“So, if they stayed in that cabin, then they’re obviously heading in this direction now,” he grumbled, looking up and through the trees. "Looks like we’re going to be crossing the border into Vastar.”

“Spade is the closest town to us at the moment. I know it has a weak defense. If they have the Prince there, it won’t be hard to get him back,” someone chimed in.

“Yes, but it would be quite stupid of them to stay somewhere so close. We’ll look anyway though. Let’s go, but still keep an eye out as we go through the forest,” Puck commanded. He put Kurt’s clothes in the saddlebag on his horse and jumped on. The others followed him once he took off in the direction of Spade.

“I don’t suppose we can buy me some new clothes when we get to wherever it is we’re headed, can we?” Prince Kurt asked.

“Don’t know what you want them for. We need to keep you looking inconspicuous,” Blaine answered groggily.

“Again with this ‘we’, you mean you,” Kurt scowled.

The two of them were sitting in the back a merchant’s caravan along with boxes of various fruits and vegetables, and Kurt wasn’t hiding the fact that he was incredibly annoyed and uncomfortable. There weren’t benches so they had to sit on the wood floor, and the ride was way too bumpy. The boxes of tomatoes next to Kurt would rattle at every dip or bump in the road, and Kurt feared they were going to come tumbling down on him.

Blaine was much more relaxed. He was lying on his back next to Kurt, ankles crossed, looking completely at ease with hands behind his head and eyes closed. He figured he would take this ride as an opportunity to get a bit of sleep. However, it didn’t turn out to exactly be the nap he had hoped for. Prince Kurt’s incessant complaints kept him drifting in and out of sleep.

After realizing Kurt had left his clothes in the woods, Blaine and Kurt left the little house in Spade immediately. Blaine knew what he needed to do, and that was to get to the nearest post office as fast as possible. The sun had been setting, and luckily a very kind merchant overheard him speaking with a guard about needing a horse, and offered them a ride seeing as he was about to head out to a trading post that passed right by the post office.

Knowing the ride from Spade to the post office would take only about an hour by caravan, much faster than walking, Blaine thanked the man and took up his offer. He had also been quite amused by the look on Kurt’s face as Blaine gestured for Kurt to climb in first.

Night had fallen now, and they were to be arriving at their destined location soon. Kurt glanced down at Blaine when he didn’t reply to his comment and saw that he had drifted to sleep again.

To be honest, Kurt had purposely been trying to keep Blaine awake the whole trip. Partly in an attempt to just annoy him, but mostly so that Blaine would be so exhausted by the time they stopped anywhere to rest that he would hopefully fall in a deep sleep and Kurt would be able to slip away more easily.

Kurt had felt a renewed sense of hope when he had been watching Blaine scramble around looking for a ride out of Spade. Since he did drop his clothes in the woods, the search party that definitely had to be looking for him would have surely found them by now, and were headed this way. He would be rescued. Maybe not here, but soon.

Kurt noticed how, even as he slept, Blaine somehow still managed to look on guard and alert, his jaw clenched, as though he were prepared to have to jump in fight in seconds. A thought suddenly hit Kurt. When he was rescued, Blaine was going to be executed.

He deserves it… Kurt thought, turning his eyes away because looking at Blaine while he thought such things was making him feel guilty. He shouldn’t feel guilty though! So why did he?

“Are we almost there yet?” he asked loudly in attempt to distract himself from his thoughts.

Blaine grunted and half-opened his eyes. “I hope so. Maybe then you’ll stop complaining…” he said sleepily.

Coincidently, the caravan came to a halt just then, and the merchant’s voice called out from the driver’s seat, “Here you are, boys!”

Blaine was up and wide awake in a second, and Kurt knew his thoughts about Blaine looking as though he were prepared to wake up and fight in a moment’s notice were right. Maybe it was assassin training 101. He wondered at what point Blaine would be taught to just sleep with his eyes opened.

Blaine jumped out of the covered wagon, Kurt following behind, and walked over to the merchant to thank him and shake his hand. The merchant left right after, and Blaine waved his hand at Kurt to follow him.

Wow, and Kurt thought Spade was tiny. The location they were at was a small ranch-a post office with a general store next to it, and then farm land that stretched on for acres. To the left a little ways was the ranch house, barn, and stables.

“Come on, your highness, we don’t have all night,” Blaine called out. Kurt snapped to attention and saw Blaine was at the door of the post office waiting for him. He rolled his eyes and walked over, entering the small building as Blaine held the door open for him.

“Hi, can I help you?” the woman at the front desk asked.

Blaine walked up to her and said something in a low voice. Kurt couldn’t make it out, but the woman seemed to understand Blaine’s urgency and she merely nodded before quickly retrieving a piece of paper and pen for Blaine from the desk drawers.

Kurt glanced over Blaine’s shoulder as he scrawled quickly across the page, but it was no use. The words were in Latin. Of course.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Not now, Kurt,” Blaine said sharply, and Kurt glared at him even though Blaine couldn’t see. It was then that he realized the woman at the desk was eyeing him with an unreadable expression. He was slightly taken aback by this. Did she know who he was? Could she maybe help him?

No, it was more than evident that this woman must be on Blaine’s side. If she did know who he was, she probably hated him as much as the rest of Vastar seemed to.

Blaine folded the letter and handed it to the woman. “Thank you, and also, we’re going to need a horse.”

And apparently what Blaine needs, Blaine gets. Kurt was shocked when they just handed him a horse. He didn’t pay or give them anything.

Blaine jumped on the lovely steed and looked to Kurt. “Hop on.”

“You’re joking,” Kurt raised an eyebrow.

