Kobeon
Bonny Lad of Royal Stature
Kilia IV - Volantir, Kingdom of Volantir
The hustle and bustle of the stone walled city gradually died down as night descended upon its rickety buildings. A calm breeze ushered in a chill that worsened as the sun's rays faded, accompanied by little white specks that fell sparsely from the sky. It was beginning to snow, and it would not stop for at least another month or two. Winter had come to Volantir - just as Kobeon was leaving.
Why was he leaving? Well, he was on a quest. You see, his father's kingdom, Volantir, had seen better days. It had been enduring a slow decline of everything good for centuries. On his eighteenth birthday, Kobeon decided that he would be the one to stop this decline. Nay, he would be the one to reverse it. Anyways...
The horse-like creature on which he was mounted made some sort of spluttering noise as the main gate of the city groaned open, revealing a decaying cobbled road that lead outwards. It wound past farms and homesteads, leading the way into a dense forest that completely filled the rest of the valley. The clip-clop of hooves on stone rang out in near-silence, which resulted in the two guards standing on either side of the entrance to offer a unified salute to the departing prince. Kobeon nodded in reply, donned the helmet which had been resting between his legs, and set off at speed. His destination? Grimmelstat, the nearest of the twelve kingdoms.
--
As much as the young prince would like to ride on forever, the creature that he rode wanted nothing more than to eat and sleep. With a sigh, the heir to Volantir pulled to the side of the cobbled road and began making camp. As he knocked in the final peg of his leather bivouac, his tethered horse-like creature made the same spluttering noise as earlier, only louder this time. Something had spooked it. Kobeon instinctively reached for his battle rifle, an ancient and rare weapon from the before-times, and cocked it.
It was the dead of night by now, and what little natural light there was was filtered out by the dense trees that surrounded Kobeon. All he had for light was an oil lantern that lay in the vegetation beside his bivouac and that flickering flame struggled to illuminate anything beyond the nearest tree trunks.
In the silence, he listened. In the darkness, he gazed. The horse-thing was now shifting nervously, blowing air from its nostrils in what seemed like panicked breaths.
What was out there?