The Journey - Part 4

Leiyu’s hand shot into the river and grabbed a fish as it swam by. He pulled it out and held it tight as it wriggled in his grasp. When he returned to the shore, he laid the fish on the ground and took a rock to it. When the fish stopped moving, Leiyu took out his knife and began gutting it. Prince Thallios turned away and shut his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness,” Leiyu said. “It’s an unpleasant sight, but unless we only eat wild plants and the flatbread and oats in my sleeve, this is all we have.”

“No, it’s fine,” Prince Thallios said, head still turned away. “It’s not that I don’t eat meat. I just haven’t seen the entire process from start to finish.”

Leiyu put the fish on a stick and started a small fire with some leaves and sticks he had gathered earlier. As he turned the skewered fish over the flame, he noticed the prince take out his dagger and cut off a strip of his cloak. The prince then used the cloth strip to tie up his hair in a loose bun.

“Your Highness?” Leiyu said. Prince Thallios turned to him. “Your hair ornament. Did you leave it at the inn?”

“Oh no, I put it away in my pouch, with the gemstones,” the prince replied. “I won’t ever wear it again, if the enemy soldiers are roaming around everywhere looking for me. I’d even throw it away, but if they find it, they might try to follow our trail.”

“Yes, just keep it hidden, Your Highness,” Leiyu said as he rotated the fish. “It’s real gold, isn’t it? If we get desperate, we might need to use it to barter for our lives.”

Prince Thallios exhaled. “It still feels unreal, everything that’s happened. My father and kingdom gone, just like that.”

Leiyu took the fish away from the flame and began separating it into two portions. “I’m afraid it’s very real, Your Highness. I’ll protect and help you every step of the way.” He put half of the fish onto a piece of cloth and handed it over to the prince.

“Thank you,” Prince Thallios said. He blew on the fish and took a tiny bite. After he finished chewing and swallowing, he turned to Leiyu. “I hope this isn’t all a burden to you.”

Leiyu looked up mid-chew. He already had a small pile of tiny fish bones before him. “Burden? Why would you say that, Your Highness?”

“I’m sure you weren’t expecting to be on the run with a prince when you first set foot in Ishkhandar.”

Leiyu pulled a small bone out of his mouth. “No, I definitely wasn’t. But this is not a burden to me, Your Highness.”

Prince Thallios finished chewing another bite of fish. “But you wanted to go home, right? You were planning to return East with the…um… merchants. Sorry, I won’t mention them again if it’s still painful.”

Leiyu put more fish bones on the ground. “It’s all right, Your Highness. You can say whatever you want. I was planning to go back with them, but only because their leader asked me to, and I figured I might as well protect them on the way back. But…I can’t do that now. Not anymore.”

Prince Thallios looked downward. “I’m sorry, Leiyu. If we do find the Sword of Ages, and manage to take back the kingdom, I’ll make it up to you somehow. I’ll give you a royal title, all the riches you want.” Leiyu raised an eyebrow. The prince laughed bitterly. “I have no idea how, honestly. I’m talking about a fairy tale ending before the story has even begun.”

“Don’t worry Your Highness, I don’t desire those things. Money is always nice, but I don’t need mountains of it. Just enough to get by. I have no idea what I’d do with a royal title.”

Prince Thallios finished the last of his fish. “My father united the entire Western Region before I was even born. I wonder if I could even accomplish a quarter of what he has done. How do I take back the kingdom, the entire empire? Am I supposed to raise an army? No one has ever seen me before. I look no different than any random stranger off the street, so no one is going to take me seriously.”

I don’t agree with that, Leiyu thought as he gazed at the prince’s face, but he held his tongue so he wouldn’t say anything foolish. He decided that vague reassurance would be safer. “However you wish to proceed, I’ll support you, Your Highness.”

“Thank you,” Prince Thallios said. He reached to his side and took out his sheathed dagger, turning it in his hand.

Leiyu looked over. “Your Highness, that is an intricately crafted dagger.”

“Indeed. Want to see something interesting?” Prince Thallios unsheathed the dagger. He flicked his wrist and an extra blade rotated out from the existing dagger blade. It straightened itself so that the dagger now looked like a sword.

“Wow…” Leiyu said.

“And if you want to retract it, you just press this here.” Prince Thallios pressed the jewel on the hilt and the extra blade folded back in. “My father gifted this to me on my eighteenth birthday.” Then his face turned solemn. He put the dagger back into its scabbard. “Now it’s all I have left to remember him by. I used to wonder why he didn’t want me to leave the palace. Perhaps he didn’t want outsiders to know what I looked like since he was afraid people would come after me.”

Leiyu removed another tiny bone from his mouth and placed it in the ever growing pile in front of him. He hesitated but curiosity got the best of him. “Were you and your father close?”

Prince Thallios frowned and had a faraway look in his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. You don’t have to answer. I should not have asked.”

“No, it’s fine. We should get to know each other better if we’re going to be on this journey for a long time.” Prince Thallios sighed. “I can’t say that my father and I were that close, since we hardly spoke after my mother passed away. I was very close to her and was only ten when she left us. I had a lot of difficulty eating and sleeping in the days after that. I still have difficulty eating much now, but I’m trying to do so since food is scarce now, and I have to rely on you for it.”

“I don’t mind,” Leiyu said. “This is how I lived when I was traveling alone. I caught my own food if I was in the wilderness.” He felt cold tingles on his face as he became self-conscious. “Sorry, Your Highness, I interrupted you.”

“Not to worry, I don’t mind,” the prince said. “We’re just conversing back and forth. But regarding my father, I think my mother’s passing affected him the most. He did try speaking with me a little after the funeral, to reassure me that my mother was at peace now, after suffering from her illness for so long. But it wasn’t long before he disappeared.”

Leiyu looked at him. “Disappeared?”

“Not truly disappeared, since he was still at the palace. But he locked himself into his chambers and refused to come out unless it was absolutely necessary.”

Leiyu blinked. “But…he’s the king. Wasn’t he supposed to rule?”

“The ministers ended up taking over most of his duties. The palace attendants said he was in mourning. However, the mourning lasted for five years.”

Leiyu’s eyes widened. “Five years?”

“Yes, I hardly saw him during that time. He was practically a stranger.”

***

Night fell and they found another cave to take shelter in. Leiyu sat in quiet meditation. Opening his eyes, he gazed upon Prince Thallios’ sleeping figure a short distance away. The prince was breathing softly and his face looked serene. Leiyu let his eyes linger for a bit before closing them again.

Leiyu thought about what Prince Thallios had told him earlier. Even though the prince had just lost his father, it seemed like the real loss already happened long ago, and he was essentially an orphan too, at least for those first five years. Leiyu’s thoughts turned to his shifu. Ever since Shifu rescued him from the streets, he was a constant presence in his life until he passed away. Shifu was always there to train and mentor him and his other martial brothers.