Nat smiled. “Stew, your Highness, I’m afraid the roasted venison is all out.”
Alina blushed. “I…I didn’t mean…”
Nat laughed. “Relax. I like to tease. You’ll have to get used to it.” Senri shot him a scowl. “I mean, I could knock it off, I guess.”
Alina grinned. “Oh, ignore her, I prefer that people treat me normally. The titles can be distancing sometimes.”
“Well then, I am happy to serve.” Nat bowed and offered her an empty bowl. Alina giggled. Senri noticed her eyes followed his hand, and then his tall form as he stood and walked over to the pack horse.
“He’s a fool to everyone,” said Senri. The statement shocked her as soon as she said it, not that she had declared the obvious about Nat, but the derisive manner in which she said it.
Alina raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s a quality I admire. Everyone is on level ground with your friend.”
Senri nodded and turned her attention back to the fire. She crouched and pretended to give it some thought. After a while, she reached a hand into the flame and readjusted a log. Alina’s shout caused her to pause. She glanced back at her. “What?”
“Your hand.” Alina’s eyes widened.
Senri glanced back into the fire, her fingers engulfed in flame. “Oh, don’t worry about that.” She pulled her hand out and waved it at Alina to show her undamaged skin. “You don’t have much experience with readers, I take it?”
“I hardly get the opportunity to see them perform such tasks. I mean, manipulating plant life…they do that in the gardens all the time. I just...you’re not hurt, are you?” She extended a hand and looked at Senri expectantly. The Warrior looked around, hoping to find some form of misdirection, but Alina would not be persuaded. “I just want to look. It will take a moment.”
Senri raised her hand and let Alina take hold of it. Small jolts traveled along her skin where Alina touched. The princess rubbed the back of Senri’s hand, as if searching for blemishes. Alina turned Senri’s hand over, running her fingers over Senri’s palm. Senri’s whole hand felt like it had ignited. She pulled back. “See? No damage.”
The answer seemed to satisfy Alina, or perhaps her brusqueness conveyed her uneasiness, because Alina maintained her distance with her the rest of the day. The group ate and spoke together, but as the sun began to set, the fatigue from the constant riding seemed to catch up with them. Yahn arranged shifts for the watch.
Senri had the third watch, so she crawled inside her tent and tried to sleep. As much as she wanted to drift off into a deep slumber though, she awoke every so often and glanced out the tent flap. Had they really made such a clean escape? It felt too easy, being out in the wilderness with Alina. Then again, escaping unnoticed had been the goal all along.
Senri closed her eyes and pulled her blanket higher. Her turn for the watch had to be close. She’d be the most useless protector ever if she fell asleep during it. I’m a useless protector anyways, getting caught up in my own lovesick thoughts after barely a day with her. She rubbed her palm, worry tightening her stomach. Her hand still throbbed from Alina’s touch hours before.
Chapter Fourteen
TRAVEL WORE ON NORMALLY for the second day. Alina kept trying to angle her horse over next to Senri’s so they could talk, but the Warrior kept finding excuses to stray. Yahn needed help with something. One of the pack horses had fallen too far behind. Senri thought she saw something off by the forest’s edge. Senri avoided her.
For the last leg of their journey that day, Alina switched tactics and moved to ride next to Nat. “Greetings!” He waved as she approached. Alina nodded and fell into line next to him at an easy gait. “Enjoying the ride?” he asked.
Alina glanced over at him. With the sparse beard and curly hair, he looked roguish, almost handsomely so. In a few more years, he would grow into being quite the man. “I would enjoy it more if the company were more amiable.” She glanced over at Senri, who currently rode at the head of the pack with Yahn.
Nat followed her gaze. “Ah. You’ve noticed her poor manners, then?”
“Is that really all it is?”
“No. I’m afraid you intimidate her,” Nat replied.
“What?”
He pointed at her. “You in all your regal elegance and beauty are an intimidating woman. You are sure of yourself, headstrong, and you stand up for what you believe in. On top of that, you can outshoot any of us here with that thing.” He nodded at the bow Alina had slung over her body. She had strapped a quiver of arrows to her horse for the ride as well. It completed her look as a fellow Warrior. Nat grinned. “You are nothing like any of the girls back in our village.”
“You and her hail from the same place?”
“Grew up together. It’s a small, quiet place. We are passing through there to get to the southern mountains. It’s really insignificant compared to the capital.”
“And there were no other girls like me there?” she asked. Nat shook his head. “Well, what about Lanan?”
“Not from the same place. Anyways, she’s tall, taller than Senri, and she’s a Warrior, so she has the occupation to match that intimidating demeanor. You are a princess, a damsel, but you don’t quite fit Senri’s perception of a damsel.”
Alina huffed. “Does she expect me to sit idly by and let others do my work? I am not some delicate—”
“No, no.” He held out a cautionary hand, motioning for her to be quiet. “She admires all that about you. She just doesn’t know how to act around you, Highness. Senri was always a bit of a rule-follower, very old-fashioned minded.”
