sun, through snow || vbs au (updates weekly!)

023 || nearing the castle

❃.✮:▹ pov: the prince ◃:✮.❃

We continued our seemingly endless journey, through the forest, through the snow. I'd basically confessed to Toya, and I'm semi glad he wasn't taking it seriously. But I was worried about it the whole trip. What if...

My thoughts were interrupted by An saying "Look! It's there!" She looks back to us, and I see a glimpse of a gray peak, that you can barely see because it's covered with snow. A castle? Like the ones from my time.

An seems to be a bit nervous at the prospect of nearing the castle. I sigh. All in a day's work, I guessed. Walking, sleeping and sometimes fighting. Sometimes I wished the enemies would show up more because it was so incredibly boring.

The peak was far away, basically shadowed, but I could make out it's colour and the snow on it. Eyes like a hawk, my dad always used to say.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Keep on going! We're almost there!" An says, realizing the whole group had stopped to stare at the object. I sighed, and continued doing her will. My feet dragged in the snow. We'd been walking for two days, at least, not including rest.

At least I was warm, I guessed. It would be worse if I was freezing. I'd rather be in the snow than be around that crazy circus boy, anyway. I was glad we didn't stay there for another day, no matter how much Toya missed him, I'm sorry.

Toya looks at me, seemingly sensing his name in my thoughts. I blink a few times at him, then he smiles. "Isn't it amazing? We're almost there!" He says, with the widest grin I'd ever seen on his usually neutral face. I smile back to him.

"Yeah, but I guess I'm still worried. They'll most likely want to fight us." I say with a sigh and Toya nods. "Well, it's nothing we haven't done before, right?" He says, optimistically, and I feel myself smile.

Toya is like the moon in the night. I don't usually appreciate how much I need him around me, but when it comes to times of desperation, like that time me and An were captured, he's... like a light in the dark.

"Are you sure you're ready?" I ask, and Toya nods. "Course!" He says and I nod. "You're very optimistic about this." I say with a smile. He nods. "Well, I mean, if that old guy wasn't lying and there was really a prophecy about us, then I guess there's no reason not to."

I sigh. "I doubt he wasn't. Weirdo." I say, picking up a glimmer of sadness in Toya's eyes. I look forward, and since An's leading with Kohane, I don't see much but trees and the smallest part of the peak of the castle, if it was actually a castle.

"What do you reckon will happen after?" I ask, and Toya shrugs. "What do you want to happen after?" He asks me. I sigh, thinking about this. "Well, I guess I kind of wanna return to my royal duties and stuff. Life kind of feels weird without them." I end up deciding.

It was a fact. I felt odd without people to rule over and with people who we would consider peasants becoming our allies. This whole thing was kind of giving me somewhat of a new perspective on life outside of a castle.

"Well, what do you want to happen after?" I ask him. He sighs. "I want to have a big library. Maybe be a librarian. I kind of want to lead a quiet life." He says, clearly thinking aloud. "But I also want to keep being friends with you, An and Kohane." He says, with a pondering small smile on his face.

"Well, I mean of course we'll keep being friends. We're going on this whole thing together, so we're not going to be leaving eachother behind, right?" I say, and Toya nods. "Yeah. Honestly, I can barely imagine a day sleeping in my own bed now. So much different places and so little time."

I sigh. "Moving on, so what are we actually going to do when we get there?" Toya says, with a blink. "Well, I mean, we have to rescue An's dad, right? And maybe the rest of the prisoners if we're lucky?" He suggests, and I nod.