One moment Isard had been listening to the guard talking happily of the girl that he wanted to marry, the next the guard was face down with three of his fellow guard upon his back. Three more had been standing nearby with their weapons drawn, as if the man had been a danger to them. Isard made a deep rumbling noise in his chest, as if he were growling. The guards that had been standing by jumped at the noise; one even kicked the bars to his cage before they drug away the young guard. Isard could smell the man’s blood on the floor; they must have pushed his face hard into the ground. Things fell silent after that and Isard knew that the man was going to be executed. The King and Queen were never shy about asserting their power. In the quiet his mind drifted back to Alee, the guard had been on the lookout for anything about a female just like Isard.

Alee, she had been important to Isard. Not in the sense of a romantic importance, no they were bound by blood through their mothers. Isard and Alee had been born weeks apart and their mothers always allowed them to play with each other. Isard hoped that she would be alive still, and if she was he hoped that she would not venture too close to the castle, or any of the humans. There were many of their kind that often walked among the humans freely. There was little to distinguish them from the rest of the poor that went about their business; their eyes always gave them away.

The sudden and unexpected appearance of the Princess made Isard wary. [b]”What do you want…come to spit on me?”[/b] He asked before the bread was tossed at him. He hungrily tore into it, the way he stuffed it in his mouth made it easy to see that such foods were a luxury to him. He watched her for a small amount of time, amber eyes narrowing slightly. What was she doing talking to him and giving him bread? Was she asking to be killed, wait she was the Princess so she wouldn’t be killed either way. Punished perhaps but not killed. Isard stayed against the back of his cage, his legs were stretched before him to relieve the cramping that had set in from not moving. Her earlier words echoed in his mind and he answered her question truthfully. [b]”You have no idea, Princess, how correct your mother and father are to say that I am a monster.”[/b]

Oh they were right to tell their daughter he was a monster; Isard would love to see them without the guards, without anything. He may have been kept in a dirty, stinky cage for thirty years but he was just as much of a warrior as he had been in his younger years. [b]”But I could say the same about them…or you, but you seem to be different. Am I correct? You desire something more than the reputation they would give you, even before you begin to rule.”[/b] He knew the reputation of the King and Queen, he had fought against them and he would not doubt that they tarnished their daughters reputation already.

---

Within the outskirts of the city, three figures emerged from one of the side paths that many took instead of the roads. Two were tall, masculine figured clad in the dark, fur trimmed cloaks common of the farmers up north in the Kingdom. The third figure was shorter and could have been mistaken for a young boy rather than for a woman. They quietly walked with the smaller figure closer to the front. They had hoods drawn over their eyes. Not many cared to look in their direction, thinking nothing of them. 

[b]“Alee…”[/b]One of the taller figures in the back caught the attention of the shorter one in front. 

[b]“What is it?”[/b] The figure was definitely female, although her voice had a harsh tone to it.

[b]“Should we be here? Our—“[/b]The man was elbowed in the ribs by his companion by his side; he gave a slight grunt but fell silent.

[b]“Yes. We need supplies that we cannot make…and we need to find out if there is word of Isard.” [/b]Alee said as they walked to the center of the city where the market was. The trio moved carefully, it was always risky coming into the city given the fact that many thought of them as nothing more than the faint memories of those from thirty years ago.