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They had already packed their stuff and things for the trip, which took a while to complete, and the package was already on the horse drawn carriage, only one thing needed to be done before Alfred and Arthur could departure for the Land of Empire; Arndor.

"Remember to drive on the road" said Alfred's mom Feline and held Alfred's hands tightly. "Yes, mom, you already told us twice now" Alfred a bit embarrassed by holding hands with his mom in front of the others. "And don't take side roads" added Arthur's mom Enva the Steady as she was placing the last supplies on the front of the carriage. "Handle the swords carefully" said Arthur's dad Fredric the Wealthy as he laid two long but narrow boxes on the end of the carriage. "You know we can handle them, dad" replied Arthur as he adjusted the placements of the package and then opened one of the boxes to examine his sword. His sword was long, narrow from edge to edge and wasn't that heavy. It fitted a fox pretty well which Arthur could use to make quick parries and make fatal sticks with it. Arthur slid his finger on the edge which instantly made a small wound. "It's sure sharp, dad. Did the old blacksmith Tod make these?" asked Arthur as he took the sword belt on and placed the sword safely in the sheath. "Yes, he's usually extraordinary when it comes to making sharp swords but he had to get help with the other sword when he heard that a wolf was going to use it" answered Fredric while he stood and scanned the carriage from bottom to top. Alfred was curious about how his sword looked like. When he opened the box he saw a thick sword which was shorter than Arthur's sword but heavier. He wasn't disappointed because he could use it to hack and slash the enemy, break their defenses and make fatal wounds without even sticking with the sword. "Remember what I've learned you, Alfred, don't always strike first. Letting the enemy take the step nearly always reveal their weakness if they're relentless" said Allan and laid a hand on Alfred's shoulder and shook him lightly as his mom finally let her son's hands go. "Yes, dad" Alfred also took the belt on and laid the sword inside the sheath. As Alfred and Allan discussed about the situations of a sword Arthur finished his talk with his parents and stepped upon the carriage, sat down at front and took the harness and waited for Alfred to go onboard. "Good trip to both of you" said Feline and crossed her arms to keep herself warm. "Farewell, mom and dad" said Alfred and Arthur respectively to their parents and waved to the other family. "Bye!" As they went farther and farther away the parents stood back and waved until they nearly were out of sight.

Their first destination was a small town called Calvin which would take about six hours to reach with a steady speed. With the same speed they would reach the frontier of Arndor in 10 days and further 4 days to reach the capital of Arndor, Dum'Arn. They were lucky for it haven't snowed in days which resulted a fairly, easy journey through the road which they followed and the landscape was beautiful white. As they had been going on for two hours the environment began to change its look; it changed from somewhat flat plain into more rough terrain like places where the carriage had to pass around some high hills and deep valleys in order to proceed. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" asked Arthur suddenly as he looked at the view. "Yeah, it's... like taking from a fairy tale" answered Alfred who couldn't resist to be amazed as his travel companion "I mean, I've never been outside my neighborhood before and... this is my first time traveling with someone to another country" Alfred couldn't still believe that he was actually on a trip with someone really important to him so he clearly showed happiness when they talked to each other. "Even though I've seen some places I still get amazed by the view of nature and I'm really glad to share this experience with you, Alfred" "So... where have you been except where we're going?" Alfred now looked at Arthur's face instead of the view. "I've been in the capital of Melren" "You mean, Ivenshire?" he smiled "Yes" replied Arthur and smirked. "What's it like?" "It's great and huge and a lot of things to see but it's nothing compared to Dum'Arn" Arthur gesticulated with one arm to illustrate the sizes of the capitals. "Talking about seeing, we should plan what attractions we should pick" Alfred couldn't wait to see wait Dum'Arn had to offer. "Have you done some research, Butler" Arthur shortly looked at Alfred and looked upon the road again. "Well, yeah... ehm... there's of course the Palace of Elvor the First and his Empress Lunva the Fair's Cathedral called Miendar" "The standards, yes," teased Arthur and smiled "anything else?" "Ehm... there's the