Raven walked hastily to the King's throne room with a piece of letter in his hand. The young priest's face was overwhelmed with panic and frustration after he read the letter, which came from another Kingdom. His dark colored eyes flickered with an emotion that could not be explained with every steps he take.

Queen Ashley, the woman who ruled another Kingdom not to far from here, and the King's soon to be wife, has gotten into a trouble. Her whole Kingdom, that is. Apparently, a curse was spread all over that land and immobilized the whole residents. Even the Queen herself. The letter's subject was to ask for help, for the King himself. And the only way is to find the witch who spread the curse and slay them.

Raven stood in front of the huge, luxurious door, and he exhaled a heavy breath before going inside. His shoes made some loud, tapping noise in yhe quiet hallway as he approached the King. As he's close enough, he knelt down and bowed his head.

"Your majesty, I have brought a very, very bad news from Queen Ashley's Kingdom." He spoke softly, not letting his voice waver at the shock. And with respect, he offered the letter to the King.

There was always some manner of business to take care of when one was the Prince of a Kingdom, and Alistair was no exception. His father was off in the northern region of their lands to scout the area for defenses to be set up on a new front in case of hostilities from another kingdom. And so his son, the prince, was left to deal with the many lords and other nobility who always seemed to have some sort of issue they needed resolved.

"Yes, of course Lord Gennen, we'll have men sent to aid with the bandits," Alistair assured the portly man in front of him. His response was a wiggling of ring covered fingers and an over dramatic bow, "thank you, my Prince. I look forward to our next meeting." They exchanged nods before he was seen out, Alistair waiting until the door had shut to let out a groan. "I certainly do not," he sighed, lounging back in his thrown.

It was mostly quiet for the next few minutes, the prince enjoying what little peace he could get before the doors were opened and his eyes flickered up, expecting another petty issue. It wasn't though, instead it was his good friend. Who looked uncommonly flustered.

Alistair listened as hurried words were spoken to him, and he reached out when the letter was offered, scanning the parchment quickly. He looked up, off into the distance for a moment, then stood. "Nina, make arrangements for horses to be readied," Alistair ordered of the woman beside him. to which she lowered her head with a, "yes m'lord." Then his attention turned to the priest in front of him, "what do we know about this? Besides what's in the letter."

Raven lifted his head to look at the young man in front of him and took out a small, dull colored stone. "I tracked down the sorcery and it was from the witch far at the South. Though, her location moved often." He explained, letting the small, solid stone rolled on his palm.

"This is a kind of spell that could turn any living thing into a stone, and I believe they only have 30 days until they became statues, forever." The priest muttered something that couldn't be heard, but then he stopped himself. "I'm sorry, my lord. But, the witch's motives are still unknown. I could track down her last location, but I can't guarantee that she will be there."

As Raven explained their circumstances, a middle-aged man came into the room with his head held high. "Then, your power is comoletely useless, dear Priest. What's the point of chasing the witch if we can't even catch her?"

"I-"

"Silence. Forgive my rudeness, my lord. But, I offer you another easy choice. We could just ignore Queen Ashley's Kingdom, and find another candidates." The man smiled smugly, and Raven shot a disgusted look on him. How horrible of that man, to just ignore people and let them die like that.

There were too many issues with this situation. The first being that Alistair wasn't exactly fond of being interrupted. The second was that it offended him, and rightly so, that someone would suggest that he abandon his wife to be. "Well I hope you do forgive my rudeness as well, but I am now suddenly with the thought in mind to have you beheaded on the coming dawn, how does that sound?" Alistair replied curtly. As if to enforce his point the four guards in the room shifted towards the man and lifted their halberds just slightly higher.

"Come, to me it seems that you can track her, and that's good enough," Alistair said, leading the way out for himself and Raven, "gather your things and I'll meet you at the stables. We need to leave as soon as possible." With that he gave a nod before starting for his own quarters. There was no other option in Alistair's mind. He must do this to protect not only his future queen and her people, but his honor as well. And if he was going to be completely honest it had been too long since he'd ventured beyond these walls and had taken up arms int he form of anything other than a quill.

This was going to be an adventure.

