Borderlands of Rhynland

As he was Ludwig stopping on the road, he thought that he must have heard them talking, even if they were just whispering. He almost went to hide behind the other man, but Matthew quickened his place and Feliciano had no other choice to do so too, even if he decided to remain a little bit behind on purpose.

Lost in his thoughts… even if he wasn't angry (and Feliciano could well trust Matthew, he himself had never been good to understand other people's mood, anyway), he still had the feeling that there was something going on with Ludwig. He just didn't know if he had to be worried about it, and to what extent, in case. After all, he thought, he had no clue about what could pass in the warrior's mind, they had met not even two days before.
The fact was that Ludwig was the most stable and strong of their small group. The situation they were in was hard enough, and seeing Ludwig acting strange only contributed to Feliciano's general concern.

As he reached the other two, he smiled to the other prince, but he couldn't hide completely a slightly questioning gaze.
"Thank you for waiting!" he said anyway.

"It wouldn't do much good to lose you both. I am sorry for getting so ahead of you. I'm accustomed to traveling alone, so I forget to modify my pace." He pointed ahead. "We're coming to the edge of the trees. It should be open plains, some farmland, then Rothenburg."

He was relieved. Perhaps being alone for so long was precisely the reason he was fancying Feliciano in this way. "It's a modest little place," he said, "and there will be griffins traveling in both human and normal form. But it has an inn and a marketplace. Both of which I think we could all greatly benefit from."

He put his water skein away and smiled at his two companions. "I'll also be able to send a message to my family from there, and hopefully, get some help from them."

“That’s okay, don’t worry about it,” Matthew said in response to Ludwig’s apology. Now he really wanted to know what it was that was making Ludwig act so strangely. Even if it wasn’t what Matthew was guessing, he sure seemed embarrassed about it, whatever it was. So Matthew would refrain from asking him. Well, for now at least; it wasn’t that much of a problem at the moment. But if whatever-this-was became too much of an inconvenience (not that he thought it would be), he would go ahead and ask.

It was relieving to know that they were practically out of the forest by that point and even more so that hopefully, if Ludwig was successful in contacting his family, they would have help. Though Matthew didn’t completely understand what it was they needed help with.

From what he could grasp of the situation, it was some kind of political mess involving the two kingdoms. And Matthew assumed whoever was behind it wanted some kind of power over the Kingdom of the Sun. Not that that narrowed it down much, if at all. A lot of people wanted power to some extent.

“Yes, help would be nice,” Matthew said, smiling at the thought of it.

"I should probably try to contact my family too. But I'm not sure of what happened home, so... I don't know if any message will ever reach the king's hands." he sighed "Thank you, anyway."

Probably nothing too bad had happened home... yet. But among the nobles of their court, there was someone who was trying to get rid of him, or maybe also of his brother and of the king. Feliciano had to try to alert them, but if the one who was plotting knew that he was still alive, he would make sure that no message from him would reach the king in any way.

As they went on out of the forest, the concern for the strange behavior of Ludwig was replaced by worried thoughts about his beloved back home. In any case, in the town they would probably have the chance to ask for news - if anything bad had happened, news about the murder of a king or thing like that usually travelled really fast.

He tried to concentrate on the landscape that they were passing, the plain was green and there were sheep and cows on the fields... it was surely a lovely view, but not lovely enough to relieve him from his thoughts.

Ludwig carried on, the plans ending sooner than he remembered, and soon they had reached the farmland. It appeared that one of the nearby farmers had decided to spread his herd, as both sheep and cattle were grazing. The nearby animals meant the all too distinctive smell. Growing up in a castle, Ludwig couldn't say that he was used to it, but he didn't feel the need to cover his nose with a piece of fabric or something.

He glanced over at his two companions. "The smell probably isn't going to be pleasant for the next few miles. It's all farmland from here, it looks like."

He continued walking. "If you have a piece of fabric or a thin scarf, it might help if you aren't accustomed to this." As a noble himself, he knew that he certainly wasn't. He could only imagine the same would be true for Feliciano, possible Matthew as well. He had a feeling that the other man may have been a noble as well. He didn't seem like a laborer. But he was terrible at small talk and hadn't really tried to ask the other blond anything about himself or his country.

“What smell?” Matthew asked. As soon as he did, though, the smell hit him all at once. “Oh. That smell. Wonderful,” he said dryly.

There was a list of things Matthew had grown accustomed to as time went on. The odors, which were bound to come with livestock, were not one of them, and would probably never be. The smell had become more tolerable the more he passed by farmland to the point where he could stand it without making a face or needing to cover his nose, but he still disliked it strongly.

