Lillian smiled, "Thanks." She came out of the water and picked up her shoes as she dried her feet on the grass. She looked at the sky. "We should head off soon. It'll be late when we get to town."

"Yes," Jonathan said. "It wouldn't do to dawdle too much." He stood and untied the horses, handing the reins of Lillian's horse to her before mounting. "We might have rested too much to get to town before the darkest part of the night when it's most dangerous on the roads unfortunatly."

"Great," Lillian sarcastically said. She took the reins from Jonathan and mounted her horse. "Let's go then." And soon they were on their way to the next town on the road.

Some time later Jonathan looked up at the sky that was started to get dark and yawned. He gave his horse an extra kick, hoping they would get to the town soon. He really didn't want to have to sleep out in the forest. "We better quicken out pace here, Lillian."

Lillian said nothing and goaded her horse to go faster. Luckily enough they had made it to the town just after nightfall. The sun had just fallen as they entered trough the gates.

"Looks like we made it," Lillian said as she slowed her horse to a walk. She looked around the place and saw an inn not far ahead of her. "The Traveler's Home" was what the inn was called. Looked like a nice place. She guided her horse to the inn. When Lillian was in front of the inn she asked Jonathan, "This good enough for you?"

"I'll live as long as they have beds," Jonathan said simply. "Anything is better than having to sleep in the forest! Well..." he looked over at Lillian. "maybe except a dungeon." He saw that their horses were put in the stable and went into the inn to pay for two room. "I'm actually surprised everything has been so quite so far. Besides that minor run in with the bandits, we haven't had a problom." he shook his head. "It just makes me think we're pushing our luck and something terrible is going to happen soon."

Lillian gave a look at Jonathan when he stated that anything was better than sleeping in the forest. Good thing it was a bit to dark to see as he corrected himself right after that. They went inside and soon after secured two rooms for themselves. "I'm sure you'll find lots of problems later. The first stretch is usually easy as you know the area and no one has figured out you've left." Lillian said, "It's the last parts that are filled with adventure." She smiled as she made her way to her room.

"Well, I came for the adventure..." Jonathan grumbled to himself as he went into his room and sat on the bed. "This mattress might as well be the forest floor as comfortable it is..." He sighed and quit complaining as he drifted off to sleep.

((I'm going to sleep now so goodnight!!))

Lillian went to her room and sat on her bed. She lay flat on her back and looked at the ceiling. She contemplated on what had happened during the day. Jonathan and Lillian had escaped from the guards, ran into some bandits, argued with each other, and finally exchanged their names. She was glad how calm it was for now and closed her eyes to fall asleep.

The next day Lillian woke up to the sunrise. She made her way down the stairs to grab some food as she didn't want to waist the supplies they had.

Jonathan woke to the light streaming in through his window and slowly sat up. great he thought, another day of riding. He dressed and went downstairs. Spotting Lillian, he sat down with her. "You're up before me," he said with a slight smile before ordering himself some food.

Lillian looked at Jonathan, "You surprised?" she asked as she finished up her food. "In any case, we better get moving soon. If those guards are fast they'll be here by midday." She was rather worried about getting caught by them. They would most likely assume she took the prince for ransom. She would let him finish eating, she wasn't that pushy.

"No, I wouldn't say I'm surprised," Jonathan said. He ate his food quickly. "If we get past the next town, those soldiers will have a harder time finding us, since we didn't plan far beyond that in detail. Hopefully, they'll give up." He didn't really think they would, but it would be nice.

"Good thing we didn't," Lillian stated, "But with you being a prince they won't give up so easily." She looked about warily at the customers in the inn. There were two shifty characters at a table in the corner of the inn. Likely spot, she figured. After Jonathan had finished his food Lillian stood up and asked if he was ready to leave. She didn't want to worry him just yet. They might not even be related to their quest. But you could never be too sure.

Jonathan nodded. "I'm ready," he muttered, following her gaze. He saw two people at the corner table and blinked calmly. "Yeah, let's go before something happens." He gathered his things and headed for the door.

Lillian followed Jonathan as they headed towards the stables. As she glanced behind, she didn't notice the two strangers getting up but they could very well be following them on the road. She would have to keep careful watch later on so their couldn't be any straggles.
When the two of them got to the stables Lillian got her horse and prepared it for a ride. She then led it outside and hoped Jonathan did the same for his horse. Or at least asked the stable-boy to do so for him.

Jonathan got his horse from the stable boy and led it up next to Lillian. "Is it just me or were two people staring at us from the corner?" he asked.

"In all honesty I think so," Lillian answered as she mounted her horse. she looked at the door to the inn. "And it looks like they haven't come out yet. That's why I figured we should leave right away." As she spoke she saw the two figures walk out of the inn door. She sighed, "Don't look now but we better make a run for it. Looks like they are following us after all."

"Right!" Jonathan said, jumping onto this horse and kicking it into a gallop. He looked back and saw the strangers rushing to get their own horses.

Lillian kicked her horse and followed Jonathan. To Lillian it seemed like they might be able to outrun them, but even then they would probably see those too again. She figured the strangers would be out of the stable's by now and though of a plan to confront the two as soon as all four of them were a good distance away from the town. She didn't want to make a big scene. And outside of town was a better area to fight with swords.

Jonathan kept glacing over his shoulder, trying to gadge just how quickly the other pair would catch up with him and Lillian. "I'm thinking we have a fight up ahead of us. I really hope we can at least figure out why their chasing us!!"

Soon enough the group was in a nice area far from town. It was a somewhat open field with a few spare trees in the area. Lillian stopped her horse and called out to Jonathan to make him stop. "Looks like we have a fight on out hands," she said as the two strangers came up on their horses.

They were two men and one of them had the garments of a wizard. He seemed to be a spell-caster as he carried a book on his person. The other one looked like a mercenary as he had a bow on his back and a short sword on his horse. The men stopped their horses but didn't fight Lillian and Jonathan right away. In fact they decided to try and bargain with the two.

"We mean you no harm," the wizard said, "We just want to map to get to Haven's Gem."

Lillian looked at the man and figured he might be talking about the jewel that Jonathan and she were going to find. But she figured she'd let Jonathan do all the talking.

"The Haven Gem?" Jonathan said. "And what would make you think that we would have a map?" He was wary of the wizard in particular. He could fight a mercenary, but magic was something altogether different.

"I believe you would know about it," the wizard said. "I was given word that a prince was looking for the Haven Gem. It's the legendary jewel from heaven. The one that apparently gives power to anyone who wields it." The mercenary shifted his horse as he placed his hand closer to the sword.
"Look," the wizard stated, "We know you have it. So why don't you just give it to us and we can go on our way without any trouble."

Lillian now understood that they had exactly what they were looking for. She didn't want to instigate a fight but there seemed to be no other option. Unless Jonathan was smart enough to trick them into believe he didn't have the map. But then again Lillian knew he was itching for a fight. She placed one hand on her dagger, ready to fight if necessary.

Jonathan very plainly placed his hand on his sword, so the enemy could see and shouted. "We aint' got no stupid map, so bug of you creeps or we'll make you wish you'd never picked a fight with us!!" He drew his sword in one swift motion and pointed it at them for emphasis.

The mercenary pulled out his sword, a claymore, and addressed Jonathan, "You're going to wish you hadn't said that."

The wizard pulled out his spell book and started chanting in a strange language.

Lillian slid off her horse and grabbed a stone to throw at the wizard. All she had to do was stop his concentration and she didn't feel like throwing her dagger away. A wizard needed to focus from start to finish while casting a spell, and Lillian knew she would need her dagger once she got the man off his horse.