A Crowned King (Complete)

Chapter 7

The day dawned early, the sun rising slow over the horizon. The early hours of the morning painted the clouds in beautiful arrays of oranges, yellows, pinks, and even some purples. The early day found Mako saddling a horse outside of the stables where he'd just purchased the horse.

The creature was a beautiful stallion, standing about eight feet high with muscular hindquarters. It black mane was thick and swung from the creature's proud neck. It was covered in perfect blue-black fur and there wasn't a single sign of mistreatment to the beast at all. As he cinched the saddle and checked the bridle to make sure it was secure he thought of a name. As the creature was so perfectly black the name was rather easy to come up with.

Midnight.

"Midnight." Mako said with a smile on his face. He patted the horse on the nose. "Do you like your name buddy?"

The black stallion nickered, seeming to nod his head. The Prince smiled and stroked his nose in affection. He gripped the reigns and placed his foot in the stirrup, vaulting into the well oiled leather saddle. He settled in and smiled as he pressed his heels into the horse's ribs, sending it walking forward. He guided the horse down the road, moving through the populace carefully, not wanting to trod on anyone or bump into anything. For the most part people moved out of the way of the horses, not wanting to be boled over.

He reached the gates and rode out into the Wilds around the city. No one tried to stop him at all, but they wouldn't anyway. He was no one to them and there was no reason why a soldier would call for him to stop. He wasn't their Prince. He was just another no name, no face person from Blackreach, a city of over two hundred fifty thousand individuals.

He rubbed a hand through the mane of his stallion and rode out into the Wilds. The road was narrow, barely able to fit a carriage on the road. However, he couldn't just head that way down the road. It was the wrong way. This road headed south and would end once it reached the port city of Seaside. He needed to head north, and to do that, he would need to turn and leave the road to head north towards Galtea.

Turning the reigns, the stallion turned with them ans he guided the horse around the city. Once he reached the northern side he urged the hirse first into a canter and then into an all out run. Midnight let loose a loud neigh as he took off heading north with his rider clinging to the saddle, letting him run.

Greens, browns, grays, and purples passed by as horse and rider passed by. Shoed hooves ate up the ground, sending up large clods of dirt into the dirt. The wind pinned his clothing to his body and his longsword slapped agsinst his leg with every vault of the horse.

He travled until the sun was beginning to sink below the horizon. As this happened Mako found a suitable place to make camp off of the main trail and dismounted. Then, he tied Midnight's reigns to a thick maple tree and opened the saddlebags that were stuffed full of provisions for his journey. He pulled out a pack filled with food and dropped it onto the ground next to his feet. After that he pulled out another pack, this one filled with the material necessary for his tent and he opened the pack.

After looking around the Prince found a good place to make camp and he pulled out the material for his tent. He quickly began to pitch the tent and in mere minutes the large black tent was up. He'd chosen black to hide him in the night when he was camping in the Wilds, but on the reverse side was white for when he entered Galtea. Galtea was a land that even while during summer there were light snows upon the ground. Being that it was fall, Galtea was likely to be blanketed in a thick drift of snow and he didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb in the wilderness there. It would be better for him to blend in and avoid detection as much as possible.

Once he had his tent up the Heir gathered firewood and quickly started a fire. He reached into his other pack, pulling out some salted beef and a pot to cook it in. Last was a waterskin which he would use to bring the beef to a boil. He'd brought no spices so the fare would be bland and without any sort of taste, but he didn't need taste. He just needed sustenance.