Preparations

While the snow still covered the bare branches of the trees, no fresh snow had fallen in days. The winter was clearly ending, Ruki was sure. It wouldn’t be long now, before Takato would announce his plans to all the members of the Asana Bond. Looking for more dry wood, Ruki slowly wandered through the forest, enjoying the quiet day. She hadn’t found much, but they didn’t really need any.

Of course, she was well aware of Takato´s plans. As were Flora, and Gurain, and some more members closer to Takato. She had told her, when they had been close to the breach, his fears for this world, and he was planning on stopping it. But to do so… they needed to do research in the royal libraries of Zoroaster. And they could only do it when Takato has exposed the crimes of his father, and taken the throne for himself.

For the past few weeks, Takato and the others had discussed what the best way of taking over was. Ruki hadn’t had a big part in those talks. She had never even seen Zoroaster, nor did she know anything about the high king apart from what she had been told by the others. She hadn’t attended many of the meetings, though she had always been invited. Instead, she had just done random chores.

From what she had gathered, though, the idea was to isolate the king in his castle and take over from there. They didn’t expect much resistance if Takato would take over, but it would be dangerous if the inhabitants of Zoroaster saw their High King under attack without knowing who it was or why. So, they had to do it in secret, unknowing to the common ponies, and once it was over they would announce it to the public.

What would happen to the king himself, Ruki did not know. Shanjahen was a bad king and murderer of his own daughter, but what Takato planned to do with him, Ruki did not know. She somehow didn’t think she really wanted to know, though. She would see… what Takato was going to do with him.

“Well, I guess this will do.” Ruki sighed, looking at her half-empty basket.
She had strayed far from the house, and she didn’t want to go too far. The meeting of that morning would be done soon, Ruki thought, and she didn’t want to miss the outcome. Yet with Takato being as busy as he was, she knew she had to be quick.

As Ruki walked back through the snow, she remembered their previous journey, which had taken place a little more than two months ago now. They had stayed at the breach for over a week, and Takato had encouraged her to try, and try, and try some more to see if she didn’t really could feel anything. Well, it had been to no avail. She had indeed felt nothing at all, and she had once again begun to wonder if Takato had been wrong about her.

He was so convinced, so sure, that she was a special person who had access to the special powers of the east, that she, too, was of a royal bloodline… but if that was true, why didn’t she, ever, feel anything? It wasn’t just that she wasn’t sure what she felt, she felt nothing at all. Takato had told her time and again not to worry, but how could she not? How could she not be sure that he was wrong when everything he had said had proved wrong so far?

Surprised to see that she had already reached the house, Ruki began to wonder if she had indeed gone as far as she had. Still, not feeling like going back again, she entered the house and brought the wood to the kitchen, which she found deserted. She put her basket down, sure that the ponies whom it concerned would know what to do with it, and she walked to Takato’s room.

She saw the door to his room was open, a sign that the meeting was over. As she entered, she noticed Flora was still there.
“Good morning.” She greeted the engaged couple.
“Good morning, Ruki. You missed the meeting this morning?” Flora asked.
“Yes, I… didn’t think I could be of much assistance. Takato told me the topics yesterday and I didn’t see how I could help, so I went out to gather wood.” Ruki replied honestly.

“I see. Well, I guess that makes sense.” Flora smiled. “If you’ll excuse me now.”
Flora stepped past Ruki and left the room, leaving Takato and Ruki behind. Ruki could hear Flora closed the door. It pained her that Flora trusted her so… she shouldn’t have. She definitely shouldn’t have. Even though Takato had told her nothing would ever happen when they were at the house… The feelings she knew they both had should not be left unattended.

“We made a decision.” Takato said, out of the blue, while he didn’t look up from the papers he was studying. “Oh?” Ruki asked, not really sure what he was trying to say.
“We are leaving in five days.” He said.
“Five days?!” Ruki exclaimed, expecting anything but that.
“We’ll never have time to prepare! How can we gather enough food and supplies? How can we inform everyone?”

“Easy, Ruki. Calm down. We won’t bring more supplies than we need for the journey. As you know, Ruki, not all ponies in the Bond are fugitives like me, you being an example of that. In fact, most members can walk through the streets of Zoroaster completely free of fear of being recognized. So we don’t need supplies. All we needed was a base somewhere close to the castle, to prepare our take over, and we have found it now.

Gurain’s uncle owns a deserted mansion in one of the fancy streets of Zoroaster with direct view of the castle. The mansion belonged to his uncle’s wife’s father, and as she has no brothers it came into his possession after his wife’s father passed away. His wife doesn’t want to sell it, and she wants to live there should they ever return to Zoroaster. Gurain asked permission to use it, and his uncle said it was all his to use, as they would definitely not come to Zoroaster this year. In fact, he was extremely happy that Gurain offered to live there for a while and do some chores there to keep it in good shape.

