After traveling for several hours, they decided to set up camp, courtesy of Aston. Each person would stay in their own tent for privacy.

Gwyneth changed into her nightgown silently wondering when she would have the chance to wash her earlier attire. The clothes she had brought with her were far different than what she would wear as a princess, which was part of the reason she had chosen them. A dark green slim-fitting body suit with a skirt seemingly cut down the middle to allow for more movement. A thin layer of chainmail could be seen at her sides, the rest of it having been covered by the material. She didn't intend to do much fighting, but she wouldn't allow her death to be to something as stupid as tripping over her own skirt. Isla's outfit was similar but purple with a longer skirt. Elric and Aston had opted for lighter chainmail than full suits of armor as the latter would not be practical.

Breakfast was determined by Aston, who of course picked his favorite: pancakes.

"Can we at least get some protein with this?" Gwyneth asked.

"Mmm... Don't feel like it." Aston shoved another forkful into his mouth.

"This is not a healthy breakfast." Elric poked and prodded the pancakes with his fork.

"Who said it had to be?"

"There isn't even any sugar syrup!" Isla gawked.

"Doesn't need any."

Clearly, not packing their own food was a mistake.

A couple days had passed, mostly spent in idle conversation or bickering.

"When will we reach Forlorn Forest?" Isla asked, trotting along on her unicorn. There were plenty of trees along the path they were on, but not quite enough for it to be considered a forest.

"At the rate we're going? Maybe two more days," Elric answered. "Just entering the forest, I mean. We will be traveling around the city rather than straight through. If we're caught, we're as good as dead."

"Not like they can kill me," Aston shot back.

"We don't know that for sure."

"Did the prophecy say what would happen if our savior died?" Isla asked.

"If he died, he wouldn't be our savior. It would mean we misinterpreted the prophecy, and it is yet to happen."

"Clearly we have." Gwyneth bit her lip. She was still skeptical about the whole thing.

"Until proven otherwise, this is our savior, for better or worse."

"Hmph. I'm saving your sad excuse for a kingdom. You should be grateful." Aston huffed.

"My mother and father sheltered and pampered you for ten years. Perhaps it is you who should be grateful we didn't leave you in your village where you would have had to work for everything. After all, if you really are the "savior", you would have managed." Gwyneth tightened her grip on the reins. She hated that Aston felt entitled to everything in his life. How had he ended up like this? He was gloating ever since the moment she met him, but had he always been like this? If magic really did this to people, it was for the best that humans couldn't wield it. It would sure explain the Fae.

"Show some respect! Without me, you would all be dead!"

"Watch your mouth!" Elric quickly positioned his horse in front of Aston's, blocking his movement. "This is your princess you're speaking to, in case you have forgotten. She is still your superior no matter what powers you may possess."

"Stop! Just stop!" Isla shouted. "I'm not going on a journey where all we do is fight with each other until we push the bad guy off his balcony, and he goes splat!"

"Is... that how you envision it?" Elric blinked.

"What? Is that not what we're doing? I read about it in a book, so I just assumed..." Isla quickly shut her mouth, a blush forming. "A-Anyway! We're not going to get anywhere if we're always fighting! I propose a truce. No more yelling and no more bickering until the trip is over. Promise?"

"Promise." Gwyneth placed her hand over her heart. If this was something they could all agree upon it would make their journey that much less of a headache.

"It depends on if this sorry excuse for a living-being behaves." Elric shot Aston a glare.

"This isn't helping!" Isla insisted. "You can't keep provoking each other like this!"

"Yeah, dad." Aston glared back.

"Fine... Forget it." She huffed, leaning back into her saddle a little more.

"I promise." Elric let out a long sigh.

"Promise..." Aston glanced away.

"Good. Now... Can we talk about the woman being chased?"

"What woman?" Elric's eyebrows narrowed in concern, eyes quickly scanning around.

"That one right there who has been running the entire time we've been having this conversation!" Isla pointed to a woman with brown hair in the distance, a group of people chasing after her.

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"Bandits," Gwyneth said to herself.

"Why didn't you say something sooner?!" Elric spun his gaze back to Isla, his voice strong and demanding.

"Because you were busy yelling at Aston for lazily pushing the king off of the balcony or something!" She shouted.

"That hasn't happened yet!!!" His voice rose.

"L-Let's just help the lady!" Isla's voice rose to match Elric's.

"Agreed!" Still shouting.

"This is a waste of time-" Aston began, but the other three had already taken off.

Isla was quick to reach the lady and help her onto her unicorn. Elric and Gwyneth caught up to the bandits using their horses to block their way forward. There were about six of them, all wearing a mix of leather and fur.

"Go get Aston. You shouldn't be here, you'll get hurt," Elric urged her.

"I can at least cause a distraction," Gwyneth insisted.

"It's too dangerous. Fall back."

"No, I'll be fine."

"Guys?!" Isla's voice could be heard behind them. During their bickering, they had failed to notice the bandits had run around them. To their surprise, Aston had caught up and was now positioned between the bandits and Isla.

"Move, boy! You think you can take the five of us?" The apparent leader spoke, his voice raspy.

"Uh, hello?" A boy in the back raised his hand.

"Six! I mean six. You think you can take on all six of us?"

"Yeah." Aston deadpanned.

The leader just laughed as he ran forward with a small hand axe. Elric was quick to swoop in and block the attack. "What do you think you're doing?!" He glared at Aston, teeth gritting.

