Tom glanced around briefly before heading inside the stables, finding Iris and Lu already waiting for him, Iris not impressed by Nox's behavior, by the look of her.

"Mm, are you early or am I just fashionably late?" Tom quipped, keeping his voice low.

He brought Nox out and saddled him, though in a saddle 'borrowed' from the cavalry, as it was far more practical. Plus, the prince's status would be somewhat less obvious in it, especially without Nox's usual navy and gold saddle pad, instead opting for a maroon pad with white trim. Tom though really preferred Nox in dark colors, hence why he kept the colors pretty toned down. Besides, no need to call attention to oneself when trying to be discreet.

Throwing the roll over Nox's butt and tying it down, he bridled Nox in yet more 'borrowed' tack, though the same pelham bit the stallion was used to.

"Got everything?" Tom asked as he mounted Nox, pulling a map of the kingdoms from his pocket. He was hoping to head fairly straight north, though perhaps stray east a bit and visit Nys Anore, try to learn to assimilate a bit before heading into Peklonstan. Nys Anore was pretty neutral politically, given it was just a trading post, though, rather large.

"Lead the way," Tom said softly, letting Nox follow Iris.

"Umm, north...east? Yeah, northeast." Tom said, deciding that the little detour was in fact a good idea.

He noted the lightening in the western sky, with a thought of Dammit. The prince nudged Nox into a steady canter, the stallion already eager to run. So much energy, so little thought. Just go go go, regardless of where he was going.

At the castle gate, Tom slowed Nox to a collected canter, holding the reins in one hand to put a finger to his lips in a shushing gesture to the guard posted there. He seemed to get the message and gave a salute to the prince and his knight, thankfully. Tom figured that since he was accompanied by Lu, the gatekeeper figured he'd fare just fine, and knew not to question him.

Slowing Nox further to match Iris's pace, Tom brought the dark horse up level with the mare to talk to Lukas.

"How rrrrude!" Tom huffed with the intonation of a very haughty middle-aged rich lady, rolling the 'r' a bit.

"I'm thinking Nys Anore first, then Peklonstan, how's that?" Tom said, back to being almost entirely serious.

"Oh hush it, I know that," Tom grumbled, and while he really DID know that, he still wasn't exactly looking forward to it.

He gazed up at the forest looming fairly high above them, nervousness stirring in his stomach a bit.

"Wonderful idea, this way I can die or something in front of you," The prince said sarcastically, though he let Nox enter the forest first as instructed. Better to have Lu behind him in case of an ambush of sorts anyway.

Nox plodded along quite happily, ears pricked as he listened to the forest's quiet song around them.

After some time, Tom felt the biting dawn air grow warmer, and the forest really came to life. A bird flitted across the path in front of Nox, making the incredibly brave horse flinch and toss his head before realizing what a ditz he was.

A short time more and Tom heard running water, which was great because Nox was starting to huff and puff, like he was gonna blow a house down. The sound only grew louder however, and didn't sound so much like a creek anymore. Then Tom realized why that was; it seemed a river nearby had overflowed and branched off during the winter rains, now running through the path at a pretty good speed. At least 8 feet across and indeterminably deep, Tom wasn't sure how to go about crossing it. The last thing he wanted was to find out it was in fact far too deep for Nox's liking.

"Lu?" Tom asked, stopping Nox at the edge so he could drink. "Any ideas?"

Tom followed Lu to a shallower crossing, watching as Iris did as she was told without trying to take a swim or jump the whole thing, as he figured Nox would try to do.

"Steady my ass, you try getting a 1300-pound ball of sass and stupidity to behave," Tom grumbled, nudging Nox to go in the water.

Nox had other ideas and paced back and forth at the edge for a moment before doing one great big deer-like leap directly into the middle of the river and trotting through to Iris. He started whuffling at Iris as if to say "Did you see that?" and Tom rolled his eyes at the big hunk of dumb. Show off.

They continued on their merry way, Nox seeming quite pleased with himself.

After some time, the warm forest started becoming a cool forest, almost the same as when they started, though it was still bright out. It would probably be a good idea to let Lu pick when and where to stop for the night, as it was his area of expertise.

Tom followed Lu to what he figured looked like a good spot, nodding as Lu started to speak, then frowned at him.

"Nooo, totally can't. How would you like me to go about it, the boring, strenuous way or the way more fun way?" Tom said, half sarcastically. Actually, he'd unintentionally found a way to set things on fire when he was younger without any effort, and now carried the necessary things with him when traveling.

Dismounting Nox, Tom switched his bridle out for a rope halter that'd been stuffed in his saddlebags, tying his bridle off the side of the saddle. He loosened Nox's girth a bit and tied him to a nearby tree.

Tom knelt in the middle of the small clearing, making a small space free of everything except little rocks. He then gathered tinder, kindling, and whatever dead sticks he could find. Live ones right off the tree wouldn't burn well. Returning to Nox, he grabbed from his saddlebags a small potassium permanganate crystal and a bottle, maybe a few ounces, of glycerin.

Crushing up the crystal, he poured it from his hand onto the little pile he'd made earlier. Then, Tom poured just a few drops of glycerin on the granules.

It started to smoke, then after a few minutes it ignited, and Tom couldn't really help the somewhat proud, somewhat goofy grin on his face.

Throwing some more wood on the fire, he sat down and waited for Lukas to get back.