“So how do I get her to drop the formalities?” Alina watched the way Senri’s body shifted with the horse’s gait. Even with armor on, she liked to imagine she could see the powerful form underneath flexing and bending with the motions. Formalities are not quite what I intend for her to drop. Alina looked down.
“You have to trick her into being chivalrous, like getting her to set up your tent,” Nat replied. “Eventually, she will realize you are a human and ease up a little. I think she realizes already, honestly.”
Alina let her gaze linger on Senri before glancing back at Nat. “And how do I know all your advice is sound? You speak for her so surely.”
Nat smiled sadly. “You were not close to anyone your age growing up, were you?”
Before Alina could answer, Nat spurred his horse onward to the front of the pack. Alina stayed in the rear, letting her mount amble along, trusting the steed to keep up with the others. Nat’s comment caused a small pang of jealousy in her. Alina had often imagined what it might be like to grow up as one of the children in the villages her and her father visited. It became another reason to love Osota. So many of its people seemed happy, much happier than her.
As they rode on, Alina remembered how drastically the landscape of the plains changed in the fall. The grass took on a yellowish hue, deepening as it dried. Whenever the wind swept over the rolling hills, the strands crackled against themselves. Trees reddened in the distance as well. The colors mingled on the horizon and contrasted against the blue sky.
“Princess!”
She blinked and looked away from the horizon. Senri rode toward her. She smiled. “Well, I see I am no longer to be ignored.”
Senri looked at her, eyebrows raising. “You let yourself get so far away from the others.” She nodded back at the pack. Everyone else stood a good distance away from them. They had stopped moving and sat turned in their saddles, waiting.
“I’m sorry,” said Alina as she looked back to Senri. “I let myself get distracted.”
Senri’s hand went to the pommel of her sword. “Is there something wrong?”
Alina shook her head. “I was admiring the landscape.” Senri still looked around as if bandits would spring from the ground.
“What about it?” Senri asked. Her brow had furrowed as she stared at a cluster of trees.
“It’s a beautiful scenery,” said Alina. “Relax.”
Senri remo
ved her hand from the grip of her sword. “Oh.” She avoided Alina’s gaze.
Alina sighed and shook her head. “How much farther is the ride today?”
“We will stop at the next river. A few hours, maybe.”
“Will you ride the distance with me?” asked Alina. “I would love the company.”
“If your Highness wishes it.”
The stiff reply might have hurt Alina, but the nervous wobble in Senri’s voice softened the blow. The Warrior’s restricted manners made her want to scream. “Only if you wish it, Senri. If you bend at knee for all my whims, you may regret the position it puts you in.”
Alina spurred her horse to ride on. She smirked as she imagined the confused look on Senri’s face. When the Warrior caught up with her, she noticed a pink tinge on Senri’s cheeks. She laughed. They caught up with the group and resumed their steady pace. Senri stayed with Alina rather than move ahead with the rest, possibly afraid of a public reiteration. After they traveled for nearly a half hour in uncomfortable silence, Senri spoke up, “I’m only trying to keep you safe, Highness.”
“I know,” Alina replied. “But you need to stop placing me on a pedestal. We are staking our lives on one another.”
Senri did not respond, though the tension seemed to ease between them for the rest of the day’s journey. Either way, Alina liked having Senri at her side. She rode with Alina until they stopped to make camp for the evening. Senri dismounted first and walked to the side of Alina’s horse. She held out an expectant hand.
“And what is that for?” Alina asked.
“I thought you might need some help down,” said Senri, smiling. Alina’s grip tightened on her reins.
“I’m perfectly capable of getting myself down,” she said, trying to sound neutral and unoffending.
Senri’s smile faded and she lowered her hand. “I know, your Highness.” She took a step back. “I was only trying to be polite.”
Alina sighed and dismounted her horse. “I’m sorry, you have to understand that people waited on me night and day in the palace. It was a little wearisome.”
They walked over to the pack animals and helped the others pull their supplies down. Senri tugged her tent kit free and walked away. Alina looked over the pack animal and tried to remember which bundle of items belonged to hers. She bit her lip and glanced around. She caught Senri’s eye and saw the Warrior arch an eyebrow at her. No, I have to keep looking.
A bundle of supplies suddenly lurched forward off the horse and Alina jumped to catch it. Nat smiled at her from the other side of the mare’s flanks. “Thought you might need that,” he said, then grabbed his own supplies and walked over to join the others. Alina clutched the bundle of supplies close to her chest. Curse the whole lot of Warriors.
As she tried to set up her tent, Alina found the same problems reoccurring from the night before. She had sworn she did everything exactly as Senri did, but the damned tent refused to stay standing. She grabbed fistfuls of the cloth as it tumbled down for the fourth time and resisted the urge to rip it apart. A piece had to be missing.