So, as we now have a perfect hideout, I don’t see why we shouldn’t go for it. Once we are there it will be easier to analyze the situation at the castle. I will not be able to go out much myself… but it will be okay. Therefore, I am going to inform everyone tonight at dinner that we are leaving, five days from now. We will travel through the forest together, but once we get closer to Asterian we will split up so we do not attract too much attention.”

Ruki fell silent, not knowing what to say. She knew they would leave soon, but she hadn’t known it would be this soon. She looked around, wondering if she would ever return to this place she was now calling home.
“Do you have any other questions?” Takato asked. Ruki shook her head slightly.
“...No. Thank you for informing me.” Ruki left the room and realized it was indeed time to start packing all of her possessions.

The snow was melting, Taira realized when she looked through the window. The rays of sun were finally strong enough to melt the snow at the bottom of the window. Winter was almost over… and spring would come soon. As soon as the snow was gone, they would depart, but Taira was unsure if she was looking forward to it or not. It was true, she had wanted to come along, she wanted to help and prove herself useful to her country.

But… it would be a long journey. They would be gone from home for at least half a year. Even the most accurate maps Hikary had managed to find were not clear enough to show them how far away Asterian was. The country seemed to be on the western side of the west, shielded from the ocean winds by a huge range of mountains against which the capital, Zoroaster, was build.

As so many things were so unsure, Taira had no idea how long she would be away from home. She would be away from her mother, her work, the inhabitants, her daughter… everything. Would Fjaril even forgive her for leaving their daughter alone for so long? Of course, she would be well taken care off, even without her, or Stelline, around. Their mother would make sure that it was so. Nothing bad would happen to Frika, Taira was absolutely sure of that.

But… Taira sighed, while still staring out of the window. Being away for half a year would mean she would miss out on her daughter’s development. Most likely, she would miss her first steps, and her first words. She would not be there when her daughter would play outside in the flower-covered fields in spring for the first time, and she would not see her reaction to a bright summer day at the shores of the river. But from all of this, what worried her most of all, was that she wouldn’t really miss any of it. She wouldn’t be there, but would she care when she got back? The fact that still, after all these months, Taira was not sure of this…

“Well, time to get to work…” She whispered as she got off her chair and walked out of her room.
There was a new family who had applied for a house in the newest part of the Friendship Lands. They had always lived on the trade route as innkeepers but as they got older they wanted to settle down in a quieter place, and had thus proposed to start an inn next to the road here in the country, which surely would be more peaceful than on the busy trade route. Regina and she would have to discuss the possibilities.

Taira walked through the candle-lit hallway and noticed her sister’s room was empty. Well, Hikary was still working hard every day, together with that Yuuro person, to find out more of the west, their language, and their customs. Taira knew very well that the language, both written and spoken, of the west was completely different than that of the east. On her travels to Batafurai she had had to deal with this on multiple occasions, but as this usually didn’t concern more than a room for a night or some food, it was never too difficult.

But now they had to travel to the capital, arrange a meeting with the High King himself and making sure that he understood the importance of their mission. How they were going to do that when none of them knew more than a few words of their language, was still a big mystery. Because trade between the east and the west, and even normal contact for that matter, was so limited, there weren’t even any dictionaries around. How were they ever going to communicate? Thankfully, her sister had told her time and again that these concerns were something she would worry about, and Taira didn’t have to think about it.

Taira walked downstairs to her mother’s study. She was surprised to find not only her mother there but also her sister Hikary and her sidekick Yuuro.
“Good morning, all.” Taira said.
“Good morning, sis. You’re right on time.” Hikary smiled.
“Ah, for what?” Taira asked, curious what her sister meant as she was sure Hikary didn’t mean the settling of the new ponies.

“We were discussing when we are going to depart for our journey to the west.” Hikary said. “As you might have seen, winter is almost over. The snow is melting a little bit more each day now. We have to decide when we will leave, so we can start to prepare.”
“Are you done with all of the research then?” Taira asked.
Hikary smiled.
“Nah. But we did what we could. We got everything we possibly could get out of those old, dusty books. If we don’t move now, we might as well not go.” Hikary answered.

“Okay, that’s clear enough. You had any day in mind then?” Taira asked, while looking at her mother.
“Hikary and I were thinking of exactly twenty days from now. Twelve days from now is the festival of the melting snow in Heartfall village. I think we should all attend it as it is held in celebration of the birth of this kingdom. After that, you can all go.” Regina stated.

“That sounds fair.” Taira agreed. Twenty days from now… the snow will have all but melted, Taira realized. It was a fair time to go, and if they had learned all they could about the west and their customs, it seemed like time to go. It was not as if they had all the time in the world. They had to make haste. Twenty days… and they would set off towards the west.