Tower of Might, Arnar, the Royal Garden of Roses called Red Dawn where an anchor called Hope of Arndor resides in the middle of the garden." "That's good, you know the basics" Arthur pulled Alfred's hair and laughed a bit. "Yeah, yeah, you know-it-all" said Alfred and defended himself as Arthur continued to tease him "Just keep an eye on the road, will ya?" Even though the view was beautiful the weather began to change to something darker and gloomy; dark, threatening clouds came closer from north as they went through the rough terrain. Both suggested to each other to hurry up so they can reach Calvin before a possible storm would begin. It took them about four and half hour to reach Calvin but the storm didn't started yet. The town wasn't so big but it held the necessities for travelers who passed through the first common point to reach the frontier of Arndor from the southern province of Melren. As they walked through the pedestrian way (street mainly covered by shops and markets) they discussed what they should bring with them and when the saw a candy shop they stopped. "It could be nice to bring some sweets with us, wouldn't it, Butler?" said Arthur and placed one hand on the waist and the other scratched the back head. "Yeah but we have to keep some Dars so we can spent it in Dum'Arn" replied Alfred and crossed his arms "You know, there might be some events 'round the city we could spent the money on" While Alfred said that he secretly wished that they could spent the Dars on something a bit romantic like eating expensive food which is often connected with love or sail on an oblong boat through the street rivers. He gathered some courage and then asked: "Could we spare some Dars to spend it on some common experience?" "Like what?" Arthur looked at Alfred, a bit excited. "Like, um... amusement parks" stuttered Alfred and hoped for a 'yes'. "I would like that" Arthur laid his right arm on Alfred's shoulder and shook it a bit. "Really?" Alfred didn't mean to say that but it just purred out spontaneously. He felt his head spin a little. "Yeah, Butler, you're an important person to me" Arthur pulled Alfred closer and pulled his hair "You're a bit silly, you know" "Yeah, right and you're the most intelligent fox I ever know" he tried to counter the pull but a fox is quite fast in its reaction so Arthur responded fast by take on Alfred's wrest and forced it to his back so he got immobilized. "I'm at least faster than you, Butler" Arthur held Alfred in that position in few seconds before he released him. "So... it's decided then, my King, we'll go to an amusement park on our trip to Arndor" he smiled, was ready to do anything for him in return and he felt like he got a wish granted.

After they got themselves some few candies in the candy shop and bought some few extra supplies in Calvin they restarted their trip to Arndor but soon after they left the reach point city the weather changed drastically: It turned nearly pitch black and began to rain a lot and since it was still in the north the rain felt really cold and menacing. They wanted to continue but the wind took in strength which ultimately tired their two horses so therefore they decided to camp inside a giant cave they found. "Damn this weather!" cursed Arthur while he looked upon the rain, leaning against the rock wall. "Now concentrate about lighting a fire, that'll help the situation a little" Alfred found some small wood and laid them in a way he learned from his father long time ago. "I doubt that it'll lighten the situation for you, strangers" They both nearly jumped out of their fur when they heard that harsh voice. They both looked around but didn't found anything at first. Suddenly a lightning stroke and to their shock they saw a group of wolves deeper in the cave. They both jumped back in defense and laid their hand on their sheaths. "That won't help, rookie" the one with the harsh voice stepped closer to them and now they saw his clothes; it was made by leather with some few straps here and there, few holes and scratches. They were bandits. The leader wore a chain of claws and his face was covered by war paint. "Now, we'll be nice and let you go if you give us your property" he lifted his saw-toothed sword and pointed at them. They could hear the rest pulled their swords and weapons as well. "By the sounds there might be 5 or 6 of them" thought Alfred and shifted his mind from everyday state of mind to war oriented polar wolf. "What will the consequences be, mister...?" asked Arthur comprehended. "That'll be Craig to you, sneaky fox" answered Craig and stepped even closer, spitted and continued "Ya face looks like a member of the rich Fox Fore company. Is that it, kiddo?" "And what if I am?" said Arthur, still calm and relaxed. "That'll be bad news for you, for sure, good news for us" the crowd behind him laughed