The Forest

Unowned Territory that few dare to venture through because of those that inhabit it.

"This place is just down right creepy with all the dead, snow covered trees. Wait...the ice is...spreading. The White Queen isn't just trying to take Soleste...she's going for the whole region!"

"What?! How could she even think of trying that?! That'll cause a war of which the likes have never been seen before! Has she really gone that insane?" Alina sighs, "Well we should get moving until we get out of the ice. As long as there's ice she can attack us with Ice Soldiers."

"True. We'll have to just not draw any attention to ourselves."

Alina nods and the pair continue to walk through the forest in silence. "So, um, how old are you?" Alina awkwardly says wishing to break the silence.

"19, you?"

"Eighteen. Have you always lived in Soleste?"

Lucas holds his hands behind his head and looks up to the grey sky awkwardly. "Yeah, I've always been there. Always dreamt of bein' a knight too, I guess."

"Oh? Did you ever train at the castle?" Alina inquired while she looked over at Lucas

"Nah. I got all my training from street experiments. The street-runt nobody cared about. That was my life. I was lucky if I even got to look at the castle without someone trying to pound on me. Lucky me, I learned to defend myself. I'll be a knight someday, though."

"Oh..." Alina looked away at that a bit. Thinking of her privileged life. "Well I'm sorry you had to live that life. It must've been hard. But I'm sure some people cared about you." She said with a smile.

"I guess. Solarus must've blessed me for me to still be alive after all this."

"Well, she's a bit occupied at the moment. We'll have to make due with our own human will." Alina looks around and notices that the trees are starting to turn green and are more lifelike.

Lucas also notices the changes in scenery. "Oh, sweet, we must be nearer to teh center of the forest."

A large boom echoes from far away. Alina looks up toward the sky in the direction it came from, "What do you suppose that was?"

"I dunno. A knight would go check that out right? I'm game to go check it out if you wanna go. But if you'd rather press on, it's also a Knight's job to watch after others...no matter what the class or how good they are at defending themselves..."

Alina smiles at this, "Stop worrying about being a text-book knight. Just do what comes naturally to you. I have faith in you." Alina looks up at the ominous sky, "I think it was just thunder anyways."

Lucas glances quietlyat Alina then takes his hands out from behind his head. "Thunder means thunderclouds. Thunderclouds means it's gonna be getting dark sooner than normal so I suppose we should take a breather for a bit. Maybe rest under the trees a while."

"Yea, we're far enough that we won't-" Alina is interrupted by a raindrop landing on her face and, shortly, it starts to downpour.

Lucas takes Alina by the hand and runs with her under a tree with large, umbrella-like leaves. Then he sits down next to her. "Should try our best to keep dry. We just got out of snowy armageddon. Rain can make us real sick real fast and we don't want that." Suddenly, Lucas glances to the side and realizes he's rather close to Alina. "Uh...sorry. I can go sits somewhere else if you-"

Giggles at Lucas, "It's fine, Lucas. We should stick together anyways. Like you said we might get-." As she's speaking she starts coughing.

Lucas touches his hand to the princess' forehead. "That's odd," he begins, "You don't have a fever. Well it might just be a small cough. We can look into it once we get into town."

Alina gets a more serious expression on her face, "Hey Lucas, when we get into town; don't call me "princess" or Alina. Just call me Ali. I don't need people knowing who I am. Besides, it'll just cause the Ice Queen's agents to find me more easily."

Lucas shrugs as the two of them wait out the rain together. He leans back against the tree and tries to get some rest. "As you wish, Ali."

Alina coughs a bit more before she falls asleep on Lucas' shoulder.

The next morning, Lucas awakens first, realizing Alina's sleeping on his shoulder. First somewhat uneasy as to the fact that she's royalty, he shutters at the consequence should Soleste not be in its current state for even touching the princess. But her ultimately picks her up and begins to carry her through the forest rather uneasily. Elsewhere, the three mages march through the forest intently to reach the Industrial city. Meanwhile, Ben is also roaming through the forest.