Alfenheims Warlords (a SAO fanfic)

Chapter 28

The trail to the Ghastly Stag's, or Wraith Stag's depending on who you were talking to, was a simply dirt path towards some large fields of what looked like to most a field of pure white with no visible vegetation, with forests of many various trees, large gems, and odd structures of onyx, stone, or obsidian. And then the group of Lisbeth on her Bronze Metal, fiery horse, Sinon's Ghostly Horse, the Prince of Darkness's Shadow Horse, and the cart the handmaidens were riding in soon began to enter the looming forests as they lost sight of those fields.

Inside the forest, it was frankly dark and just a bit creepy as ghostly fog and random motes of light danced along the ground of the forest while the group continued to move their rides along but as Sinon rode next to the Prince's horse, she suddenly saw something flash out from behind a tree but too fast to be seen. She almost automatically got closer to the prince as she asked him, "So... what else is in here?"

"Nothing you need to fear, to be honest. I'm here." said the Prince as he continued along unabated.

Sinon slowly dropped back and as she did so, she came along side of Lisbeth as he was now leading and the maidens were bringing up the rear as she saw Lisbeth give her a almost glaring look as she asked her, "What?"

"Couldn't you try and get some info out of him? Like where we are maybe?" asked Lisbeth. "As well as what exactly he can take on here we may find?"

"Fine." said Sinon as she snapped her reigns.

Kommando293 heard all of it and simply made it look like he did not hear but as Sinon came alongside of him, he gave her a sideways glance as she then asked, "Could you please be more specific about where we are or what we could see? My friend in the back there is a bit scared."

Kommando293 snickered as Lisbeth then said, "Shut up!"

"To let you know, we are currently riding to the hunting grounds deep within the Forest of Dreams... although, to be fairly honest its more of a nightmare some days..." Kommando293 tried to chuckle but as he noticed her grim look he then gave a cough before adding, "And to answer you're initial query is that though we shall be hunting Stag, Wolves, Dragons, demons, and other beings also inhabit this forest... though the dragons and demons are found deeper in the forest where I will not be bringing you into... not yet anyway..."

Sinon felt a little bit better at that, but only barely the minimum, but as she watched the Prince looked all around them, he seemed nervous about something.

"Is there something you're afraid of in here?" asked Sinon.

"If you're asking why I'm nervous, its not because of the monsters..." said Kommando293, the first time he let on he was nervous about this whole date thing.

If whoever was reading this hadn't noticed, Kommando had never been on a date of any form or on either side with a girl. He was nervous, rightly so since this girl not only unknowingly hated him most likely but also just so happened be to skilled enough to make him cautious facing her with a bow.

But then he looked up and as he slowly trotted his horse into the small hunting camp, it was pretty basic stuff laid out. There was a large tent for sleeping in what may have been a corner, a firepit in the middle, some chests nearby to store items, a post to tie horses on, and then a small field of flowers that Kommando293 knew to be Dream Flowers.

As they all slowly began to stop in the midst of the hunting camp, Sinon and Lisbeth dismounted as the handmaidens got off their cart and began to tie down the horses, the Prince of Darkness walked his horse to the field as Sinon watched him look down into the flowers as if studying them.

In reality, Kommando293 was using the small mirror capability of the flowers to look out over his province and the portal itself. He quickly looked over his province and castle and seeing it was alright enough soon switched the view over to the portal and the fortifications around it. And that's probably when he saw what Kirito an his small raiding party had done to the units around as he could see where the lightning and fire had hit as well as the remains of the World Tree Guardians amongst what seemed like a sea of the Bone princes.