The trumpets rang through the woods, announcing the betrothal of the prince to the entire kingdom. Despite having run through the woods for over an hour, Ryeowook heard them loud and clear. He clenched his fists and sped up, dodging a low hanging branch that was in his way. The trees were beginning to thin out and large boulders shot up from the forest ground, signalling that he was near the border of the kingdom. The land was relatively small and the border to the East was made of a huge chain of mountains, unexplored by anyone in the kingdom. There had been tales about what was on the other side for centuries, tales of strange creatures and savage people, tales that kept curious people from venturing into or over the mountains. However, this was Ryeowook’s goal; he needed to get to the other side of those mountains, no matter the cost. Suddenly he broke through the line of threes, the grey mountains lying just in front of him. He stopped his run, finally letting himself breathe fully since he... No, he wouldn’t think about that. He couldn’t allow himself to think of that. He quickly jogged back to the trees and began searching the grounds for any kind of plant he would be able to eat. He had no idea how long it would take him to cross the mountains or if there would even be any vegetation on the other side, and he had only managed to grab so much before he ran. He suddenly saw the tell-tale leaves of the moonstone plant and quickly dropped to the ground and placed his hands over it. Warmth rushed through his body, running through his arms and to his fingertips, the energy running from his fingers to the plant. The leaves began stretching further, growing bigger, and the little stalks growing longer and curling into spirals. He sent a thankful thought to his tutor, Onew, for helping him develop his extraordinary skills and began removing the earth around the plant carefully so as not to destroy the white vegetables growing from the roots. When he had managed to free the plant of the dirt, he held it up and examined his work. The vegetables where big, had the proper white colour and the thumb sized indent in the middle that told him they were ripe. He shook the plant once more to shake off the last bits of dirt and carefully put it into his duffel bag, before quickly covering up the hole where the plant had been. Though he doubted King Rubion would send anyone out to find him, he didn’t want to chance it by leaving any trails.

He finally decided that he was as ready as ever and turned to the mountains again. Though the mountain seemed fairly accessible right here at the bottom, he could see how it suddenly turned into a steep wall further up the mountain and he knew that he wouldn’t be able to climb it. He looked to the North, seeing the relatively straight line of where the forest met the mountain. It looked like the steep part of the mountain continued that way. He then looked South, only able to see a few hundred metres before the mountains resided a bit and the forest took over. He couldn’t see what the mountain looked like further down, so he decided that it was the best way to go, hoping that the steepness further up the mountains would not be as bad further south as it was here. He broke into a jog again, running in the borderland that was heather and smaller boulders between the forest and the chain of mountains. After almost half an hour, he picked up the sound of running water and pushed himself to run a little faster. After five more minutes he finally reached the stream he had heard and breathed out a sigh of relief. He scouted up the stream, seeing that it flowed from the mountain as he had hoped. As far as he could see, there was no steepness here that he wouldn’t be able to overcome and he could follow the stream with his eyes almost to the highest point he could see on the mountain. He tried to calm his heart down, reminding himself that rushing into this could mean the certain death. He grabbed the duffel bag a little tighter and turned it to his front, reaching into one of the smaller pockets and taking out a leather pouch. He opened it with a shaking hand and took a small handful of the white powder in there. He clenched his hand closed and let the powder run through his fingers into the stream in a thin beam. When nothing happened he breathed another sigh of relief and all but threw himself onto the ground, burying his head in the water and drinking greedily from the cold stream. When his thirst had been sated he sat up before plunging his hands in the water and beginning to scrub them clean of the dirt from when he had dug the moonstone plant free. Once his hands were clean, he began washing his arms in the cold water quickly followed by splashing more water in his face and his neck, rubbing them to get clean and cool his hot skin down.

He only gave himself a few minutes to gather his thoughts and rest his tired body before he stood up once again and began following the river up-stream with a determination that left no room to doubt if this was the right thing to do. He kept himself occupied, always looking where he placed his feet, every once in a while spotting a foreign plant that he had never seen before other than in his tutor’s books. He felt the curiosity bubble inside him, wanting to stop and examine the plants, feel them, smell them, taste them if they weren’t one of the many poisonous plants in the books of his beloved tutor. However, he kept going, telling himself sternly that he would have time to do all the examination he wished once he reached his goal. He kept walking, the stream by his side as he followed its run higher and deeper into the mountains. When the sun began setting he heard a bird sing, but other than that he had heard no sign of life yet. He soon came to a large rock that he deemed would provide him shelter for the night and so he sat down and began examining what exactly was in the bag he had grabbed on his mad run for freedom. He knew the moonstone plant would be in there and the leather pouch with the magic powder along with the food he had thrown into the bag on his way out the door. He opened the bag and quickly realised that it was Onew’s expedition bag. He closed his eyes and thanked the stars for his luck before he took out the rope and the huge leather cloth from the bag. He knew these were usually used to build shelter, but since he already had shelter in the shape of the rock, he could use the leather as protection against the cold night air. He kept shuffling through the bag, eliciting a cry of pure joy when he found not only a notebook made of parchment and some charcoal, clearly destined to be a travel encyclopaedia of the foreign plants his tutor would come across on his expedition, but also another leather pouch with an assortment of different seeds. He recognised the starberry seeds and the sunrange seeds among others and he was pretty sure that the tiny blue seeds were poppyberries. He also found a water carrier that he would have to remember to fill up tomorrow. Just because the water was safe to drink at the foot of the mountain, it didn’t mean it would be safe to drink at the top. He decided to try a poppyberry, knowing that if that was what they were, the berries would go wonderfully with the mountain ox roast he had stored in his bag. He quickly dug a hole in the ground with his finger and let the seed fall down into the hole, covering it carefully afterwards. He went to the stream and collected water into his hands, letting it fall on top of the spot he had buried the seed and then sat down beside it, getting into a comfortable position before reaching out his hands and letting them hover over the spot. The rush of magic filled his body as he concentrated on letting the energy flow to the plant. He had already done this once today and thus it took a while before a fragile little green stalk broke through the soil and slowly began reaching towards his hands. The stalk grew bigger, the leaves unfolded and the red flowers blossomed before ever so slowly turning into little red berries. Ryeowook felt a bead of sweat trickle down his forehead at the exertion, but he kept going, kept channelling the energy of the earth into the plant until the berries were huge and the leaves that had previously been green turned red, signalling that the berries were now perfectly ripe and ready to be plucked and eaten. He let his hands fall to his thighs with a heavy sigh, taking a few deep breaths before he picked one of the large leafs and began plucking the berries one by one and placing them on the leaf. It only took a few seconds from when he had plucked the beautiful red berried before they turned white, grieving the loss of the nurturing closeness of their mother plant.