Orphic || Prince Caspian

ten

The village market was bustling that spring morning. People filling the streets of compact dirt with noise and smells that usually followed large crowds. The farmer's market was in full swing. Stall owners crowing their advertisements, chatter from the shoppers, the sounds of animals in pens. The accompanying smells lingering in the sunshine as well. Ahren wove through it all. His dark green cloak brushing the back of his knees as he shouldered his bag of prizes. Some stolen by quick hands, others legitimately brought, all hanging from the bag strapped to his shoulder. His clear face smiling politely as the wove his way through the crowd.

"Sorry", he muttered as he bumped into a couple of women perusing a stall selling threads. They giggled at him and he smiled charmingly back as one hand slipped a few reels into his pockets. "Have a good day", he wished them, Telmarine accent as thick as any villager here. Then he was disappearing through the crowd, hood pulled up just over his short wavy brown hair. The chill still lingering over the spring mornings enough to excuse his cloak and hood when seen. While the summer was approaching, it was not there yet.

With the thread safely in his pockets his tasks were complete and he allowed his feet to leisurely carry him through the crowd towards the road leading away from the market. As he walked, the more the people around him thinned until there were only a few on the road. He had swiped a cheesy bread roll from as passing baker stall and he fished it out of the bag to chew on as he walked. The bread was no longer warm but it was fresh and soft as he ate, happily humming an old tune to himself as he did.

It was easy for him to stray from the road onto the small path that led towards the forest. His gait did not change and he acted for all the world like he was supposed to be going that way. If once acted confidant enough then they weren't normally questioned or given much thought. They did not attract the eye in the same way as someone acting visibly nervous or suspicious, even when walking towards the very same forest the Telmarines all feared. Ahren just grinned to himself as he reached the trees and allowed them to cast him into shadow. The browns of his trousers and the shade of Green of his cloak merged with the foliage so that if anyone had been watching him, it would seem like he had vanished.

He finished his bread and allowed his feet to carry him quicker into the woods. Seemingly following a path through the trees that only he could see as he finished his roll. It did not take long though. Barely a mile in and a familiar set of figures were emerging from behind a large oak tree. Summer was scowling at him, her long blonde hair braided over her shoulder and her knife strapped to her belt. She was in her late twenties now and apparently that came with all the adult disapproval she felt she owed the seventeen year old. "Wren", her voice made him stop. Ahren ran a hand through his hair and offered her a shaky smile. "Didn't Willowbranch warn you about spending time with the humans?"

"She did", Ahren tilted his head like a bird and grinned innocently. The telmarine accent falling from his words like water off a rock as his voice took on the narnian accent he had grown with. "But she did not forbid me. Besides, I am human".

Summer sighed deeply at this familiar arguments. "And the humans want you dead".

"They believe me dead", Ahren's smile fell and his tone became harder. "The villages do not know who I am, nor would they be able to recognise me. My father never returned from us trip and the regent believes I perished either in the fire or from the arrow they shot me with. Maybe he even thinks I was killed by savage narnians". He rolled his eyes at the last part, tone sarcastic. "I am safe enough to visit a few markets".

"Savage narnians!" A third voice called from the trees. Bree leapt out from the bushes and tried to take on a threatening stance. The thirty year old acting just as he had as a young adult. It was safe to say that he had not changed any in ten years. "Boo!" He declared.