"Wait! My lord, I-"

There was a muffled yell behind the door as Raven retreated outside with Alistair. He heard the soon to be King told him to gather his belonging, and he immediately bowed his head, before he went back to his room. He took his empty leather bag and quickly filled it with his handmade potions and antidotes. The small unbreakable glass clattered against each other in the bag, and Raven closed it to prevent any bottles falling out if the container.

He glanced over his room and took his robe. It's his only favorite robe for this long journey. Raven sighed quite a lot today, not only his explanation got interrupted, he lost his mood to talk to another people. Alistair is completely fine but, he got a problem with socializing around the castle.

He quickly casted anything that bothers his mind away, and he went to the stable.

The Prince's traveling provisions were always well kept and ready should he be needed or decide to travel, even if it had been months since his last trip like now. Likewise his horse was also tended too, and a carriage in turn should the trip be a longer one. And so it was because of all of this that Alistair was down at the stables only a few minutes after Raven, dressed in sturdy leather and a traveling cloak, all ready to set off.

"Good, you're already here," he greeted the Priest, marching over to where two horses had been saddled up and loaded with supplies for them. Alistair's horse was white, almost purely except for it's grey nose and tail. "If we've only the time you told me time of most definitely of the essence. We leave now, should be able to make it to the southern border in three days."

The Prince pulled himself up onto his horse, motioning for his companion to do the same, "I only hope we can reverse this dark magic."

The priest hoisted himself up to his jet black horse, and sat comfortably in the seat. He patted the horse's head softly and the horse made a pleasant noise in return. Raven turned his head to look at Alistair and nodded. "Yes, that would be very great if it doesn't rain. 30 days, indeed a short time so we shouldn't waste any seconds." He pulled the leash loosely and the black horse walked towards the gate.

"Your majesty, please." He gestured to the gate as his horse stepped aside to make a way for the young King. "I will be right behind you." He offered with his head slightly bowed. He could never, ever raised his head in a disrespectful manner against Alistair, even though they knew each other for quite a long time. He's still Raven's Prince and King, and that fact will never change.

The horses walked on the solid ground that leads to the southern areas. He remember few of the guards told him about vicious beast that lurks around the forest at night. They probably need to pass the forest before twilight, to avoid any unnecessary combat with wild animals, or maybe, thiefs. The road her, or everywhere wasn't completely safe. It's all depends on their luck, and their capability to manage their traveling time.

When Alistair was younger, before the wait of his duties had started to come to fruition, he had ventured across the kingdom many many times. Suffice to say, he knew the land well. It could still be dangerous though, especially with only a party of two. He had faith that they could handle whatever was thrown at them though, and there wasn't enough time to assemble a force and march to where they needed to go. No, this was the best way.

"We can take a shortcut out of the city, cut down that time by a bit," Alistair said, urging his horse on forward. And it did, soon enough they were trotting past the walls, waving to the guards behind them, the Prince leaving a message should the king return before he and Raven had. Then it was just a long, dirt road, and trees upon trees as far as the eye could see.

"We can reach the little village at the halfway point within the forest by nightfall I should think," Alistair mused, watching the road ahead, "although I do wish we could savor this more. It's been too long since I've gotten to walk leisurely through these woods." He turned to Raven with a small smile, "the leaves still sound like they used to when the wind makes then shiver."

Raven noticed the smile and he was taken back to their childhood. He gave another smile in reply and chuckled afterwards. "Yes, it's such a waste that we won't be able to enjoy the scenery calmly. Perhaps, we could walk here again when all the crisis are solved. I hope." The priest muttered, he followed the Prince's steps from behind as they cut through to another road. The village indeed wasn't that far. But, the terrain is a bit difficult to pass.

Raven listened to his surroundings, at how the trees whispered everytime the wind pass by. He looked up to the sky, and noticed some grey colored coulds starting to gather. "My Lord, it would rain in a few hours. We probably need to rush, or the road will become all muddy and tire the horses." Raven suggested, now he was walking right next to Alistair in quick steps.

If the horses getting tired, they might need to get down and rest, and that means they will be staying in the dark without shelter. "I will catch up with you, My Lord." Rave bowed his head. His black horse catching up to the fast pace of their runnings.