“Miles, eh?” It would be a nuisance, surely, but Matthew could deal with it. If farmers had to do it for a lifetime, he figured he could for only a few hours at the most. “You know, my respect for farmers is steadily growing. If I were born as one, I don’t think I would have made it,” Matthew remarked.

Ludwig seemed to be fine, not that Matthew was surprised. Ludwig may have been a prince, but he seemed to be experienced in many matters outside of castles as well. Matthew wondered if Feliciano was another story or if he was fine as well.

He went on all lost in his (kind of sad) thoughts, wondering what kind of fate was awaiting him, his companions and his family. He almost didn't notice the smell, in the beginning, but he did as the smell became stronger and stronger. It didn't disturb him too much, though, he himself had already travelled through the farmland in his kingdom and the smell there could even get worse, during the hot, summer days.

He kept the pace of the other two, a few steps behind. Even if he was still anxious, seeing the landscape there kind of relaxed him; albeit the smell which impregnated the air, everything was quiet and they even met some other travelers on the road.
Still, he was kind of eager to get to the town, only because that feeling of uncertainty was beginning to bother him, and he hoped that once in the town things could change, somehow, at least.

As for Matthew's statement, Feliciano was sure he wouldn't have made it, as a farmer, but in that moment he thought that if he was a farmer, at least, he wouldn't have to worry about things like courts plotting and stuff alike - even if the farmer's life still looked too hard to seem appealing for him, in any case.

Ludwig trudged on, noticing a farmer in the field, or rather two. The woman was guiding the man, in griffin form to do some of the herding. The male had brown and white feathers, where Ludwig's were mostly various shades of gold. Some farm animals were necessary, but others became redundant when you were able to do the work yourself in true form.

He glanced back at his two companions. "As you can see, even within couples as those two obviously are, you may see one who is in their griffin form and one in their human one."

Ludwig preferred the human form because it was less discernible to his countrymen than his griffin one. That was the one that had been painted and that almost always bore his family's cross.

It was nice to have a brief distraction, not to have to think about the political mechanizations or the attraction to the brunet.

Matthew saw the two farmers as Ludwig pointed them out. One was unmistakably a griffin, though Matthew noticed how this one had different colors than he’d seen with Ludwig’s griffin form.

It was fascinating to him though, that the two were going about an ordinary, everyday routine, where in another place, the scene would have seemed surreal. Though he hardly found anything strange anymore, Matthew had to admit that the Rhynland was very unique, indeed.

At the moment, at least, his urgency to get to town as soon as possible subsided. Presently, Matthew was content as he thought about all the things he missed out if he hadn’t gone through with his decision to leave home. More than ever now, he was certain that he’d made the right choice.

Of course, there were things he wished he didn’t have to deal with, such as the current situation he had found himself in the middle of and, well, the current smell. But these trivial and not-so-trivial problems were put in the back of his mind for the present.

Ludwig's explanation distracted Feliciano from his thoughts. He turned to see the two griffins - even if, well, one of them was in human form; it seemed strange to him to see such a proud and majestic creature work as a shepherd dog would.
True, he would probably keep away wolves or whatever danger might occur better than any dog, but still.

He looked at Ludwig, trying to figure him doing some kind of farming job. The other prince looked like he could manage well any kind of hard job requiring regularity and dedication, and sheep would probably be too scared of him to even think of running away.
He then looked ad Matthew, and tried to picture him in the same situation, with the result of imagining him sitting under a tree, his lute in his hands, playing softly for the sheep, his blonde hair waving a bit in the air, in a pretty and bucolic landscape of green hills. Maybe the sheep would be so kind and in love with the music to stay next to him.

A bit encouraged by these silly thoughts, he quickened his step enough to reach the other and walk together with them again.

Ludwig glanced back again at his two companions. Both seemed a little more at ease. There was something, he had to admit, in seeing the daily routines that made it easy to forget the troubles of the day before, or perhaps reinforce why it was so important to do something to resolve them. His people could go to war easily. They had a fairly checkered past in that regard, but have since become more open and welcoming to other peoples, and in fact trade a great deal with other countries. He also knew that while the death toll wouldn't be high on their side, should their opponent become the Kingdom of the Sun, there was no reason for them to do battle at all.

After what felt like ages, and finally getting used to the smell of manure, he finally felt his senses accosted by new smells and sounds. He glanced back at the others again, knowing they could not hear or smell it just yet. "We're nearly there," he said, hoping that would keep their spirits up. He offered a smile to Matthew, then one to Feliciano as he waited for them to be close in step with himself. It was just a bit further before he was certain they could smell the food from the tavern, hear the sounds of people and life and see the village coming into view.

"Welcome to Rothenburg."

(I've started a new thread in Rhynland)