[Daren]

((Good post, silly.))

Truth of it all was he expected such a reaction from Cambria. He was rather shocked she didn't just order the guards to throw him in jail or to have his head on a pike as soon as possible. He couldn't blame her for not liking him, it was something he was use to by now. Even through all of her fussing and complaints about how a cursed man was leading the princess and that he was not to be trusted, he still never bothered to say a word. The only thought was that he wasn't leading the princess, she was leading herself. He was just making sure she got to where she wanted to go.

Not too long after Cambria started her rant did Emily put a stop to it. The girl even though she was still adjusting to everything around her and had been raised in a small village showed she had the potential to be the true ruler of these lands in a small shimmer as she spoke to Cambria. To admit Alton had worried the girl wasn't ready or wouldn't be by the time they got to their journeys end, but this proved him otherwise. She might not be ready at the moment, but she would be when the time came.

Even when Emily spoke he kept his words to himself, he couldn't afford to talk at the present time. He needed to reserve his strength to recover from using such a spell so carelessly. He knew better, but he couldn't wait and risk Emily's life. At the same time he couldn't let the girl know he had pushed himself when he should have been resting. Over the last few days he had been forced to use more magic than he had, it was slowly taking it toll but the more he used it the more damage it was going to do. If he didn't watch it then Emily was going to figure out he was in worse shape then what he was letting on.

After leaving the cemetery behind he let Emily go about whatever business she had at the castle. He said he was going to finish his business from earlier. Though really it was that he couldn't get near the castle, the curse made things complicated at times. Sure Emily might know who he was and that he had a curse, but she wasn't allowed to find out what type of curse it was... He just had to push himself long enough to let Emily finish her quest.

He waited for Emily just outside of the town, he knew she was going to get horses. He wasn't really expecting to get ones suited for the weather here, let alone fully equipped with supplies they would need. He probably should have expected some sort of gesture, seeing as Emily was the princess and if all went well soon to be ruler. Something bothered him though in his thoughts. Cambria spoke of Felix, he had a feeling that they had not seen the last of that man.

Once Emily seemed to show up with the horses he questioned her on where they were headed next. Last he knew this was the last town for a good while. There was nothing but harsher weather and mountain trails that were ahead of them. At the same time it meant they were drawing closer to the end of their travels as well. She needed to be trained and maybe the harsher weather would aid in such training. It would make finding life for her power to work with harder.

[gremlin]

"I'm unsure," she said when she was questioned about their next destination. "The path is full of many towns, villages and another castle but that is the farthest from us. I have no clue which ones are safe or unsafe, I guess we will just have to test our luck like we have been since the beginning." Emily breathed out a sigh then looked over at Alton from the map. "You will have the judge if where we stop is alright or not, I'm not yet capable of really feeling anything... At least not as much as you do." Saying that made a question pop into her head. "When will we ever be able to train again?" She asked then smiled at the other. "I know that it may not be for a while but I really want to further my knowledge."

Before she could really get much of an answer the sound of sudden footprints caught her attention. Emily begun to fold up her map as she turned to see who was approaching, when she saw she smiled then crouched. Talos hopped over to her happy and when Emily reached out her hand to him he nuzzled her hand affectionately. "What are you doing out here?" She asked and a soft purr begun in Talos' throat, then he moved closer to her pressing his face against her neck. "I believe that he wants to travel with you," Emily looked up from the snow leopard to see Cambria not standing too far from them. "He was anxious once you left and kept whining at the doors. When I let him out he ran off and I followed him here, I should have known better." She laughed a little and for a moment her eyes went to Alton before returning to Emily.

"You can take him, if you would like to. He doesn't do much here or receive much attention and he has missed you dearly." Emily ran her hands along the beast's back as she thought for a moment then she had a reply. "I suppose it would not hurt to bring him along, as long as he keeps himself out of trouble." The beast seemed to know that she was allowing him to travel with her, his tail begun to wag from side to side happily. "Very well, I will allow you two to go off now without any further delay, please do not be afraid to seek help from me and my people. I will always be an ally as I was for your parents." Cambria waited for a moment as Emily said thank you, then she turned on her heels and begun to head back to the castle.

Talos purred as Emily continued to stroke his hair. She looked up at Alton with perhaps the most genuine smile since the beginning of this journey. "Isn't he cute?" She asked though she wasn't really seeking an answer for that. Then she removed her hands from the creature and finally stood. "Well, I have nothing left to hold me back from leaving. Let us be off!"

[Daren]

She'd be able to read people far better than anyone once she had control of her powers. Though she did have a ways to go for that. At the least to train her it didn't require him to do any magic, just to talk her through what she needed to do. Though magic was needed if she let herself get carried away like what happened last time. "My plan was to do some training here, but it seems that will not be the case." He never planned on having to deal with pawns of the Queen's lap dogs, or the temperament of the woman that was suppose to be one of Emily's allies. "Next stop or area that we set camp up in we'll work on some of your skills. The weather in these parts prevents -" He seemed to stop when they heard footsteps coming closer to them, he wasn't sure he trusted this so called safe area. Though they had not given him reason not to and he was sure that the woman who ruled here knew as much as Felix did about the girl.

He never said a word with the purring giant cat that seemed to favor Emily. Though he quickly noticed Cambria was not too far behind the creature. Something told him that he wasn't getting away from this place without picking up a extra traveling companion... not that it was all a bad thing, the snow leopards were good hunters and this was their natural habitat. It might prove to be useful in Emily's training as well if the beast was willing to work with him a little in order to help Emily. But such thoughts he kept to himself for now, till they were clear of this place anyway. It was easy to tell Cambria was still not fond of the idea of Emily traveling with a cursed companion, let alone a drow.

