Lying mid-way down his king sized hotel bed, wrapped up in the duvet with nothing but the long black spikes of his hair on show was the seventeen year old prince of Highridge; Ryu. The position he lay in, directly at the centre on the bed lying diagonally across was by far the most comfortable way of sleeping, he had subconsciously decided, coupled in with the fact that several minutes earlier he hadn’t been alone.

Cracking one eye open underneath the folds of the duvet, Ryu saw the thin legs of his night-partner as she was ushered out the door by two large individuals whose sheer bulk covered the entire doorway. Whoever they were, Ryu mused, they were probably not enemies as they would have just blasted Ryu while he lay sleeping, killing the girl for being a witness. So they weren’t here to kill him, which left Ryu with another option that wasn’t much better than being assassinated. “Prince Ryu,” one of the large men said. No chance of pretending to be asleep, Ryu thought as he swung his bare legs out of bed, he pulled up the cream duvet around his middle and looked at the men by the door. They were tanned, bald, tall, very well built and dressed in black robes with heavy-duty boots. Underneath their robes shadows darted at strange angles; swords, Ryu suspected.
“Friends? Or enemies?” Ryu wondered as he gave them the once over with his jade green eyes.
“Allies at least,” the taller of the two replied as he reached into his robe and pulled out a black-paper scroll wrapped in a silver ribbon. He didn’t even have to read the document to guess what it said.
“Give me a moment to run a brush through my hair,” Ryu requested as he wandered towards the en-suite bathroom dragging the duvet after him. Neither of the men replied but they were in no position to stop him.

Standing in front of his mirror as the pool in the corner steamed up the room, Ryu looked at himself in the mirror; he was five foot eight, slightly tanned due to his part-time residence in the desert continent, muscular with very few scars on his well-shaped torso. “I’m not half-bad,” he told himself with a smirk, running his fingers through his short spiky-hair.
Pulling his trousers on quickly, Ryu decided that despite the Royal Decree in the next room demanded he be in x place at x time, he wasn’t going to sit down and take it; time for his childhood approach to danger; avoid it and deal later. Opening the frosted glass window wide, pure white sunlight blasted through the open gap only to be replaced by Ryu as he climbed through the awkward angled frame onto the slight balcony beyond. The view was beautiful, three storeys up above a row of black-stone piers designed for the numerous fishing vessels that sat in the harbour, bobbing in the brilliant blue waters, their sails snapping in the slight breeze. Slight breeze for them but it certainly picked up for Prince Ryu as he held onto his window-frame, one handed and swung out to see where he could go. There were balconies a floor down but even with a good jump it was only a slim chance of success. Twisting himself as much as he could as the wind attempted to separate him from the steel window-frame Ryu looked down the length of the deep blue building at what lay there; even less chance of survival. There was nothing but stone and people to land on and neither was an ideal crash-mat from that kind of height.
“Prince Ryu,” a calm voice called over almost conversationally. “Am I to take it that you have completed your morning routine?” Several windows over one of the two large bald guards had stuck his head out the window. Ryu ground his teeth; no way to escape and the help were getting sarcastic.
As he pulled himself back through the window, two large hands helped him back through, half dragging him into his waiting shirt and robes before being ushered out the door despite Ryu’s protests.
Dressed in what was undoubtedly a nice pair of blue robes, Ryu tried his best to get comfortable; he had never liked wearing robes around the house and it was even harder to get comfortable when what was coming was going to be no picnic.