“Are you going to pull a line like that every time I ask you to do something?” Blaine retorted, but sternly instead of in his normal joking tone.

“Where are we even going?”

“Get on the horse and I’ll tell you.”

Kurt hesitated, but then sighed and approached the horse. He had to get uncomfortably close to Blaine as he reached his hands up to hold the saddle and pull himself up. Everything was even more uncomfortable when he was seated right behind Blaine and there was no avoiding them touching.

“And I can’t have my own horse because…?” Kurt huffed.

“You’ll try and run off on said horse?” Blaine finished, and flicked the reins.

The horse took off in a gallop, and Kurt was forced to hold onto Blaine to stay steady. His hands were more gripping Blaine’s tunic rather than actually holding onto his hips though. Despite the speed, Kurt was trying as much as possible to keep himself separated from Blaine.

“Alright, talk! Where are we going?” Kurt asked, raising his voice slightly so Blaine could hear him over the horse’s pounding footsteps.

“Crylan City. We have a small headquarters there. It’s about a four day trip from here though,” Blaine answered.

Four days? Kurt felt sick at the thought. He was stuck with Blaine for another four days, and probably even more.

After a long while, Blaine slowed up, not wanting to run the poor horse to exhaustion. The ride was not close to being over though. Blaine planned on traveling most of the night. He needed to put as much distance between them and whoever might be searching for Kurt as possible before they needed to stop. He steered off the road and into the forest. The more they stayed away from areas where people could spot them, the better. Besides, cutting through the forest instead of staying on roads the entire way would shorten the trip.

For the first couple hours, Kurt made it his mission to annoy Blaine with questions. However, Kurt gave up on asking about the mysterious back up plan after about the fifteenth time since Blaine made it clear he wasn’t giving him any information on that yet. “Are we there yet?” was Kurt’s favorite though. Blaine’s shoulders tensed in annoyance every time.

Another couple hours and Kurt was beginning to feel extremely drowsy. The fact that the horse was at a walking speed didn’t help because the rhythmic pace was soothing in a way and only made him sleepier. At one point he almost considered resting his head against Blaine’s back so he could sleep, but shook that idea away quickly because there was no way he was snuggling with his kidnapper.

“Hey…are we stopping soon?” he asked, letting out a yawn.

“Soon.” It was nearly midnight, and Blaine could barely see where they were going anymore, so he planned on stopping once they found a good spot.

‘Soon’ came about a half hour later when they reached a small clearing in the trees. Blaine pulled on the reins to stop the horse and slid off. “We’ll stay here the rest of the night” he said.

Kurt slid off the horse a little clumsily due to the fact that he was sleepy and could barely see the floor. He wondered if Blaine could see the disgusted look on his face. Having to sleep on the forest floor was going to be a nightmare. Blaine obviously saw it because Kurt heard him chuckle very softly before walking past Kurt to get to the large saddlebags strapped on the very back of the horse.

“Here. Two blankets. Make yourself comfortable,” Blaine said as he handed them to Kurt.

“Yeah, right,” Kurt mumbled turning and walking around a little to find the flattest piece of land to lay the blankets on. At least they were made of thick wool because it was chilly out and they would hopefully provide good cushion.

About 10 minutes later, he discovered that they really didn’t. They were warm, but the ground was still uncomfortable and the cushion of the blankets did little to help. Kurt shifted and tried to spot Blaine in the darkness. “Hey…where are you?” he hissed.

“Over here,” Blaine answered. Kurt couldn’t see, but Blaine was tying the horse’s reins around a tree. “You go ahead and sleep. I’m going to find some firewood.”

“You can’t leave me alone here in the dark!”

“Are you scared?” Blaine laughed.

Kurt blushed, and was glad that Blaine probably couldn’t see it. “No,” he pouted. It was a lie though. Of course he was scared. He was in the middle of a dark forest that could have wolves or bears or…other assassins in it for all he knew.

“Relax, I’m staying within hearing distance,” Blaine said, and Kurt could hear his light footsteps crunching leaves as he walked away. Not too far though, like he said. Kurt was able to hear his footsteps the whole time and could tell when he was stopping to pick up branches. It was oddly comforting. He drifted to sleep much faster than he thought he would.

“Someone we’re looking may be within these walls. Just let us search without resistance and we won’t bring harm to anyone in this town,” Puck demanded.

Colonel Puck and his twenty men stood in formation in front of the entrance to Spade, swords drawn. There were six guards blocking the entrance, swords drawn as well, but their fear was obvious by the way they shivered in their boots.

Even though Spade was so close to Renova, Vastar’s king didn’t see it necessary to waste troops on protecting them when it wasn’t likely that they were to be attacked. There was nothing in Spade that Renova could want. The King had been right, Renova didn’t care about Spade. However, they actually might have something Renova wants now, and so they were nearly defenseless.

One guard finally spoke up. “You’re looking for the prince, aren’t you? The one who was kidnapped?”

The other guards looked at him incredulously, willing him to shut up with their glares.

“So he is here?” Puck asked, feeling slightly hopeful.

“No, he’s not.”

Puck glared. “I don’t believe you. So step aside and let us in or trust me, I won’t hesitate to let my men here put a blade through your skull.”

“No! Wh-what I mean is…he was here…earlier! He left though!” the guard admitted frantically.

Puck pondered this for a moment. It made sense that the kidnapper wouldn’t keep Kurt here after all, but he wasn’t leaving until he was allowed to search for himself.

“I can show you the place they stayed in…so you’ll see I’m not lying,” the guard added.

Puck smirked. “Very well then. Lead the way.”