Roy's prediction ends up being accurate, as after twenty minutes of riding Karry gets tired not only of his eccentric sword holding ways, but also his way too heavy armour.

   "It's such a beautiful day, I think we should take off our armour to properly enjoy the sun and wind... I mean... You must be tired from the weight, right Roy? After all you are much smaller than me, carrying this heavy armour must be hard for you." Karry tried to say nonchalantly.

   "I'm not tired at all, It's fine. Are -you- tired, Karry?" Prince Roy answered mischievously. Sometimes, Karry could be too hard headed and would deny any difficulties he had. "I... I am not! Of course not! Why do you ask? I was only trying to make your journey more confortable." The older answered fastly.

   Roy took a long look at Karry while the other was staring stubbornly at the front, and could swear he saw a slight blush in his cheeks. How cute. "I mean, It is a pretty fine day. Maybe we should take off our armour and enjoy it."

   The younger relented, and smiled bright at the obvious relief in the other's face. "But probably not here" Roy continued, glancing around, where the citadel outside of the castle was swarming with life. "What would our people think of us if we suddenly started undressing in the middle of the open?"

   Karry barked out a loud laugh. "It would be a bad idea indeed. There is an inn right at the border of the Enchanted Forest, why don't we race there?" "I'm way ahead of you!" Roy said, and started a gallop on his caramel horse. "That's not fair!" Karry screamed, prodding his horse to go after the other even faster, startling the residents walking nearby.

   They run through the center of the town, go past the bridge of the river and continue riding until they reach an isolated wooden construction, right by the forest. The sun has started to set, so it is not as scalding as before, and a soft wind is blowing.

   "We are here. Let's tie our horses and go in, we can get a room to change and stay the night." Said prince Karry, dismouting from his stallion. Roy just stared dubiously at the building "This." He said pointedly "Is the place?"

   "Something wrong?" The older asks, rising one eyebrow. "No, no. I just thought maybe we would go to a place that wouldn't fall down on top of us. Or be haunted." "Come on!" The older said with a laugh "It isn't bad at all! Let's go in." And turned to the entrance, leaving the other behind.

   Roy got down quickly and ran after him "Do not leave me alone in a place like this!" He said, grabbing Karry's arm and holding it tightly. "You get scared so easily." And continued to go forward, dragging the younger with him.

   "Hello?" Karry called out loud, when they passed the double doors, and an eerie looking woman appeared behind the counter. "Oh my. If it isn't the princes. It is such an honour to have you here." She said in a raspy voice that gave Roy the chills.

   "That is a fancy armour you've got there" the old lady continued, eyes glinting in Karry's direction. "It sure is! It is my new dress armour, I had it made specially for-" and he went on, happy to talk to someone who wanted to hear about his fashion sense.

   Prince Roy, on the other hand thought the lady and the place were really suspicious, he just couldn't be as at ease as his friend, and started looking around. It was a really old and badly taken care of, there were spider webs everywhere and the wind passed through holes in the wall, singing.

   At least he hoped it was only the wind. He looked at the lady listening (surprisingly) with interest to Karry's non stop blabbing, and thought she surely had some spiders webs in her too, for she looked ancient.

   "And we wanted a room so I can give a rest to my beautiful armour, that by the way was made in-" The older prince went on and on "And it really complements my eyes!" "Karry!" Roy whispered harshly in the other's ear "I don't think we should stay here..." "Nonsense! This nice lady already got us a room, free of charge." "How could I charge your royal highnesses?" The old woman answered. "Come this way." She bowed and directed them upstairs.

 The older prince went unconcerned, followed closely by the younger through the creaking stairs, until they reached their room. Karry sagged in his bed, all pretenses dropped, and closed his eyes breathing deeply. 'He must have been really tired...' Roy thought, staring at the older's face. His hair was dishvelled from all the wind from the run, face still slightly sweaty.

   He decided that Karry was long gone, and grabbed a wet cloth to at least clean his face. Roy pushed Karry's hair from his forehead and swiped it slowly, dragging it carefully as not to wake the other. He reached his brow, and his eyes, and then stopped. 'He has such long lashes' Roy stared at Karry's closed eyes, and watched as said lashes fluttered open centimeters from him.

   The younger prince then realised how close he had got, and backed away flushing. "I-I was just...! I mean, you didn't clean yourself, and i thought you had already slept!" Karry looked at him with an unreadable face, making Roy blush even darker.

   After a few moments, he said "That's thoughtful." And took the cloth from Roy, cleaning himself. "Here, help me out of this armour" Karry lifted his arms "Wha-? What are you saying?!" The younger prince yelled in embarrassment, he was sure his blush was going to stain his face if it stayed any darker or longer.

   "There are no servants with us, I can't take it off by myself. I still have garments underneath it, stop freaking out." prince Karry explained, not looking in Roy's direction. "Oh." Prince Roy unfreezed, and tought that made a lot of sense. In fact, he would need the other's help too.

   They took off their armours completely avoiding eachothers eyes, finished cleaning themselves and each went to a side of the room to lay on the extremely hard beds. Roy's gaze strayed to the pile of metal in front of the wardrobe that was their armours, then to Karry.

   "Goodnight." The older said as he noticed the younger's gaze. "We shall wake up early tomorrow and continue our quest, so sleep well." And turned around, falling asleep. It was then that prince Roy realized that Karry distracted him all that time from the fact that they were in a really creepy place, and there was nothing to do so now.

It was going to be a really long night.