Prince Kendrick slid off his palfrey, landing with a [i]crunch[/i] on the foliage beneath his feet, much to the chagrin of the master tracker accompanying him. He shrugged, knowing that there were still miles from their quarry, and a horse would make too much noise to approach without scaring off any beast in these woods. A single attendant, a young lad with blond hair in a bowl cut that had to reach up to assist the prince, adjusted the straps of the royal's quiver as the tracker tugged at the straps of her own equipment. Bow in hand, the prince and the tracker left the servant to mind the horses and ensure they don't run off.

The two padded off softly into the underbrush of the forest, moving at a slow pace to maintain their stealth, drawn out even slower by the prince's silent insistence to avoid anything that appeared too muddy or too dirty. Trousers fashioned from the hide of some beast he couldn't pronounce (a gift to his father from a visiting dignitary) and a hunting tunic of the same material, clung to his chiseled form and he absolutely refused to return from his hunt soiled by the environment. His bow was wrought from an ancient hardwood tree from a foreign land, dark and strong, with elaborate etchings of legendary hunters taking aim at their prey. Even his arrows dripped of a luxury unknown to the rest of the realm, with razor sharp, steel heads, soft wood shafts sanded to perfect smoothness, and fletching in the bright colors of exotic birds' feathers.

After some time, he brought the memory of the tracker's map to mind, guessing they would have to be at least half a dozen miles out from where they dismounted, far from the palace, or even the outskirts of the city. They were truly in the wilderness, presumably alone...