Regal |Fantasy Ryden AU| DISCONTINUED

-10-

Dracden was a wretched, miserable spit of land.  Insalubrious marshes and swamps flooded the terrain, leaving little to no color or vibrancy anywhere.  It was a barren, lifeless wasteland, and the mere act of passing through was enough to suck the energy and excitement out of any traveler.

The quartet remained grimly silent as they trudged past the gray and dismal marshes.  The cold, damp wind whistled through the dead tree branches, stuck to their skin, chilled them to the bone.  The sky above them was no longer a soft blue, but a melancholic slate, painted with dark clouds and sickly pale sunlight.  It was nothing like the bright, vibrant, joyous land of Asturias behind them.  It was almost as if they had stepped into an entirely different universe, one where the birds didn't sing and the air didn't smell of pine and vivacious nature.  It was completely desolate, completely and utterly cold and soulless.

The prince despised every waking moment of it.

By the time the spiritless sun dipped beneath the swampy horizon, and the inky black of night began to creep into the sky above, the quartet had barely made any progress.  They'd ambled down the spongy path for hours on end, staring at nothing other than the same barren wasteland ahead of them, and still, they felt as if they hadn't moved an inch.  The same dead trees lined their path.  The same ghastly and vile marshes surrounded them on every side.  The same frogs croaked and moaned in the distance, and the same black birds circled overhead like a pack of hungry vultures.  The dismal and unappealing atmosphere of Dracden was all the same, and it only seemed to stretch on forever.

They knew they couldn't make any more fruitless progress in the dark.  They could hardly see where they were walking during the day, and now, as twilight bled into the sky and faint stars shined through the thick clouds, they knew they needed to stop.  Sleeping along the mushy path was far from ideal, let alone safe, so Spencer found a small outcrop near an old cave for them to set up camp.

Although, sleeping next to a pile of rocks didn't make the air around them any less chilling or eerie.

Frogs murmured into the darkening night as the quartet huddled around their pitiful fire, desperately trying to warm themselves up from the dampness of the marsh around them.  The air reeked of wet mud and dank swamp creatures, and it stung their lungs and made nausea swirl in the pits of their stomachs.  It truly was a sickening and atrocious place to spend the night, but much to their dismay, they didn't have any other option.

All they could do was hope and pray that no vile marshland animals invaded their paltry camp while they slept.

The cold night dragged on at the pace of a snail.  Darkness swallowed them whole, closed in around the small outcrop surrounding them.  Not even the weak flickers of flame from their fire could combat the darkness of the night, and it made their shadows dance along the rocks like twisted monsters.  It was haunting, completely and utterly unnerving, and the eerie sounds of the marshlands around them only made matters worse.

Ryan found himself unable to sleep, or even close his eyes.  Incessant thoughts flooded through his racing mind, bleeding him dry of any exhaustion he had in his body.  He couldn't stop thinking about where he was, about everything that had happened over the last few days.  He still struggled to wrap his brain around it all.  He'd up and left his home in a moment's notice to accompany the prince on a perilous journey, and now here he was, lying near an outcrop in the middle of a desolate marsh.  He was starting to wonder if it was all merely a bad nightmare, a faux reverie caused by his lackluster job at the shop.

But alas, he knew the uncertain reality he resided in was true when the fire beside him hissed and groaned, its embers slowly sizzling out into hot ashes.  He really was in the grim province of Dracden, wasting the troubling night away as he stared at the dying embers and longed for the comfort of his own home.  As much as he wanted to help the prince in his hour of need, he couldn't help but wish he had never packed his bags and left with the royal trio.