"Cute... a beast thats known for hunting down some of the largest prey in these parts." He shrugged a little. "Whatever you wish to call cute I suppose." Though he did agree with her that it was well overdue to leave this place behind, at least for now. Maybe if they well rather she returned here the welcome would be a better one. "If we're following the roads I suggest we take the longer route, it has more cover and will take us past a town that I know if outside of the Queen's grasp." Also it would take them a few days just to get to that town and it was closer then any of the others. Sleeping out in this weather would be harsh to say the least unless they got lucky with caves or some other form of cover, tents weren't the best in the cold regions like this, the snow and ice could rip them apart easily.

There was a bit of minor details about the said town he forgot to mention. One being the race that lived there, or rather rumored to live there. Also that it was the more dangerous route of the two, but he had hopes that the trail would allow them to stay clear of the Queen's men. Even if it forced them into other dangers, he was sure they could handle whatever came their way. But the longer the Queen had no idea where Emily was the better.

[gremlin]

"I would enjoy taking some time to train, we have not had the luxury of time to do such a thing for a while." It was true, they had been struggling to push some training into their schedule with all of the events that had been taking place so suddenly. It worried Emily when she thought about it, to know that they were so close to the end of their journey yet she was so unprepared to face whatever waited for her. The beast that stood before her breathed out a heavy purr as her hands tended to it's face lovingly. "Well at least he will help us, perhaps he will be able to capture us something to eat along the way."

Emily ran her fingers along Talos' once more before bringing herself away from him. She brought herself beside her horse then mounted it with ease, once settled upon the beast she looked over at Alton and managed another smile. "That sounds like a good idea, I would rather avoid any more trouble especially knowing that the weather isn't going to be so kind to us." Though the difficult weather meant that it would be more trouble to press on she also knew that that meant the Queen's mean would also find difficulty while trying to follow herself and Alton. That gave her a little bit more of hope that hey could finish this journey in peace.

With her hands she took hold of her horse's reigns then tugged on them lightly, the beast snorted once before beginning to walk and beside her followed Talos. "Let's hope that the weather won't be a bother, at least not much of one. Maybe then we could get in some light training."

[Daren]

"Maybe..." It was easy to tell he wasn't crazy about the idea of the 'cat' coming along with them. Though he didn't trust a lot of living things to be honest. Not with how they could be turned against someone with simple will commands and spells. But he kept further thoughts to himself getting on the other horse and catching up to Emily's stride.

"The harsh weather almost could be called a blessing, sooner or later we'll get ahead of the storm and the forces trying to give chase will be stuck in it still." He smirked a little liking that fact. It would delay the Queen's men and that was exactly what they needed. It helped that currently their whereabouts were unknown or at least he hoped they were to the Queen's eye. Out here it was hard if not impossible to place tracking spells. The weather destroyed a lot of spells let alone provided blind spots.

Emily kept to following the map to make sure they didn't get lost. That was the last thing they needed was to be lost out here in what seemed to be a light blizzard. Though after traveling for most of the day the storm seemed to give them a break, a breather almost as it stopped hounding on them and the wind seemed to calm.

The harsh weather never seemed to bother Alton but his home had laid in the more northern lands, not as much snow as these areas but still rather harsh and biting winds. But also there was the fact he knew his time was becoming more than short. Each day he felt what life he was clinging to dwindle. The more energy he wasted in magic the faster this decay would happen. But at the same time he had to train her. Emily had to be prepared and he knew he wouldn't be able to aid her much in her final battle.

"We should stop here while the gods are giving us the blessing of a clear sky." He spoke getting the horse to stop as he waited to see what Emily would do. "While the weather is calm we should also get to work on training you some more... though your powers will require quite a bit more energy here with the life force of most living things being buried in snow or frozen from the sparks of the sun."

[gremlin]

Emily lightly tugged on the reigns causing her horse to slow his pace, the beast snorted as he came to a full stop and she looked over at Alton bringing her full attention to him. Emily listened to his words and for a moment thought over his offer to delay their journey to train, her head bobbed up and down in a nod before she carefully lifted herself from her horse and lowered herself to the ground. It had been so long since she had last trained and Emily felt slightly anxious, she was afraid of making a fool of herself or worse hurting either herself or even another.

Now off of her horse she felt something brush affectionately against her thigh. Talos exhaled a soft purr as he nuzzled into her warmth, his bright eyes looked up at her expectantly. Emily leaned down bringing her hand over the massive cat's features, tickling under his chin, the sides of his face and of course behind his ears. A satisfied purr came from the beast and when Emily finally brought her hand away from his soft features he no longer begged for her affection. Instead he sat down beside her, his tail slowly flicking back and forth, Emily patted him on his head once more before stepping away. "What should we do? I'll follow your orders." She said to Alton.

[Rosekitten]

"Orders? Hardly... " He said dismounting his own horse as the creature snorted before pawing at the cold ground. "Though it might be a bit of a challenge for you to call on your powers here. Aside from the two horses and the cat." He said half pointing to Talos. "There isn't much else that is living around here. From what I have gathered that seems to be the source of your power." He seemed to pause on that thought before he went on. "Though if we train you enough you should be able to make things do your bidding even in the frozen wastelands. It'll just be harder to call forth nature against its will." Wasn't that the truth, to call a tree or something out of its state of slumber might take her some time. He also had plans for the cat if the beast was willing to work with him after Emily got a bit more control in this area.

"Do the same thing as we did before, slow breathing and try to focus on your inner energy and your surroundings. But be mindful of them... nature also includes the snow and I don't particularly want to see what happens if you lose yourself again." Though he spoke in good humor about it, it would still be something he could surely handle or stop before things got out of hand. "Just relax and focus, stop worrying about messing up. Your still learning." He said to her noticing she seemed to be struggling with it as if she feared making a mistake.