Prince Julian of Amber

To the east of Ravka was the Kingdom of Amber, though given how few passed that way it was practically a myth. For generations they had made their desire for no contact clear, relations with their western neighbors chilly but cordial - no desire for war (not at the moment, anyway), just no contact at all. Thank you. It was fairly easy, too. On Revka's side of the border there was steep mountains, and then the line where Amber began clearly as the thick forest of Arden began.

Arden was large enough to practically be its own country, trees ancient enough to hold memory of a different world, hiding all kinds of dangers within. Even taking the most direct path - known to few - it took days to make it through. On the other side were some farm lands, country manses of nobility, little settlements, and the next obstacle of Mount Kolver. Going over it was taking your life in your hands, going around it added even more time. Only after passing that in whichever way you chose could you have a chance of reaching Amber City, the capitol of the kingdom, wedged in a protective stretch of valley between mountain and sea.

Julian had been away from Amber City for some time. He often was, that wasn't anything new. The bloody throne war that had been going for more than a decade had ended. Unexpectedly, effectively bloodlessly compared to everything that came before it.

King Oberon was dead, and King Random now was on the throne.

... And so far he was doing alright.

It was mostly cleaning up messes of the war, so the bar was low, but Random was proving to be shockingly competent, and unwilling to hold on to old grudges. He could have tried to assign Julian somewhere else - Random had firmly been in Corwin's corner and Corwin and Julian were as close to at odds as one could be without actually being on opposite sides of a war. But he asked Julian take charge of Arden forest for him as he had for their father. He'd even given Julian greater freedoms to act as he felt he needed, to use his rangers as however he saw fit.

He trusted Julian, explicitly, not just allowing him to do as he would because he couldn't be bothered to oversee as Oberon had.

It was a clear path forward. A chance to move ahead, to bring Amber into a better future.

... If he could figure out what the fuck had gotten into his forest.

It had come from the west, which was already a bad omen as far as Julian was concerned. Most of the creatures in Arden were of it, living there, breeding there. Those that came from elsewhere came from the north or south sometimes, but things from the west didn't belong. A deer carcass only half-eaten was the start of the trail, and his storm hounds were giving chase, hunting hawk in the air for a better view. Julian had the rangers on guard at their outposts and on rotations, but this hunt was his own.