PeaceMaker

Boris turned around on his horse to see the people behind him, pulling his binoculars to his eyes. It was just as they had rehearsed in a meeting they had a month ago after the council members decided to touch on how to welcome the prince back. 

Behind him about 19 dozen people were spread out, one group of 4 following Boris only a 1 mile behind him, and behind them, about 2 miles behind them was one person mounted on a hill, setting off their flares. The pattern repeated in that order, behind the person on the hill was another group of four following them only a mile behind them and 2 miles behind the person on the hill would be another person, mounted on a hill. 

Another flare goes off. 

Those four groups of people between the people mounted on hills 3 miles apart from each other would continue straight forward to the prince and his army at the gate and after the people on the hills set off their flares to inform the next person, they would continue forward with the group towards the prince. 

Boris hopped off his horse and with the water he had gotten from the 2 wall civilians, he gave it to the horse, who gulped it down immediately and lowered its head to chew on some grass. Boris turned back to look at the group of 4 that were steadily approaching him, waiting for them to reach him where they would stop for another 10 minutes break for their horses before continuing. 

Boris collapsed onto the ground and let out a long sigh. He was tired. Not from the 8 long hours that he had been riding but from the thoughts that had been spiraling in his mind since then. They weighed down in his mind like a heavy cauldron of water, the next thought worse than the last. He was stressed, he was worried but he was relieved. On the ground, he turned to the front of the hill and peered out of his binoculars at the outer gate. There, were the large tall flags of the kingdom that were designed specifically for returning soldiers.

He lowered his smaller binocular and pulled his other larger binoculars out from which he looked back at the people riding towards him, watching as the line of flares moved further back, each being lit within a minute of the last. It wouldn't be long till the last two people at the back of the line would see these flares, one person running back into the kingdom to confirm that the preparations the kingdom was making to welcome the prince would continue or not while the other person would run forward to welcome the prince. 

That would be 30 something minutes from now, 20 minutes after Boris and his horse would continue forward to greet the prince. 

Boris stood up from the ground and walked over to this horse, patting it softly, and felt the hard pounding of its heart in its body. 'Seems like I'm going to have to wait for longer…' he thought to himself as he pets the horse softly and gazed at its brown smooth fur.

He had picked one of the best horses from the horse stables, and he thanked himself for the fact that he left the palace out of its east entrance into the army horses rather than the west to the simple racing horses or else this horse that he had right here would be close to passing out.

As he was the first in the line, he was the one that had gone the fastest out of the rest and had worked his horse the most, meaning he could have easily killed the horse he was riding in the long 8 hours he had worked it. Thankfully, the army horses are trained extensively, from birth in speed and stamina making them the fastest and longest-running horses in the entire kingdom and even some parts of his royal highness' siblings kingdoms, so he could be somewhat assured that they wouldn't drop dead soon. 

Boris turned to the walls of the outer wall, his 20/20 vision finding it easy to see the surroundings, but not the people's faces. His stomach flipped again. He was nervous, his hand trembling slightly when his eyes spotted the flags. 

What was he going to say? How would he even greet him? What- he froze when he remembered the letter from earlier and his face lowered as negative thoughts flooded in. What if while he was sitting there thinking about how he was going to greet the prince, there would be no prince at all? What if his body was being dragged behind them in a carriage, boxed in a coffin, lying dead from a misfortune the medics failed to treat? Or what if miraculously he had survived, but had to amputate a part of him? Would he be-

'Hah…' Boris pondered as he leaned against his horse's leg, 'amputations mean nothing to me. As long as he lives… I'll be fine.' He stood up from his position on the ground and turned to the people behind him, whose horses were resting, then nodded towards the walls. 

"GET READY TO MOVE!" he yelled, mounting his horse flawlessly and kicked it, forcing it to go into motion, gripping its long mane as to hold on to the horse while it galloped. 

The walls came closer and closer into sight and so did the big flags that protrude into the sky from behind the wall. Boris kicked the horse once more and in another minute was a few feet from the wall. He yanked the horse's mane, forcing it to stop immediately, and slid off the horse's side, landing on the soft grass below. 

Behind him, he heard multiple long neighs as horses began to come to a stop at the walls and their exhausted riders, hopped down from the backs of their horses, stumbling slightly when they hit the ground. Boris watched the sight for a moment and was able to turn to the men standing by the walls, guarding it when he heard a familiar voice call out from behind him. 

"It is his royal highness, right?" Kalmin asked, walking over to Boris' side, "not just some random merchant who happens to be carrying a war flag, right?" He pressed, his gaze peering down at the guard. 

"Yes sir," the guards replied to which Kalmin looked up at the walls once again and then turned back to them. 

"WELL, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? OPEN THE GATES FOR HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS!" he ordered, his voice bellowing to the guards. He then turned to face Boris, making eye contact with him. "Take it from here."

Boris remained silent for a second as Kalmin patted his shoulder twice before returning to a position to the left of him. It took another second before Boris snapped out of his piling thoughts and surveilled the soldiers from the castle before nodding his head. 'This is it…' He cleared his throat

"ATTENTION! ALIGNMENT TO WELCOME BACK HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS, HEIR TO THE AUCACIA EMPIRE AND FUTURE KING OF THE AVIERIA KINGDOM!! FALL IN PLACE!" His voice echoed into the sky as soldiers and guards immediately formed two lines, parallel to each other on each side of the gates.

Horses began to trot through the gateway in two lines, one line close to the line of soldiers bowing their heads before them and the other line close to the line parallel to it. Four horses passed by first before a horn was blown. Boris and the other soldiers kept their heads lowered as the voice began to announce the name of the person they had been waiting for. 

"PRESENTING!" Litian announced, her voice loud and clear, "his royal highness, Dominic Aarvi. He has returned from war, victorious."

Boris felt his heart skip a beat as he heard the clopping of the hooves of the horse pass through the gateway. 'Dominic… He's alive…' 

"WELCOME BACK HOME, YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS!" the soldiers greeted, falling to their knees, their heads facing the ground as they placed their right hands over their hearts. "IT IS AN HONOR TO BE IN YOUR PRESENCE ONCE AGAIN!!"

There was a moment of silence that passed into the air. Boris felt his shoulders stiffen and his eyes began to sting. 'It- it can't be, right?' He muttered to himself, his head rising slowly to check before a sound made his entire being freeze. A chuckle. A light chortle from someone he had been craving to see.

He knew that laugh, he knew that sound, that tone, and more so, he knew the face of the one who held that voice, their image painted vividly in his head. 

"It is a pleasure," the voice muttered with a smile, "I'm proud to be able to see your faces once more and hopefully-"

Boris flinched, his head flying up immediately to look at the voice that was speaking. His heart dropped to the ground when they locked eyes, a deep emerald gaze melting into a golden river. 'Dominic Aarvi…' His prince.

"-spend forever under your care as your prince."

It was like someone punched out the air in his lungs and he was left there, breathless and paralyzed, like a child taken in by a magical toy or like the blind learning to see again. Colors flooded into his eyes, the scarlet streaks in the sky of a setting sun, the lush green of the soft grass that brushed against his ankles, the majestic black of the horse before him but out of all the rainbow of colors he saw, only three captivated him the most. 

The golden waves that fell beautifully across an intensely handsome face, the light pink that laid seductively on the smiling lips of the godly being that stood over him, and the piercing gaze of emerald that looked down at him with bright eyes.

'Dominic Aarvi,' Boris thought to himself as he felt the hard pounding of his heart.

Dominic grinned, his head turning to face the rest.. "I've missed you all."