The next morning, Clara woke up and found a sleeping Kwon next to her. She smiled to herself as she got up and rolled up her sleeping bag.

She stepped out the tent and stretched, a groaning noise escaping her. She heard a chuckle behind her.

“You sound so cute when you wake up in the morning.”

She turned and smiled at Kwon, whose head was poking out of the tent.

“And you are always a surprise when you wake up on your own.”

“Whoever said I needed help to get up in the morning?” He asked, stepping out of the tent and stretching his arms forward. “Then again, I do enjoy the reminder that I have to actually get out of bed.”

Clara rolled her eyes at him and began taking down the tent. Kwon sat on the log and took out the map and studied their surroundings.

“Looks like we’ll be able to make it to a town tonight. A two day journey is already tiring enough. It’s going to take us another week and a half to get to the capitol.”

Clara laughed and sat next to him. “Be glad we’re not going for just a day though. We’ll be there long enough for us to visit my mother’s grave and figure out what that knight wanted you to stop.”

Kwon folded up the map and put it away. “There shouldn’t be anything for me to stop since I’m not the missing prince. The man has been missing for years now. The odds of me being him are very low.”

“But you still have odds am I correct?” She looked up at him smirking. He shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh. There was no arguing with her.

They packed up the rest of their things and continued on their journey. Clara hummed most of the time while Kwon would occasionally look at the map, making sure they were going in the right direction.

They only stopped once to eat and then they were off once more. By the time they made it to the town, the sun was setting. The streets were beginning to dwindle as night drew nearer.

“Well we made it. Now let’s look for a place to sleep for the night.” Kwon said putting the map away again. Clara had a huge grin on her face. Her excitement was contagious and Kwon found himself smiling to himself.

“Good evening good travelers!” A voice called out from behind them. They turned and looked confused for the voice. A man dressed in all black walked over to them. Clara and Kwon shared a look of reluctance as he got closer to them.

“Who are you, sir?” Kwon asked.

“Ah, where are my manners. My name is Seungri.” He bowed and took Clara’s hand. Kwon glared at him. “I saw that the two of you had a map and assumed you were travelers. Am I wrong?”

“You are correct.” Kwon snatched Clara’s hand away from Seungri and she looked at him in surprise. “What of it?”

Seungri smirked and stood straight. “I wish to travel with you. I am headed to the capitol and I would love some traveling companions.”

Clara raised a brow. “What can you contribute?”

Kwon elbowed her and she waved him off. Seungri smiled before answering. “I have money to rent horses. I’m sure you will get tired of journeying on foot.”

“I think we’ll be fine.” Kwon said dragging Clara away. She was confused at his behavior but shrugged it off. She looked back to see Seungri smiling and walking off.

They found an inn and were given a hot meal and warm beds for the night. As they lay in their room, Clara stared at the ceiling.

“Why didn’t you want to take his offer?”

Kwon was facing the wall and laughed. “He was a random stranger offering us money. I don’t want us to be in debt later because we let some random man join us on our travels.”

“But he said he had money for horses. Having them will save us days on traveling.”

Kwon turned to face her. “Did you forget that I have my violin and your dancing? We can make money tomorrow in the square and buy our own horses.”

She chuckled. “You’re right. Let’s get some sleep.”

~~~

The next morning, Kwon and Clara headed to what they believed was to be the square and set up for their performance. The town was a bit livelier with more people roaming about.

Placing the violin on his shoulder, Kwon began to play a light airy tune and Clara began to dance. The performance attracted a few passersby but out of that bunch only a small handful tossed them some coins. They stopped when the sun was high in the sky.

“Are we doing something wrong?” Clara asked looking worriedly at their collection of coins.

“I don’t know.”

They heard someone clapping slowly behind them and they turned to look. Seungri leaned on a post watching them.

“I sensed you would try something like this. This town isn’t one for street performers.” He walked over to them, a large bag of money dangling from his fingertips. “My offer still stands.”

Kwon and Clara looked at each other. She gave him pleading eyes and he sighed. “Fine. You can join us. We would greatly appreciate your help to get us a horse or two.”

Seungri grinned and walked over to the stables while they waited in the square. When he came back he had two horses by their reigns.

“Let’s go shall we?” He said handing the reigns of one of the horses to Kwon. Clara smiled and they set up their stuff on the horse before climbing on top themselves.

Being on a horse, with Clara’s arms wrapped around his waist, a small memory came into his brain.

He was younger. Sitting atop a brown horse, his hair in a low ponytail and riding on a bright green lawn. Next to him was another young man about the same age trotted beside him, his hair curly and pulled into a low ponytail as well. Something about him seemed very familiar as he had the memory.

Realizing that he was still standing in place, he looked to see Seungri giving him a questioning look.

“You alright?” He asked an eyebrow raised.

“Huh? Yeah. I’m fine.”

“I never did catch your names. Mind if I ask?” Seungri said as the two of them began a slow trot out of the town.

“I’m Kwon and this is Clara.” He said looking straight ahead.

“Ah, your wife has a beautiful name.” Seungri said smiling at her politely.

Kwon coughed. “We’re not married. We’re just friends.”

“Hmm…I see.” Seungri smirked. “Well this makes things interesting.”