Medieval Hammerstacks

Ryia POV

The King's face was watching me with all the seriousness in the world as I rode down the line of guards to speak with him.

"My King, we have a problem that we must attend to." I said pulling my horse to a stop beside his.

"What is it?" He asked, his tone emulating the seriousness on his face.

"You and Prince Gerald are much too obvious my King." I said barely glancing at Gerald as I glanced back to make sure that Pate had picked two guards of similar size to the King and Prince. "You must change out of your royal garb my Majesty."

He thought for a moment, then nodded. "You have a point. What do you propose we change into?"

"I assume you mean to address our horses, too, then?" Gerald asked, and I could tell he was at least trying not to sound harsh. It wasn't working.

"Of course, You both will be given extra guard tunics and breeches. If you wish you can have a cloak as well. As for your horses, you have the choice of riding two guard horses or we can take off your saddles and bridles and switch them with the ones that we have on the other horses." I said trying very hard not to show how irritated I was.

The king shook his head to stop Gerald from responding, "Whichever is quicker, Ryia."

"Pate." I called and turned my horse. Two guards were carrying a bundle of their clothes and were leading their horses over. "Give your clothes to the King and Prince and then take their horses to the trees and cover them with mud. You will be riding their horses to keep them from being discovered." I said they nodded.

Once their horses had been led away, the King and the Prince stood holding the guard clothes. Gerald tapped me on the shoulder, to get me to turn back to them, "What now?"

I raised my brows, but looked at some of the guards. "You, you, you, and you. Make barriers with your cloaks so they can change." The men dismounted and I turned away again as they made a wall to keep them from feeling to awkward.

Once they had changed, the king took hold of the horse assigned for him. "Now that we've taken care of this, can we move on?"

"Yes your Majesty, I apologize for the delay." I said formally bowing and waiting until both the Prince and King were ready I called for Hudde to continue.

The day was slowly fading away, but while we trekked through the wilderness of the forest I started to notice the trees had begun to thin and the grass had died in places. The further we rode the more the forest looked like it was dead and lifeless. The trees had no leaves at one point, all the grass that had been lush and green were brown and dry. The trail became dusty and the air dry, I heard Hudde call for a halt, without waiting to be surrounded I rode to the front of the line following the King and Prince as they went to go investigate as well.

I looked out into the direction we were bound and frowned, everything was dead and decaying. It didn't look like a fire had been the cause, nor was there a drought in the area, I was searching into the distance, the sun setting in the trees behind me. You could barely see it but across the sea of brown plants and broken trees there was a building.

"The ground itself looks dead.." The Prince commented, "It was so green just a while ago."

"They've drained the land of its natural magic," the King said, almost as if he didn't think it was important. "We're getting closer."

"Would you call for a scout Your Majesty?" Hudde asked. "The cover of night and the full knowledge of how many we are up against would be the safest of choices my King."