Aariv looked at the sky, he didn't want to waste any more time so he and the horse started to move.

Juno was in the sky with Jojo, Aariv had the little cub on his chest and a 100 Kilo bag on his back.

Aariv had to run slower to let the horse keep up, he was very annoyed with its endurance. It had just been 5 kilometers and the horse was panting.

"Ha...ha...ha… Slow down master, I can't keep up," the horse pleaded.

"You are a god damn horse, your job is to fricking run and you can't even do that. Horses are supposed to be able to move 32 kilometers(20 Miles) and you've given up at meager 5 kilometers. Pathetic," Aariv said in disgust.

The horse just looked at the ground in embarrassment. Aariv didn't want to slow down so he sent natural energy to his body and made him recover his stamina.

"I've already told them that you are going to be my personal horse but I don't want a weak horse like you so once we get back to the city you'll be put on the 1-month hell's training. By the end of the month If you can't move 35 kilometers(22 miles) in one day then you'll be sold to a merchant to pull carts." Aariv said, scaring the horse.

"But you just said that a normal horse can move 32 kilometers" The horse rebuked.

Aariv smirked and said. "You are the personal horse of Aariv the great, of course you need to be better than every other horse, now shut up and move"

Aariv started running and the horse followed behind. After 6 more kilometers, they came out of the jungle to the place where he tested his powers the last time. It was turning dark so he once again set up a campfire.

He put down the bag from the horse's back and let him find grass to eat. Soon Jojo also came down from the sky with Juno and landed on Aariv's shoulder.

"Why did you stop Aariv? I was having soooo much fun flying," Juno complained.

Aariv pointed at the horse and said: "I got no problem with moving at night but what about him?"

The horse saw Aariv pointing at him but he ignored even though he felt uncomfortable.

~Who is master talking to now?, He calls me stupid but he's the stupid one, humph~ he cursed in his mind.

Aariv also put down the cub who had just woken up. It was looking at the fire with interest and even tried to touch it once. Aariv had to intervene and stop it but he also knew that the cub needed to learn.

So he used pyrokinesis(fire manipulation) and made the fire hurt the cub on its paw.

The cub felt a little pain and understood that the shining red and yellow thing was dangerous. It then went back to Aariv, climbed up his legs and sat down on his lap. Aariv looked at the cute furball and stroked its head.

He then took out the water bottle which had milk in it and started feeding the cub.

"Hmmm, you need a name but I can't seem to decide. You are obviously going to look big and majestic in the future so I must give you a good name," Aariv said while feeding it.

[Suggest some good names for the cute furball in the comment section, my dear readers.]

After getting full, the cub went back to sleep. It was too small for other activities. Its only job for now was to eat, sleep and poop.

…

The next day

Aariv woke up early, the sun had just started to rise. He looked around and found Jojo sleeping near him. He then looked at the horse sleeping near the campfire. Aariv was surprised that it was sleeping while lying on the floor. Horses mostly slept while standing and rarely like this.

He went near the horse and lightly kicked on its hips.

"Ugh… Just...a Little more" The horse murmured.

Aariv was dumbfounded. The horse should have woken up when he came so close to it but now even after kicking it wasn't waking.

"Do you even have a little animal instincts left?" Aariv said and kicked a little harder.

"owwww… Who dared" horse shouted.

But when he saw Aariv, he closed his mouth and stood up.

"It's time to move," Aariv said.

He picked up one bag and put it on the horse and started walking.

It took them 4 hours to reach the slum area. It was 9 in the morning and the area was bustling with activity. He also noticed that there were no little kids on the street, begging. He didn't know what happened so he decided to investigate a little.

He moved deeper into the slums and found many small shops selling rations at a cheap cost. Although the rations were of low quality, they were still passable.

He understood that his father must have done this after reading his letter.

He looked around and saw a familiar little girl. It was one of the kids he met the day before yesterday, the girl's name was Gauri and he remembered her so well because she had said that she liked swords.

He waved at her with a big smile. Gauri saw Aariv and came to him running.

"Big brother!" She said, although her voice sounded cold, her face had a smile.

Aariv was happy to see that she wasn't wearing that old torn rag anymore. She was wearing a new dress.

"What happened here? things look so different from last time?" he asked.

Gauri smilingly replied. "3 hours after you left a lot of people from the city came here, even the great emperor was with them. I was looking at everything while hiding. He looked very angry at the local guards and some more important looking men. He even arrested some of them and announced death punishment. I was scared when I saw all that.