menacingly. "Taking you as hostages won't be a problem" grinned Craig. "Then try us out" Arthur pulled out his long and narrow sword. "Arthur!" "Talking won't really solve the problem, Alfred" as Arthur said that he took his fighting stance. "Fighting won't either" said Craig and readied himself. "Let's find out, thug!" Arthur launched a straight sword attack which Craig easily defended and pushed him back with huge force so Arthur nearly fell backwards. Alfred immediately knew Arthur's strategy since he's trained by a military dad and mom: They need to make some moves to analyze their enemy, to exploit their possibly weakness or predict the next attack by observing the enemy. Alfred then made his move: He ran forward, placed both his hands on the hilt and gave a power attack. Craig didn't see this coming and instead of dodging it he stopped it with his own sword which was a mistake. Since Alfred had brute force and strength he indirectly damaged Craig's hands. Right after Craig responded with a push, not so strong as the first but enough to make a distance between them. "Not bad, kiddo, I guess you got lessons somewhere," Craig shook his wrests to relieve the pain "but now the show is over. Guys, play with them" Craig put his sword back to his sheath and stepped back. The crowd followed his order, slowly stepped forward. Alfred and Arthur stood so their backs met each other so they had full vision. "This looks gloomy" exchanged Arthur with Alfred. "Just keep your focus" they both held their swords tightly as it were likely their only way to handle this situation. The crowd showed evil grins and rotated around the two, slowly reduced the distance between them. Suddenly one of the members attacked Arthur relentlessly but the attacker underestimated the quickness Arthur had learned so he parried in such way so the attacker nearly lost his grip of his weapon. As the attacker tried to regain his stance Arthur quickly stroke and stabbed the member on his right thigh. A scream was heard. The rest of the members went all in but since Alfred and Arthur stood side by side they dodge most of the attack. Arthur did receive a little wound on his left arm though. Alfred then made the next move; he again laid all his strength in his attack and paralyzed his target then quickly made a great wound on the target's chest. Two down. The crowd began to doubt their action and therefore rotated this time even longer. Unfortunately Alfred was getting tired after the two all-out attacks, fortunately either Craig or the members noticed this piece of information. "Come on, boys, you can do better than this!" yelled Craig irritated "They're only kids!" One of the members looked briefly at Craig which Arthur noticed and stroke fast again, stabbing the target's left arm. Three down. Alfred then made a medium attack, held his sword against the target's sword, pushing against each other. He then led the push astray so the target bowed forward where Alfred punched with his free hand. It was a bull's eye. The target felt unconsciously down. "So there are only two of us left," smiled Craig "so this will be quite interesting. My right hand and me against two skilled youngsters" "I've heard of you, Craig" puffed Alfred. "You have?" said Craig a bit surprised. "Yes. You're a wanted criminal who escaped the grip of the law in the western province of Melren" "How do you...?" "My dad told me about a trip he had to the west where he had a job to capture Craig the Wolf Leader with some comrades" "Who's he?" "Allan..." "The Predator, yes, I've heard of him" said Craig's right hand. "So you're the son of him, I see" added Craig "This will be a pleasure that I'll enjoy!" Craig stroke faster than they expected but they just managed to dodge the attack even though they got separated. Alfred was to face Craig and Arthur had to face the right hand of Craig. High strength against medium strength and speed. Speed and high speed. Alfred gathered all his focus and stood ready to an attack. Craig bluffed which Alfred took but still he managed to dodge the real attack. Right after Alfred felt he got pushed to the side which he countered by steadily set his foot hard to the ground. To Alfred's demise the attacks he made were somehow parried by Craig and he slowly got more and more tired. At the same time he wanted to know how Arthur was doing with his fight but all he heard were swords clashing against each other. Then he heard a scream, he couldn't hear which one it was so he quickly turned around to take a look, hoping for it was not Arthur. It was a mistake for Craig saw this as an opportunity to slay his enemy's son. Alfred felt something hard go through his shoulder. First he was shocked but then the pain finally took place and screamed. His world became blurry and unreal. He heard Craig cough and few seconds after the vision darkened.