"I won't think about it. Not until tonight when I have no other option," said the runaway Princess Adora.
With her cloak's hood pulled low over her head, she guided the horse out of his stable. She was speaking to herself as much as to her stallion Sebastian, who regarded her with curiosity in his intelligent eyes. As though sensing the equine question, Adora continued. "Everyone is still asleep. Including my newest guard Nolan. Oh, do not look at me that was, Sebastian. The Prince has completely filled my schedule with events! I must find time where I can."
Sebastian did not protest. The Princess mounted her horse, riding sidesaddle. Avoiding the port and the town, she drove the gleaming white stallion alongside the river that meandered through the outer farmlands. It was a lesser known path, one she had been taught in her childhood. The sun was only just beginning to rise over the Kingdom of Stormwatch; farmers who had risen with the day waved at her as she passed by in the cool, dewy morning. Sebastian galloped through the rolling fields of wildflowers, and down finally into the King's Forest.
In her saddle bags were items she had silently packed in the sleepy pre-dawn hours. In recent months she had learned to make herself lost before the day had truly begun. Better to ask for forgiveness later.
The palace had never recovered from the Good King's sudden departure to war. Prince Nicobar, brother to the King, had been crowned regent until his brother's return. Years had gone by, and though the King had never been officially pronounced dead, his correspondence had been all but none. In truth, all of Stormwatch seemed to have come more undone year by year.
Bandits by land, pirates by sea, and the ever-present danger of uncontrolled wild magic and the wild storms for which the kingdom was so named. One particular band of outlaws had become a growing thorn in the side of the Prince. They had only recently sprung up, captained by a mysterious leader who went by the name Grimholt.
Nicobar, and indeed the court alongside various foreign dignitaries, had fallen victim to the outlaws multiple times, each occasion more audacious than the last. Evasive, elusive, and ostentatious. The princess had overheard hushed conversations about him around the castle, but bounties were the concern of bounty hunter and the Sheriff, not her.
"Princess! Princess Adora!" The voice called suddenly from far above her. Sebastian came to a halt as Adora gazed up.
Atop a fat tree branch, and gaily waving his hat in greeting, sat the Forest Keeper. Though, he had introduced himself to her as 'The Master of the Forest' instead of the official title. She watched as he scaled expertly down the tree. He seemed to keep so much strength and power masked behind his lithe and fluid movements.
"Good day, Princess!" He said brightly beside her, brushing bark and leaves from his simple, dark clothing that obscured most of him. Including a dark bandana that covered his face from the eyes down. She had wondered more than once what his smile might look like, but his icy blue gaze was intense. Sometimes he reminded her of the Sheriff, just a pair of eyes burning.
During her recent excursions to the forest, she had run into the man and developed a sort of friendship with him. She found him odd and oddly charming.
"Good day, Keeper. How are you? Whatever were you doing up there?"
"Right as rain, Highness, right as rain. What a fine fair day in the Kingdom, eh? As to your other question, weeellll," he stretched out the word, tracing his hand on Sebastian's neck. "Oh, just trying to get a better look around. Tell me, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?"
"I hear tell of a piebald deer in these woods. I was hoping I might see, to paint it." She never told the Keeper the true motivation behind her visits. She was a terrible liar, but he was a servant of the court no matter how little he interacted with them. The job of the Forest Keeper was to, well, keep to the forest. He had never called her out on her lies, and she was content to be less than honest with a wild man she only met infrequently.
"A deer you say?"
"Yes, I overheard them speaking of it at dinner. Surely you know of it, Keeper. You know everything in the forest. Could you point me in a proper direction?"
"I see that her Highness brings no weapons. She bares no blades. No arrows, or magic? Not even the Phantom?"
"Heavens no. I could never harm an innocent beast! The Phantom, well-"
Suddenly the Keeper clasped one of her hands betwixt his own. He gazed up at her, the mischievous glint in his eyes replace with almost painful sincerity. Her pulse quickened, and she felt the cool breeze against her rapidly heating face. He had never been so forward.
"My good, sweet, fair lady I beseech you! Haven't you seen the wanted posters all throughout the town? This wicked forest is filled with bandits! Allow, if you would, this humble master of the forest to escort you."
"I would greatly appreciate your assistance, and the company. I have packed a lunch, you know, enough to share. What say you, Keeper?"
"Capital, my lady! I say our hunt begins." He released her hand and collected Sebastian's reigns, then began to casually stroll down the path. "Come now, highness, pray regale me with the news from the capital city as we walk." He often asked that of her. Not leaving his post in the woods left him out of the loop, she supposed.
"Prince Nicobar has many lively events scheduled, as ever. The ball tonight for instance."
"Yes, yes the goodPrince Nicobar does love his amusements, doesn't he? What is the cause to celebrate I wonder?" He put a strange emphasis on the word 'good.' It walked a razor's edge of mockery, which was a dangerous path to tread in Stormwatch.
She didn't want to talk about the ball. That was precisely why she had gone through so much trouble to leave this morning. Yet, she was the one who brought it up first. "Ah, well... There are a number of foreign visitors, shall we say, in Stormwatch. Those of great renown and birth and title and all that. It is the Prince's desire that I should select one... To wed, that is."
"Marriage? My my and while the good King is away? Surely you cannot be married without his blessing."
"You know, Keeper, the laws of this land are quite tricky. There as many loopholes that someone could take advantage of. In this case, the blessing is to be given after the ceremony, you see." To use her as a political pawn in a game that Nicobar, in her private opinion, was unprepared to play fairly.
"Forgive me if I'm prying, my lady, but have any of these hopefuls of splendid wealth and noble birthright caught your eye?"
"Not in the least," she said with a little huff, which earned a laugh from him. It was a robust, good laugh that melted the frost that had been chilling her heart on the subject. The kind of laugh she wanted to hear again. "They have all been haughty and shallow and vain."
"I suppose it would take someone rather impressive to win your hand, eh?"
"That is just the problem, Keeper- that I should be 'won.' What I would quite like is to be romanced! To have the same chance at true love as my own dear parents had. Oh, but forgive me. I shouldn't bother you with my woes and petty concerns."
"Not a bother, not at all. Your visits are quite like a ray of sunshine cutting through the gloom.
Ah, but now we must proceed quietly. We are near."
The Forest Keeper slowed her horse further and led the well-trained animal through the soft, silencing moss. He pressed a finger against the fabric atop his lips and pointed. In the distance was a group of deer grazing in the tall grass.
Suddenly a great commotion erupted from somewhere deep within the forest. The deer all snapped their heads up and over to the din, like that of a small parade. Laughter, singing, and voices all vying for attention against the rattle of carts and clomp of hooves. As the sound rumbled down the path, the deer bolted away in a blur of legs and white-tipped tails.
"The bloody fools," cursed the Keeper unexpectedly as they both watched the herd flee. "Quick, majesty, away! Outlaws approach!"
"Outlaws?" She swallowed thickly. This was exactly what the Phantom had warned her about, and she had to be foolish and impulsive and not listen. "What of you, Keeper? Are you not in danger?"
He laughed again, the same hearty and deep laugh as before. It was distantly echoed by the outlaws that now threatened to close the distance and discover them. "They won't bother the master of the forest."
Then he slapped the stallion's flank, and Sebastian took off flying through the woods at breathtaking speed. The Princess twisted around to see the Forest Keeper disappearing behind her, waving his hat in farewell. For just a jostling flash, there was the soft, white blur of the piebald deer. She blinked hard, and when she looked again they were both gone.