Going on a Journey [Aleph's Introduction; Open]

Aleph frowned at Aspen's words. He wanted to tell her so many things. Mainly, how her words weren't true, since he had his Cantus his entire life and had come to welcome it like a dear friend. However, exposing himself as a Walpurgis was not really a good idea, especially not in a forest where it was very easy to hide a dead body. So, that was out of the question!

"Well, I'm sure that Cantus is just as much a part of them as blood is a part of all living beings." He said. "I mean, being sealed probably doesn't kill them, but still."

After that, the sun started to shine, and Aleph smiled. There was always something about the natural beauty of the Esterelf, not only in the plants and animals, but also in the sun, the sky, and the clouds, along with the moon and the stars. Something about it all had always made Aleph feel warm and joyful inside.

Of course, his enjoyment was short-lived upon mention of the horrible, horrible princess, and her horrible, horrible deeds. He shook his head at Aspen's words.

"Oh, no. I've heard all about the poor and innocent men that she killed, and all because they failed to answer some riddles that she always made up." He said. "So, I don't want to marry her."

He then smiled joyfully as he looked at Aspen, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.

"I want to kill her!" He said, smiling happily.

Aspen stared at him, contemplating as to whether the young man in front of her was mad, had suffered a spell of delusion, or was just plain stupid. She looked away from him as she rolled her eyes.

"Yeah...good luck with that," she said. "As bad as her kingdom is, she has a strict royal guard and I hear her court members are no laughing matter, either. You'd be headless before you could say 'pierogi'."

The wind blew gently. A few locks of black hair fell over Aspen's face, causing her to stop for a moment. She brushed them back and sighed.

"Just leave them be," she said. "Interfering with other people's affairs usually does more harm than good. Some things are simply not in your power."

It wouldn't take long before the two reached a wooden and well-maintained lodge. An inn sign hung from the side with a name as typical as inn names got and weren't worth mentioning or remembering. A couple of wooden steps led to the inn door. Aspen stopped in front of it and jerked her head towards the lodge.

"Well, feather hat, here's your inn. Safe and sound."

Aleph frowned as Aspen gave her response. From the look on her face, one would think that she didn't really believe that Aleph would be able to accomplish his quest. Plus, what was even more disappointing was hearing about the princess' court and royal guard. Getting past them was probably going to be a real challenge.

"But someone has to do something! The princess is a monster!" He said. "She treats her own subjects like garbage! She kills men who only want to marry her! And I'm pretty sure she has also punched at least one child in the course of her entire reign! Either way, she must pay for her crimes! Enough is enough, and people are suffering!"

But, Aleph had supposed that it couldn't be helped. At least, he couldn't attack the princess by himself. Not without the royal guard and her court protecting her, for some godforsaken reason. But if Aleph was able to gather up an army, an army of warriors both magical and otherwise, he could take on the princess. He could even probably spark a rebellion in the people themselves! Then, true justice would be served!

Of course, Aleph would have to plan all of that later, as he and Aspen had already reached the inn. He turned to Aspen and nodded at her, smiling.

"Well, thank you for walking me here." He said, smiling. "But, before I go inside, I want to ask. What brought you here to this part of Aldmerrow?"

Aspen said nothing to the defense of Aleph's cause. When Aleph asked her why she was in Aldmerrow, she spoke.

"I go wherever the hunt takes me," she said. "So long as it's the forest, I go there. That's all there is to it."

She started playing a few notes on her flute and stopped.

"Say...are you really serious about taking down the princess?" she asked as if to double check. Why, though, it was hard to tell.

Aleph listened to Aspen's response and nodded. A simple person, she seemed to be.

"That's understandable." He said.

When Aspen asked him about taking down the princess, he scratched his head and sighed before responding.

"I've never been more serious about anything in my entire life." He said, sadly. "I mean, I don't like watching people suffer and be miserable. And what the princess is doing is making the people do exactly that. Not to mention, it's been happening for years. I have to do something. Because if I don't...then no one else will."

Apsen stood in front of him, quiet and thoughtful.

"Hm...I suppose I want to see the evergreens..." she mumbled to herself.

Aspen sighed and then looked at Aleph directly, her bright green eyes staring at him intently.

"You're walking into a death wish, alright," she said. "But, I suppose I can see where your intentions lie. That said, Eisleyn's literally all the way across from Aldmerrow diagonally. If it lies in the north west, we lie here in the south east. I doubt you'll want to go there alone. I'll be making my way there and I might as well join you and show you how pointless your quest is. You can at least see how bad things are there and then give up in despair."

Aleph listened as Aspen gave her response, then frowned. She still doubted that Aleph would be able to take down the princess. That was just disappointing. Oh well. At least, he now had a good idea of where Eisleyn was. And Aspen even offered to come with him, which was nice.

"That's great! I can always use some company!" He said, smiling. He then placed his fist over his chest in determination. "And I promise you that you'll see that I'm right about wanting to get rid of the princess, and that someone has to take her on!"

"Of course you can," Aspen said as she walked past Aleph.

She was about to open the door to the inn, but she stopped.

Something rattled in the bushes. She turned around and took her bow from behind her. If Aleph turned around he'd notice something moving in the bushes too. Aspen's eyes narrowed.

"Who's there?" she said in a sharp, raspy voice.

The noise got even louder before something hopped out of it: a white rabbit with red eyes.

Aspen sighed in relief.

"Oh, thank goodness..." she murmured. "It's just a--"

A loud piercing screech came from above and within a blink of the eye, the rabbit had been scooped up by a five-foot black bird and eaten in a gulp. It flew up a few feet above them, completely black feathered and red-eyed. It was much larger than any regular crow and its talons gleamed silver in the sunlight. It then screeched even louder and flapped its feathers, causing several ones to shoot down at Aleph and Apsen with sharp glowing silver tips.

Aleph smiled at Aspen. Of course, they were just about the enter the inn, when suddenly, there was a noise coming from the bushes. Aleph looked over at the bushes and saw an adorable little red-eyed bunny! Yay! Aleph gasped as he saw the adorable ball of fluff.

However, that didn't last long as a giant screeching bird suddenly swooped in out of nowhere, completely devouring the adorable ball of fluff. Right before Aleph's eyes. Oh.

"No!" Aleph cried as the rabbit was eaten by the giant monster bird, tears in his eyes. But, he didn't have time to lament as the bird came back down and shot a bunch of oddly deadly feathers at them. "Look out!"

Aleph quickly went in front of Aspen and took his hat off of his head. He then plucked the silver feather from the hat and held up the hat itself towards the feathers, channeling magic through it and transforming it into a pink shield adorned with a rose emblem.

After the feathers went into the shield, he looked back at Aspen. "Are you okay?" He asked.

But Aspen was already gone. Jumping over the ledge of the porch, Aspen ran in front. One of her hands glowing, Cartic marks glowed on her quiver and several arrows shot forth from it without being loaded into a bow.

"It's a corrupted crow," she said plainly. "Keep dodging its feathers and try to aim for its body. Its wings are too hard to break through."