You, Me, and the World Between Us (Dragon Quest)

I - A Tsarevich First

"Come on, now," a male's voice whispered hurriedly into the dark. Throughout the castle of Zamoksva lay a heavy silence - save for the siblings carefully yet quickly trodding through the palace. Maxim, the eldest of the two, led the way past their mother and father's chambers with a torch in hand. The young Tsarevich, next in line for the throne, bore the same red curls of the Tsarina and strong brown eyes of his father. His younger sister, Inessa, followed behind him obediently, despite the aura of nervousness that surrounded her. Her face was the spitting image of her mother, but that was all they had in common. Everything else she obtained from her father, from her blue locks to her timid personality.

"Are you certain it is wise for us to be out of bed and wandering the palace halls at this hour?" Inessa muttered softly to her older brother, leaning in close to his ear as she spoke, "Surely it is not a good plan, for mother and father will be worried sick if they wake to find us not in our beds. The Goddess knows what mother would do if she were to awaken and discover us in the act right now," the younger sibling stressed aloud, wringing her hands as she eyed the Tsarina's chambers warily. Their mother fought in tournaments since she was their age, and to this day remained rather violent in her ways. A hand gripped around her wrist, pulling her away from her worries as she suppressed a shriek.

"We will not have to worry about mother will do if she does not wake. All we are doing is heading out for the night, adventuring for a short time, and we'll be back before anybody notices that we are missing from the palace," he reassured Inessa as he groped around for the doorknob leading to his chambers. The two tip-toed into his bedroom, which formerly belonged to their mother when she was but a Tsarevna. A large crevice stood proudly on the eastern wall, lazily covered with wooden planks. Their mother had retold the tale thousands of times how she, her husband, and her tutor escaped through there and embarked on their very own adventure. Perhaps their father would regret never stopping her from sharing the tale, seeing how his own children were about to follow in the Tsarina's footsteps.

Maxim passed the torch to Inessa, entrusting her to carry the light as he removed the nails binding the planks to the wall. It was a rather simple job, considering that neither their mother nor their grandfather had ever put much effort into covering it up. The Tsarevich was almost certain that fixing the walls had never even passed his mother's conscience. In his head, he could almost hear her cry out, A monument of far too much significance to rob the castle of! The hole in the wall stands to represent the beginning of my adventuring days, and thus the saving of our world! Giving it up would be a loss not only to myself but to our entire realm! Maxim smirked to himself as he took out the last board, thinking that perhaps his mother would be more proud than anything that he was taking after her.

The siblings passed through the crevice with ease, joining one another on the palace rooftops. Once standing in the moonlight, it was clear that the Tsarevna and Tsarevich were equipped for adventuring, weapons and all. "Oh, what would father say to this?" Inessa moaned as she followed her brother to the portion of the rooftops that sat closest to the ground beneath them. Terribly afraid of heights was she; yet another trait she shared with her father. "Surely he would not condone his son and daughter sneaking off in the dead of the night. Yoy, and mother as well... At our age, she had become the champion of many tournaments! Surely her punishments for such actions would not be favorable."

Maxim scoffed softly under his breath, rolling his eyes at his sister's fretful antics. "Do keep such thoughts to yourself, Inessa. It destroys the very excitement one strives to obtain taking risks like this. You must push aside your inhibitions and act recklessly!" he instructed as he vaulted himself from the rooftops, landing on the ground with a thud. He brushed himself off, turning back up to Inessa, who wandered along the edge with a concerned expression. Maxim beckoned her towards him, and with enough encouragement, she too leaped from the building, landing behind him. Once certain that the duo had their whereabouts them, the eldest began peering around feverishly, a look uncanny to his mother's on his face. "Now, where shall we go first?"