Edward {ManXMan} ✔

Fifteen

The horse ride was tiring, I hadn't anticipated it to take as long as it had. We had made it to a clearing past the first village that we had been through just the day before. "Troops have only gone North and West. Two men searched about two miles into the East but no further due to the terrain. If we are going to make it, we'll need to walk the horses. Or leave them at the village and take it by foot." Taz said, scanning the clearing as he pulled his rucksack out, handing up a piece of bread to Ronald.

"I say we take the horses If we leave them something could happen on either end and then we will be left without them." Alex was still on top his horse, as was I as we waited for Ronald and Taz to finish eating their food.

I was not hungry, my stomach was in knots as we rode. I had hoped we would have met Edward in the village, we had knocked on every door, looked in every pub. And yet, there was no sign of him. Nobody had ever seen him.

But I wasn't letting that deter my hope of finding him, but the doubt that we would find him alive was starting to creep up and as much as I tried to keep it down, it was still there, haunting me in the back of my head.

"My lord, would you like a bite before we continue?" Ronald asked, holding up a piece of fruit. I shook my head, looking upwards the sky. The afternoon would soon draw dark, we were on day three of our travel and I was not willing to make a day four without making it to the next village.

"Water perhaps," Alex said, getting off his horse and walking towards me with the water flask, tapping me on my upper leg with the top, I sighed, kicking my legs over the horse and sliding down the side of my mear.

After being stopped for about half an hour, we all packed back up and got back onto our horses, Taz hummed along as we rode, Alex riding behind me with Ronald and Taz in front going side by side.

I started to worry as the sun left the sky, I had no idea how far we were from the village, and with the length of the ride, I was coming to realize why nobody else had come to check it. It was an extra day and a half walk to reach and the likelihood that Edward was there in their minds was most likely slim.

But I had a feeling in my soul that I needed to check, even if he was not there I had hope that someone there could tell me where he may be, or may not be.

I couldn't help but let my mind slip as we rode, though the path was rough, the horses did very well and thankfully we didn't need to dismount long to continue.

I thought of my father, and my jaw locked with irritation. Before we had left my father had patted my shoulder and told me he was proud of me for being a man to find one of our own. But the tightness in his grip told me it was mostly to save face because when we had left the castle there was a good crowd gathered to bid their prince a farewell.

"My son," my mother has called, it was the day of departure for the group and I, and I had yet to truly have a word with her, scared of what she would say, to find out if she had spoken to my father, as I should be. My mother was a sweet, kind soul. But my father is the king. And she can feel all she wants. But his word is law, and if he was to tell her to disown me, she would have no choice.

"Mother," I said, a little shocked as she wrapped her arms around me, cradling my head as if I was a small child, and not an adult who towered over her. "It will all be ok mother," I assured as I felt her body shake, a sigh leaving her. "I will be home, I promise," I said as I wrapped my arms tightly around her, dread filling me as I saw the emotion leave her. The fear, the sadness. All because of me. And it was painful to witness.

She took a step back, looking up at me, her hands pressed to my face as she studied it. "I cherish you." She said, nibbling her lip to keep her emotions at bay. "I know you are so... So strong. But the unknown, it makes a mother's heart weak."

"I know mother, I understand, But-"

"Shush, I want not to hear your empty promises, You find him, you bring him home, and you both. You both get back into the shape you were before all this mess, and you get back to your music. I am requesting a song by a fortnight of you coming back."

Humoured, I laughed at her, stepping back as we started down the hallway. "Of course mother. I can definitely promise you that."

There was, of course still the fear, she knew something she was just not saying and I didn't know. No. I could not bring it up. For if I did, if I confirmed anything. Who knows where my head would end up.

"Sir," Ronald's voice called, catching me from my dreaded daydream, "The village, we've made it!"

I looked up, my heart pounding in my chest as I saw smoke billowing from a fire burning in the nearby village, three columns of smoke, they were small, as if coming from homes, or small fired for those cooking outside. But that was all we could see with the greenery in the way. We trotted for another ten minutes before the forest finally broke and we came face to face with a colony. Small huts with dirt walkways, men and women walking, talking, stopping at small carts to chat and grab food.

It was more than I had imagined, I had thought it to be a small village with tents and few people, but this. This was like a kingdom inside the trees. People laughed, children, played. It was far bigger then I had expected.

Nobody had noticed us at first, until Tsar dismounted his horse and walked forward, taking his hat from his head and placing it on his chest. It was only then a man looked forward, then another, and another. Before long more eyes then I could count watched us as we stepped into their view. "Hello, I am ser Tsar Applebottom." Taz lied with ease, "We are from Dallington. On the search for a man who we believe may have passed through on his travels."

"Eh, ye that princey folk of what-cha my calls it. Trinny what not-" A man said coming forward. "Dis be Elmerburg. I's be Edmond. I runs the lot here. Whose ye lookin' for. Chap got any name er wha?"

"Why, yes of course," I said, stepping alongside of Taz. "I am, in fact, the Prince of Dallington. Sir I-"

"Oi, never asked yea yer name. I asked the lad yur lookin' for. I's already knows who you are."

"My apologies. Yes, His name is Edward. Ser Edward Talbot."

I heard laughter from behind the rather dark man, whose hair fell to his shoulders, behind him an equally dark skin man was laughing, coming forward himself. "Yer means ol' Eddie. Yea 'e be ere. Made 'imself at 'ome too. Oi, Eddie! Ye got company!"

I flinched at the tone of the man's voice, not expecting him to yell. I pursed my lip. There were maybe fifteen homes here, but they were poorly crafted, with sheets as doors and made of loose logs and wood.

My heart started pounding harder in my chest as I waited for Edward to make himself know.

I had come this far, and he was only steps away. Or I had hoped.

They had not said how long Eddie had been here, he could very well be a man who travelled years ago. An old man who was lost. Edward was, in fact, a common enough name. Sure I had known five Edwards myself alone inside the castle walls.

"What are you lot yelling about?" A voice came from a home not far from where we stood, the sheet that hid the home shifted, and just like that my heart had stopped.

There he was, with months worth of hair on his face, his hair on his head grown out to the nape of his neck. His clothes, tattered and worn, but not the clothes he had on when he left.

He stepped out of the hut before he had even noticed us. But Edward stopped in his tracks when he spotted us. Seeing Tsar first. Then, his eyes shifting to me as his face got pale, his mouth falling agape.

It took everything in me not to run for him, not to cast myself into his arms.

"Eddie, who is out there?" A voice called from behind me, and a woman stepped out.

A small, petit woman, with long blonde hair, going down her shoulders in palets, she placed a hand on Edwards's shoulder, and I noticed he flinched slightly, his eyes still on mine.

And mine, on the hand of the woman, that was not placed on Edward, but on her stomach, a stomach that was swollen with a child.