"But Sire..." Sir Arlo paused with a frown on his face. "I cannot let the three of you go alone whilst I stay with my family!"
"It is all right, Sir Arlo, you have earned some time off and you should spend it with your loved ones," Kenric insisted. "Besides, it is simply border patrol and there are soldiers already posted there. We will be fine."
"But—"
"Do not make me give you an order," Kenric replied sternly, making Sir Arlo sigh as he nodded.
"Thank you, Sire. If you need me then just send a word and I will be right there," the redhead spoke.
"Of course," Kenric said.
They stayed at Sir Arlo's estate for a day, with Kenric and Sir Christian having to dine with his family who was more than glad to have the warrior prince over. Kenric did not want to overstay his welcome, but they insisted that he spend at least one night. Kenric remembered Godric's words about building and maintaining diplomatic relations, and even though all he wanted to do was get back on his way, he obliged out of courtesy.
The three men were off the next morning at first light, not wanting to waste any more time than what was absolutely required. The good part about the visit was that they had food to last them a few days. And especially after Archie's...barely edible cooking, some nice food was appreciated by all of them, the stable boy included.
Sir Christian was leading the way, growing warier and warier with each mile that they traveled, Kenric had been in this part of the forest before, and he had never come across or even heard of the lake that Sir Christian was apparently taking them to, so he was curious as to where it was and how it managed to stay well hidden.
Archie, on the other hand, was beginning to get more excited than nervous. It was going to be his first time meeting a witch, and he had always wondered what they were like. Would she be scary or kind? Would she be like the stories that he heard or would she defy all of his expectations?
He could not wait to get the answers to his questions.
"How far away is it?" Kenric finally asked. It had been over a day since they left Sir Arlo's estate, only having stopped for a few hours at night to rest. Long journeys did not bother Kenric, and he had not even broken a sweat, but unfortunately, they had time constraints.
"Not too far now," Sir Christian muttered. "Be on your guard."
"Do not need to tell me that," Kenric mumbled. Of-bloody-course he was going to be on alert when entering unfamiliar territory. He was the Commander of the Knights and the Marshal of the King's army, for fuck's sake, not an amateur.
The tree line grew thicker and thicker as they traveled until it reached a point where they could no longer ride their horses forward. The three climbed off their steeds and they grabbed their bags, carrying as much as they could take without the weight slowing them down as well as their weapons. Archie had brought his bow, and he hoped that he would not have the need to actually use it.
Kenric hated parting from Nyx as he stroked his mane for the last time before tying the horses to trees near a small pond. Sir Christian said that they were walking distance away and should ideally be back by nightfall if all went right.
A chill went down Kenric's spine as they walked deeper into the forest. Despite it being the middle of the day, it was getting darker and darker due to the shade of the trees. The silence made everything all the more creepy, which was weird since the western forests were known for their wildlife, yet Kenric had yet to see or even hear any animals.
The more he tuned in and focused, he realized that he could not hear any insects either. There was absolutely no sound whatsoever apart from that of their own footsteps.
"This way," Sir Christian said as they reached a cave. Kenric's hand went to his sword, he kept it there, ready to take his weapon out of its sheath at a moment's notice. There could be wolves or other wild animals inside, and Kenric had to be careful. He stood in front of Archie, motioning him to stay behind him.
Once inside the cave, Sir Christian lit up a torch he had made earlier. The cave was narrow, and there was barely enough space for the three grown men. Archie and Kenric could see the paintings on the walls, all done in red. There were creatures they had never seen before and depictions of wars among other drawings that they could not decipher. Words written in scripts they could not read, and faces that looked like they would haunt children in their nightmares.
Archie's heart rate grew faster and faster with each step until they finally reached a relatively open area.
Sir Christian used his torch to light up the others in the room, and the two men could see everything more clearly for the first time. The paintings on the cave walls were far more violent and grotesque in there than they were outside, and it was unlike anything they had ever seen before.
"What is this place?" Kenric asked. The knight glanced at him, an unsure expression on his face as he contemplated what to say.
"I suppose you could call it the gateway to the lake," he answered.
Kenric was still confused out of his mind, but he chose not to comment on it further as Sir Christian opened his satchel. Both the prince and the stable boy watched with widened eyes as the knight pulled out what looked like an animal organ, a jar of blood, and a skull.
