, of course. He was my friend.

So instead I simply smiled politely and said, "I don’t know. Perhaps.”

“Just snap at me,” he said suddenly.

I blinked. “What do you mean—”

“C’mon, Ridley! We’ve been friends since we were kids. Just act like a normal human for once in your damn life and snap at me. Or...I don’t know...actually make a joke, or genuinely smile. Just...Gods, Ridley. Give me something.”

I was giving him my attention. Wasn’t that enough? What else could he want from me?

“Listen,” I said slowly. “We really don’t have time for this. We need to focus on finding the princess—”

“You never have time!” Percival snapped.

I noted that Erica and Thomas had fallen silent behind us.

Swallowing hard, I centered myself. “We'll discuss this at a later date.”  

I hoped by then he would forget about it. I hated dealing with personal problems, but I hated disappointing people even more. I just wanted to be a good knight and a person people could like. Was that really so much to ask?

We continued walking in silence. For some strange reason, my mind drifted back to the image of Prince Vandel in the cathedral. I could recall it so clearly, his coal black eyes burning into my soul like dying embers. He had seen me. Hell, he had smiled at me. Recalling that mocking expression made a wave of heat flare up in my chest. I couldn’t wait for round two. Then I would show him I was a force to be reckoned with. 

A thud sounded. I spun around, finding Thomas sprawled accross the ground behind me.

Instantly, I offered him my hand. “Are you alright?”

Thomas blatantly ignored me, scrambling to his feet himself. “I’m fine,” he muttered to the others as he brushed himself off. “Just tripped over a rock.”

I glanced up at the sky, brows drawing together. “It’s getting dark. We should set up camp for the night.”

Everyone seemed to actually agree with me for once. While Erica and Thomas hoisted our tents, Percival and I kept watch, scanning the forest for demons, or worse, one of the Bone King's monsters. 

“Alright, question,” Percival said as we stared out into the dark tangle of trees. I fought the urge to groan. He always tried to play these dumb games when we were on lookout duty. “Would you rather face the Bone King in a fight or the Evil Demon Prince of Darkness Vandel?”

“You could have just said Prince Vandel.”

“Answer the question, dork!”

I thought for a moment. “Well, no one has ever seen the Bone King before. All we know is that he sends the monsters. He could be terrible in combat. Prince Vandel, on the other hand, is known for being a skilled magician. But he's arrogant and hot-headed, which means he has several well-known weaknesses that would be easy to exploit—”

“I would want to fight the Evil Demon Prince of Darkness Vandel,” Percival said, cutting me off. “I want to beat that little twerp to a pulp and show him he can’t just steal another kingdom's princess. What do you think he even wants with her? Ransom?”

“No, too simple. And certainly not worth the risk of entering a guarded Alterian event." I sighed, crossing my arms. "He probably wants to marry her.”

Percival's jaw dropped. “WHAT?”

I shrugged. “It’s an obvious move, really. The demons were waiting for an opportunity like this since the princess came of age a few months ago. If Vandel marries an Alterian crown princess, he gains control of the kingdom without even conquering us.”

“There’s no way we would let him rule us. We'd rebel!”

“But he would still have the legal footing and the upper hand.”

Percival ran a hand roughly through the brown waves of his hair. “Well, shit…”

"The princess is smart and brave," I said, matter-of-factly. "She won’t let him marry her." Following the words, I became painfully aware of just how intensely Percival was staring at me. “Is everything alright?” I asked, unsure if I had said something wrong. Again. 

“Are you in love with Annette?”

I blinked, surprised at the question. “What?”

Percival’s eyes narrowed, drawing out the words. “Are you...in love...with...Princess...Annette.”

“Uh...I don’t think so…no.” Honestly, I didn’t know what being in love was even supposed to feel like. “Why are you asking me this?”

Percival shook his head, refusing to look at me as his arms crossed accross his chest. “Forget it. It doesn’t matter.”

I wished I knew what I was doing to upset him so much these last few days. But since I didn't, I just shrugged. “Okay.”

I guess that wasn’t the right response, because he turned away, his back remaining to me. My shoulders sagged. Sometimes it felt like everyone else could fluently speak some invisible language I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried.

That’s when I noticed a pair of black eyes watching me from the darkness. A raven stepped out from the underbrush, its head cocked to the side as it stared at me. 

Smiling, I crouched to be at its level. “Hey, little guy."

I liked animals. I could actually understand the way they acted. Digging through my bag, I pulled out a loaf of bread I'd been saving for later. I ripped off a piece, tossing it to the bird who began to nibble on it. It was a pretty little thing, dark feathers glistening purple in the moonlight.

When it finished, the raven looked back up, coal-black eyes staring intently, like it wanted to memorize me. Then it took off, a sweep of wings disappearing into the inky sky.

------

One more day of traveling passed. Percival mercifully seemed to be back to normal, though he tended to change the subject at any mention of the princess.

Night had begun to fall when I abruptly froze, causing the other three members of my team to slam into each other as they came to a stop behind me.

“Ridley, what the hell...” That’s when Percival saw what I was looking at. "Oh."

A castle made entirely from black glass loomed over us. It shimmered in the moonlight, twisting its way into the night sky. Its shape was like nothing I'd ever seen before, like wax dripping upwards. The windows were lit, but the air was unsettlingly still, the forest around us completely silent. There was something about the place that made me shiver, something inherently just... wrong.

Percival stared up at it, eyes wide. “How hard do you think it’s going to be to break into there?”

I thought for a moment before I slowly turned to face him. “Extremely.”