Our hope

The Prince woke up feeling a terrible pain in his head. More sleep and less stress should be able to fix it. That was if he got through this in one piece. Thankfully he already thought to put his clothes out for the day. He was feeling like his heart was going to beat out of his chest as he thought out of the day.

"Sire?" The Knight stepped inside the room after knocking. The Prince was sitting at the vanity covering up his bruise since he thought he had a little time. It looked like someone painted on a galaxy.

"Yes Theo?" The Knight closed the door behind him working on how to break the news that no one was ready to move out.

"I think that-"

"I know." The Prince interrupted finishing putting on the cover up.

"I know that the captain is not as loyal as I would hope." The Prince turned around facing the Knight.

"I always hope but I did suspect something was up from the past few days. I assume that nothing in ready for this morning?" The Knight looked at the floor.

"You are right sire."

"Then you should go find two other trusted lieutenants and get your companies ready. I don't think we will need many troops, but I don't want to seem unprepared. I would like to keep it quiet from the captain. Have all preparations be under the radar till one hour afternoon. Then get everything ready at once, make it seem like a rush."

"I want it to look more unprepared then we are if there are more people around that will report to our opponent. I don't plan to loose lieutenant." The Prince was now standing in front of the Knight. The tension in the room after his last line was so think you could reach out and touch it.

"Yes sire. I will go find the people that you wish." The Knight nodded as he left the room. The Prince took a deep breath preparing to make his own arrangements. He went down to the stables to instruct the sable kids to get several horse ready to ride out for an hour after noon.

He was hoping the King in orange would accept his invitation to come with to the battlefield. When he got back up to the dinning room it was finally time for food to be served. They would get to the valley at nightfall. Either the battle would take place at night, or they would be sleeping very close to the enemy for several hours. Both did not seem like a very good option.

"Nice of you to join us, even if you are a bit late." The King in purple commented as the Prince joined the table at the head.

"Forgive me but betrayal from the one whom I loved takes a lot out of you. Not to mention the fact that I have not been coronated yet and am already facing a war at my gate. Would you not also seek the comfort of sleep for as long as possible?" The Prince added a bit of venom to his voice.

He recognized that it was not needed nor was it helpful. The past few days have already been a strain, and it was only half over. It was an actual miracle that he had not snapped at anyone yet. From then on they ate in quiet with no response going to the prince's rhetorical question.

It was a long silence with the only noise in the room being at the other end of the table where the family's were talking. The groups dissipated as the clock struck ten when they would be back for a light lunch. The Prince asked the orange King to accompany him to the battlefield in this chaos. It was agreed before the captain could walk up on the conversation.

"Ah captain. Just the man I wanted to see." The Prince said turning to the newcomer as the other royals left for the next few hours.

"How can I be of service sire?"

"Yes, where are we at with the getting ready for the meeting?" The Prince could see the twitch in the captains face of a smile that was too quick to repress.

"I am working on it sir. It's not easy to get my people in line. You saw that with the Rebel attack just a few days ago. We are still recovering from that incident." The Prince nodded like he was processing about what was said.

"Right, well. I wish not to see you until it is over then. We have lots of work to do and I do not wish to impede your progress." The Prince said.

"Yes sire. I will come to find you when we are ready to move out." The captain nodded and moved away in the direction of the other royals. The Prince needed to leave for the kitchen to get the rations sorted. They would have a quick lunch then they would need food for super and mid morning breakfast.

They would need enough to feed a small army, literally. He entered the kitchen to find that it was in full swing. He had to dodge people carrying things, like baskets, water, pots, and pans. It felt like a dance that he was learning on the spot till he was pulled out of the way.

"Oh jasmine. Thank you very much for the rescue. Is it always like this down here?" The Prince asked being pulled off to the side.

"No, at night we have about half as many people." The Prince looked at her in concerned horror.

"Do you sleep?" He asked hoping the woman was not staying up day and night to make sure everything ran smoothly.

"The day shift are getting better at what they do. I rest a lot more when not training new people." She answered in an obvious deflection.

"Then I may suggest finding someone to take over your job. Things might fall apart when you can no longer be down here in, this." He gestured to the controlled chaos they were standing by.

"We will figure that out later. Why are you down here your majesty?" She asked pulling their attentions to the small coroner instead of the whole room.

"Yes, right. I have come to request two meals worth of rations for three companies." She nodded thinking that she could start that just after lunch was done while making supper.

"Right, we will have the ready for tomorrow." She said looking at the people she could pull away for that.

"Actually, I need it for right after the noon bell strikes. We are moving out one hour past." It was like a bell rang with Jasmines traveling eyes getting pulled back to the prince. He was now not scared in the least to going off to war.

"You need, almost three hundred meals, in just a couple of hours?" She said with a cold the make the Prince shiver. He was scared to answer her even though they both knew what he said.

"To be fair, I only found out last night that we were being invaded again."

"That would have been better then a couple hours before!!" She screamed getting the attention from those who were able to look away from their work.

"Yes well, I was unaware of how many we were going to be taking till this morning. I am very sorry to put this on short order." She waved her hand at him moving out of the corner and to the middle of the floor.

All the people that she could was pulled off of making lunch for the royals were put on making the meals. She started yelling orders in way that showed her authority. It made the Prince wonder if he was really the best person to be running the kingdom.

"It might be a little later then noon. We will get everything to you before the one bell after. It won't be very good because of the short notice right?"

"As long as you can do something to fill the troops I will forever be grateful." The Prince said getting out of the kitchen as fast as possible. He knew he got off easy, he would have to make it up to her with this request. Lunch was as good as ever with the prince, King and heir to the orange kingdom eating faster then the others.

It was time, everyone was rushing to get the reaction from the kitchen and on their prepped horses. It would have taken several more hours if they had waited. They were off not ten minutes later for the valley in between the two kingdoms. It was the perfect place that would leave both armies vulnerable. You would need to walk through to get to the other side.

It would be a blood bath if anything happened. The path through the forest was too small to take everyone. Other wise that is how the Prince would have gone to get the Rebel. Now he was stuck in the hot sun very likely walking to his death, again. As the hours stretched on the Prince thought about happy thoughts. How peaceful the night would be back with his love.

The wedding that was to follow soon after. To the Prince's delight the thought made the time pass like minutes. The small army coming to a stop a fair distance from the opening to the valley. It was wide enough for seven horse riders across. The walls were sloped enough the it wasn't impossible to come down from the sides on foot. There was several trees and small bushes spotted all along the walls.

You had to be carful not to break yourself while going down. Some places were better than others for this. Sir Theo started directing people to set up tents and who was on the night guard. The Prince wasn't sure he was going to be able to sleep with all the anticipation. The night before had always caused problems for his sleep.