So, I decided to run away but a guard saw me and caught me. The silver pana you gave me also fell down while I was trying to break free. I thought I was going to die but then the emperor shouted at the guard angrily then he came closer to me, picked up the silver pana and put it in my hand.

I was afraid at first but then I saw him smiling, I don't know why but his face reminded of you big brother. The emperor was weird." She said.

Her voice sounded cold but her face showed so many emotions when she spoke.

"Yes, he is weird," Aariv said while smiling and remembering his father's grinning face.

She then continued her monologue.

"The emperor asked me, 'Who gave you this pana little girl?', I spoke truthfully and told him that big brother Aariv gave it to me. Then he just smiled and gave me another silver pana. I felt so wealthy at that moment. Then he went back to scolding the guard.

After he went away many small merchants came here and opened new shops and guess what, they sold stuff sooooooo cheap. I even got myself a new dagger but then my mother made me return it and bought a new dress for me."

Her face looked sad when she talked about the dagger.

Aariv laughed seeing that.

"You know, for an 8-year-old, her love for swords is on a fetish level," Juno said.

Aariv looked at the girl's cute sad face and decided to fulfill her wish. He took out the 9-inch dagger tied on his belt and pushed it towards Gauri.

"Take this and promise me that you will not harm anyone with it. You will only use it if your life is in danger," Aariv said with a serious expression.

She looked at the dagger with sparkling eyes but hesitated to take it.

"But… It's yours" She said.

"Haha… I have many more like these and I was also going to throw it because I didn't like it" Aariv lied.

Gauri finally took it and held it to her chest like it was a baby.

"Thank you, big brother" She grinned, showing all her 20 teeth.

...

After confirming that things had become better in the slums, he said goodbye to Gauri and started moving towards the city gate.

When he was nearing the city gate, he saw a big line of people waiting for the security checks but he knew that he didn't need to wait as he was the prince.

He moved on the empty lane reserved for important people. When he was passing by the line of people, they all started looking at him in disgust. Aariv felt confused by that but Juno gave him an answer..

"Dummy, look at yourself. Big bag on your back, A horse, A cub attached to your chest and a falcon flying above your head. They think that you belong to the Adivasi community(one of the untouchables or the impure people) and you know, untouchables aren't even allowed to enter the city and here you are walking in the lane reserved for people of city administrations and other important ones." Juno explained.

Aariv then looked at the people staring at him with anger, but he ignored them and sped up. When he reached the gate, he was even more angered, when he saw that the guard surrounding him with their swords and spears pointed at him. People in the commoners' line even started cheering and yelling at guards, telling them to kill him.

For the first time, Aariv felt so much hatred. Not with the people but with their upbringing. He knew it wasn't their fault as they were taught to discriminate from the second they were born.

The head guard came to Aariv.

"Surrender you low-life, you just made the biggest mistake of your life, there is no escape now." The head guard yelled.

Aariv didn't want to kill these people for some stupid misunderstanding so he took out his Identification token and threw it to the guard.

Aariv thought that it would clear the misunderstandings but he was wrong.

The head guard refused to believe that Aariv was the prince. In his mind, the prince looked like someone with expensive clothes and hundreds of royal guards and servants following behind. Aariv didn't fit that image, but the head guard missed the point that forging a fake royal seal was extremely hard and there were hundreds of ways to check if it was real or not.

"You dared to forge a fake royal token." He shouted and looked at Aariv.

The dumb horse felt scared and took some steps back but Aariv held his bridle and didn't let him run away.

Aariv looked at the guards angrily.

He then used energy manipulation to channel the natural energy around him into his body, making the area energyless. To the guards and the civilians, it felt like all the happiness and warmth from the world had vanished.

Aariv slowly took out his sword out of the holster and prepared himself to fight.

The head guard shouted "Guards, atta.."

"STOP! Goddamnit" A voice came from behind the guards.

The guards looked at who it was and spread out to let him through. A man in a black dress came out running to Aariv and bowed.

"Your Highness, forgive me for being late… I...I was waiting for your arrival here, since the day you left." The man said.

Aariv recognized the guy, it was the guardian sent by Kautilya, whom he gave the responsibility to deliver his letter to his father.

*Sigh*

"Just tell them to move aside," Aariv said.

The guardian nodded, looked back at the guards and roared, "LOWER YOUR WEAPONS YOU FOOLS"

Aariv then looked at the head guard, who was dumbfoundedly looking at Aariv. His legs had started shaking thinking that he had called the royal prince a low-life.

"Send that guy to some watchtower, he's too hot-headed to be posted here," Aariv told the guardian.