"What the fu—"
"Deer heart, pig's blood, and a cat skull," Sir Christian stated, mumbling. "Do not...do not ask me how I got them."
Well, at least now Kenric knew why it took the knight two days to prepare for their journey. These were clearly not items you could find at your neighborhood corner shop.
Sir Christian used the pig's blood to draw some sigils around the hole in the ground, and Archie looked away with disgust. The smell and the sight were making him nauseous, but once he heard the knight chanting words in a language he did not recognize, he moved his gaze back to him.
Sir Christian threw in the heart first, and then the skull before dumping the remainder of the blood into the hole. As he began chanting louder, the flames of the fire torches attached to the walls of the cave grew ablaze higher. A bright white, almost blinding light shone from inside the dark hole, which disappeared as soon as it came.
Sir Christian wiped his hands using a spare cloth that he had, his face free of any emotion as he stood back up. Both the men were too stunned to say anything, still trying to digest what had just happened as Sir Christian began walking out the same way that they came in. Kenric and Archie glanced at each other for a brief moment, looking unsure and puzzled, before following behind the knight.
The cave was the exact same, and Kenric did not know how the hell they were going to get to the lake as they were going out the way they came in and there was no lake there the last time he checked until... until they walked out and instead of the dark forest, Kenric's eyes landed on a large water body surrounded by abnormally tall trees.
The sight was beautiful. Absolutely mesmerizing and Archie could not look away. He had never seen water so clear or sky so blue. He looked around, his eyes immediately landing on flowers of colors he did not even know existed. He was about to bend down to touch one of them when Sir Christian's voice made him halt.
"Stop!" Sir Christian yelled. "Touch that and your hand will get paralyzed within mere moments."
"Huh? But it is just a flower..." Archie frowned. How can such a pretty flower be so dangerous?
"The more beautiful the flower, the deadlier it will be," Sir Christian said. "Keep that in mind, and do not touch anything around here. I know how...I know how everything looks but it is meant to pull you in. It is meant to be deceiving."
"How do you know all of this? How did you know the way here and those chants...what even is this place?" Archie asked. He had so many questions in his mind that he did not even know which to ask first or how to form them coherently. All he wanted was answers.
"I..." Sir Christian looked away, at a loss for what to tell the stable boy. "I have been here before."
"When? How? And why? What is this place, and how did we walk out the same way yet ended up here?"
"I told you, Archie. There are things that you cannot tell me and some secrets that I cannot share with you either so—"
"Who are you?" Kenric's voice cut him off. "Let me rephrase...what are you? And do not give me the same shit about having secrets. This...whatever this is, whatever you are, you cannot keep it hidden anymore. So tell the truth now, Sir Christian."
"I..."
"Watch out!" Archie screamed as a giant bird flew right at them. Sir Christian and Kenric ducked down as it went from right above their heads.
"Was that a bird?" Kenric asked in disbelief at the size of it. His question was answered as soon as the bird returned, but upon closer look, it looked less like simply a large bird and more like a hybrid.
The creature had the body of a bird, albeit a humongous one, and the head of a lizard. Or was it a snake? It hissed, the tongue extending several feet as the three men took a few steps back to create more distance between them and the monster.
It charged right at them, and Kenric took out his sword to fight it. As soon as the creature saw the shiny metal, it used its long tongue to knock Kenric right off his feet, his head hitting the ground hard as he went down. Archie was too startled to do anything, he stood frozen at his place as he stared wide-eyed at the creature that was coming right at him.
"Archie! Run!" Kenric yelled, but Archie could not move. Maybe it was the shock or something else, but he could not get his body to cooperate even when his mind was screaming at him to get out of there or help Kenric up.
Right before the creature could get to Archie, a large ball of silver energy hit him on his side, making it cry out in pain. Then came another, and then another wave, and finally the creature flapped its wings and flew away, leaving the three men alone and alive.
"What the actual fuck was that?" Kenric asked, rubbing the side of his head as he got back up on his feet.
"A glimpse of what this land has to offer," Sir Christian answered. Kenric and Archie turned to face the knight, who stood there with silver energy crackling around his hands.
Kenric did not need to ask him who he was anymore, and Sir Christian did not have to answer him. It was evident now. Everything finally made sense. How the knight had knowledge that nobody else did, how he got them there, and why he was wary of it in the first place. Kenric could connect the dots now, and it made him wonder how he had been blind to the clues before this.
"You're one of them..." Kenric whispered.