When Alistair was younger, before the wait of his duties had started to come to fruition, he had ventured across the kingdom many many times. Suffice to say, he knew the land well. It could still be dangerous though, especially with only a party of two. He had faith that they could handle whatever was thrown at them though, and there wasn't enough time to assemble a force and march to where they needed to go. No, this was the best way.
"We can take a shortcut out of the city, cut down that time by a bit," Alistair said, urging his horse on forward. And it did, soon enough they were trotting past the walls, waving to the guards behind them, the Prince leaving a message should the king return before he and Raven had. Then it was just a long, dirt road, and trees upon trees as far as the eye could see.
"We can reach the little village at the halfway point within the forest by nightfall I should think," Alistair mused, watching the road ahead, "although I do wish we could savor this more. It's been too long since I've gotten to walk leisurely through these woods." He turned to Raven with a small smile, "the leaves still sound like they used to when the wind makes then shiver."