(this is on the longer side for my responses, but here's my sample!)
There was that word again. Raven. Forrest knew only what gossip had managed to travel all the way to the castle, which was to not much. Anything of substance seemed to be reserved only for meetings between his father and higher ranking nobles which Forrest only sometimes had the chance to be there for. One would think that the king would let his successor have more of a connection to the outside world, but it seemed as if the man was determined to live forever. And to shut Forrest out as long as possible. Both of his parents insisted it was for his own good and to keep his fickle health in check, but the older he got the less he believed it. He was nineteen now, for god's sake. Shouldn't his parents be preparing him for the eventuality that he would become king?
He blinked back to the present moment before that line of thinking got out of hand. That sort of the thing was the reason he had taken off under the cover of night and come all the way out to Ceridwen in the first place. He realized that the Raven had asked him a question, blinking again as he processed the words. He would have to be careful to not give anything away, but also to avoid lying too much. Forrest had never been the most skilled liar.
"Cinistrad," he blurted, saying the first city that came to mind. It was roughly the same distance away from Ceridwen as the capital city, but in the opposite direction. He had only visited once, a few years ago, and did not like the city one bit. It was not the nicest place to spend a week. But it was better than telling the truth, probably. Maybe he was being a bit paranoid that this man would put two and two together from his name and where he lived. Though surely he couldn't be the only Forrest to live there. At any rate, it was too late now to take back the lie. He supposed that he would just have to go along with it for now.
As the duo kept walking, Forrest was trying not to look at all of the spirits that roamed the city. Most of them ignored the two living humans, as ghosts tended to do. Generally they were surprised that Forrest could see and talk to them whenever he did end up doing that. He had spoken to several of the ghosts who hung about the castle, so they knew him and that he could speak with them, but these new spirits did not possess that knowledge. Some of them even looked too decrepit to hold a conversation if they wanted to. So Forrest continued to do his best to pretend that he didn't see them both so he wouldn't draw ghostly attention to himself, and so his companion would hopefully not notice either. He doubted that his ability was a common one, though perhaps in this city of death it was more common than among the nobles he was used to.
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