"I have magic! It'll be a cinch!"

"Need I remind you that you failed to attend any of your training?"

"Because I don't need to train." He summoned a ball of fire, aimed at one of the members in the back, and completely missed. "...Or maybe I do."

"Idiot!"

Elric fended off the leader while Aston fumbled with his magic, narrowly dodging two of the other members. By complete accident, he had managed to get one member to stab the other while stepping back at the right moment, gaze set on his hands. For some reason, one of their members seemed to hang back watching the fight in amusement.

At this point, Isla pulled out the bow that was strung on her back. She paused for a moment. Did she really want to kill someone? No, she would aim for their hands and feet. Pulling back the string, she loosed an arrow that landed in the center of the leader's foot causing him to howl in pain as he took a wobbly step back. She readied another arrow, completely oblivious to the two bandits dragging the woman behind her off the unicorn.

At this point, Gwyneth had hoisted a rather large tree branch and swung it at the bandit gripping the lady's arm. They unceremoniously fell to the ground as the other pulled out a knife holding it to the woman's neck.

"Wait, I know you! You'we the pwincess!" He gawked, knife still against the lady's throat. From the way he spoke, this man was completely drunk. Gwyneth immediately dropped the branch knowing one wrong move would set this guy off.

Elric — noticing that the princess was in danger — quickly fled to her aid, the leader had already fallen. That left two bandits for Isla and Aston to take care of. No matter how he tried, Aston couldn't seem to get his aim right. First, he had set the bush next to them on fire, then he accidentally froze himself in place. Why was this so much easier at the castle? Was it because his nerves were all over the place? But why was he worried? He was stronger than the six of them combined!

"Wow, you're the supposed hero, right?" One of the bandits spoke, a blond boy with curly hair going down to his shoulders. His beige skin was tanned by no doubt being exposed to hours of direct sunlight. He looked to be around the same age as Aston. "Heard about you from our village. Sad to think you're the one our lives depend on."

"Shut up! I'm way more powerful than you'll ever be!" Aston clenched his fists.

"Power means nothing if you don't know how to use it." He tsked, shaking a finger back and forth.

Isla had dealt with the other bandit, so all that was left was him and the one holding the lady hostage. Isla readied an arrow and took aim. Yet, there was something different about this boy. He didn't seem like the other bandits. "If you're from the village, why are you terrorizing one of your own?" She asked.

The boy exaggerated a puking noise. "Don't associate me with that place. Left ages ago. Those people mean nothing to me. It's not like I hold a personal grudge against them or anything. This is my family now. Or... Was, my family..." He looked around at the fallen bodies. Half of them were knocked out and the other half was yet to be discerned. "I guess killing the savior would bring some sort of satisfaction to me." He smirked, pulling out two daggers.

Aston summoned a ball of fire, narrowly dodging the boy's blades. That was the thing about magic — each spell took time to cast. A simple teleportation spell moving a few meters would cast almost instantly, while summoning an element took around five seconds. The boy was extremely nimble, and Aston was not. It took all of his stamina to dodge the boy who fully intended to kill him, and his aim was far too shaky to actually hit. Isla tried to take aim but wasn't confident enough in herself not to hit Aston by mistake.

The two went back and forth, the boy chasing after him rapidly swiping his daggers, and Aston running for his life while casting hasty spells that always missed. He had gotten several scratches from the blades and cursed the fact that he had never properly trained. He knew he couldn't keep going at this rate. If only there was magic that didn't require aim...

That was it! While running, he quickly began casting a wind spell. Summoning this amount of wind would take twenty seconds at least. Okay, he just needed to survive the next twenty seconds. Easier said than done. He ducked under a tree branch and hopped over some roots, but his opponent was too nimble to be caught off guard by something like that. He needed to return to the group in case the spell failed. He had entered one of the nearby forests by accident while running away. He made a beeline back to the group, hoping his plan would work. Though, if it did fail, Isla had her aim on this guy and was ready to shoot that arrow any second, right?

Right?

As the spell was nearing completion, he slowed down allowing the boy to catch up. Just as he had planned, the spell went off and a gust of wind sent the boy flying. Ironically, he landed on the drunk bandit, releasing the woman from his grasp.

"That... Hurt..." The boy grunted, slowly pushing himself off the ground. Or uh, off this guy's butt.

"You saved me!" The woman beamed.

"Huh? Oh, that was a complete accident. I didn't mean-"

"My, you're kind of cute."

"H-Huh?!"

"Is that all of them?" Isla ran towards the group, Aston panting behind her.

"Looks like it." Elric nodded. He turned to Aston, his sleeves torn, and his face scratched and bruised. "You did well." Elric felt a bit of pride in him, giving him a hard pat on the back.

A little too hard as he completely keeled over.

"Thank you for saving me." The woman glanced at Gwyneth before bowing. "Our village has information I believe would prove useful to your quest. Besides, I'm sure you're hungry after all that fighting!"

"Thank you for your generous offer. We will gladly accept your hospitality." Gwyneth smiled.

"You too!" The lady called out to the curly-haired boy who had begun walking away.

"Me?" He motioned to himself. "But I didn't do anything."

"'Course you did! Come on! I bet you're starving, you scrawny little thing! Women like a man with muscle!"

The boy blushed before nodding his head. Admittedly, he was tired of being picked on for his build.

Elric slung Aston over his horse as they began their ride to the village. It wouldn't be long.