Alina threw down the tent cloth and walked through the tall grass, searching for anything she might have dropped between herself and the pack horse. A light wind gusted over the plains and caused the grass to ripple. She soon gave up and returned to her unassembled tent. By then, everyone else had put theirs together. She sat down and picked up the pieces to hers once more. The evening sky seemed free of clouds, but that could change in a heartbeat.
“Is everything all right, Highness?”
Alina turned. Senri stood close by, looking down at her with a somewhat puzzled expression. She glanced down at her own tent supplies and swallowed. “I swear I made note of how you did it. But it refuses to cooperate.”
Senri knelt down beside her. “You mean it’s still giving you trouble?”
Alina nodded and handed over the supplies. Senri took the rope and stake from her hands, their fingers brushing together momentarily. The contact made her skin heat. Alina sat back and watched Senri work. Her eyes followed the deft movements of Senri’s long fingers. She had taken her time studying them the previous night. Even so, she had not had her fill of the strong hands. The overwhelming urge to interlock her fingers with Senri’s startled her from time to time.
The framework of the tent stood precariously in a matter of minutes. Senri’s brow furrowed and she quickly searched the ground around herself. “There’s a piece missing.”
“I thought so.” Some of the tension eased in Alina’s stomach. “I was beginning to feel severely incompetent.”
Senri looked over at her. “You should have asked someone for help. I know you aren’t too keen on letting me, but there’s a camp full of people willing to do so.” A moment later she added, “your Highness.”
“Senri!” Alina almost toppled the half-assembled tent as she tugged at the rope. “I refused your help earlier, because I was perfectly capable of getting off my own damn horse, not because I had anything against you. In fact, I was trying to make the point that I do not need special attention.”
“But you let me do this.” Senri gestured at the tent.
“Yes, and I am grateful for your assistance.”
“So why get all upset over me wanting to help you off your horse?”
“How many other people were you rushing to help dismount? Ever since we left the palace you’ve been making an extra effort to make sure the dainty little princess is not disturbed by the wild and untamed plains.”
“That’s not why I wanted to help you off the horse.”
Alina heard the hurt in her voice. She suddenly regretted her harsh words. She sighed and dropped the rope. “So, why did you?”
Senri glanced up at her. A faint blush crawled up her cheeks. “No reason,” she muttered. She brushed her hands together and stood up. “I can fashion you a new piece for the tent, give me a moment.”
The Warrior walked away to the center of the camp where the others had dragged most of the supplies. Alina blinked and shook her head, muttering curses to herself. She finally decides to flirt a little and I brush it off as over-protective impulses. Alina stood and straightened her leather armor. Royal courtship had always been so easy. Parents did everything for the prospective lovers, and then the two lovebirds did not even meet until the day of the wedding. Her own parents had discussed potential marriage candidates for her, even at such a young age. Maybe having the freedom to choose hindered her.
***
After many days of travel toward the village, Senri accepted Alina flirting with her. Every night, something seemed to go wrong with her tent, though Senri believed this to be Nat’s intervention more than anything else. Either way, she helped Alina set it up every time. The previous attempt still burned fresh in her mind and made her whole body go flush. She had suggested Alina tie the knots for the posts, and when the princess could not get the rope to behave, Senri reached forward and wrapped her hands over Alina’s, guiding them gently through the steps. Halfway through her instruction, Alina gazed at her with a deep blush on her cheeks. Senri had cleared her throat and continued on, determined not to call attention to it. The dreams following that night would have made Nat blush. Senri’s own face reddened at the memory, her breath caught.
That morning, Lanan leaned down next to her while she prepared breakfast and whispered, “Try not to call her name out so much next time you go to sleep.”
Senri’s eyes widened and she almost spilled the oats she cooked over the morning fire. “What?”
Lanan winked and went back to securing her supplies.
As they rode the last stretch to the village, Senri kept glancing over at Alina, trying to gauge if she had overheard the sleep talk. Alina caught her glances. “See something interesting?” She slowed her horse down to ride next to Senri. The path through the forest left little room for the party to drift.
Senri swallowed and looked away. “Nothing in particular, no.” Segments from the dream flickered th
rough her mind, a body underneath her, like the night at the inn, only Alina smiled up at her, kissed her on the cheek and then her collarbone. She blinked the images away.
“Well, your mind appears to be elsewhere entirely. Is it a pleasant place?”
“Where?”
“Wherever your thoughts are escaping to.”
“Oh.” Senri tried to suppress the thoughts of the dream and stared at the horn of her saddle. “It’s not so interesting.” Although she tried to act casual, she knew Alina noted the way she shifted around too much.
“Are you nervous about returning to your village this evening?” Alina asked.
Honestly, Senri looked forward to seeing her family again, but she would not get anxious until Nat returned from scouting ahead. She took hold of the lifeline anyways. “Yes, I suppose.”
“Do you have loved ones you will be visiting?”
“A family, yes.” Senri smiled, remembering her little brothers and their endless energy. “My parents and three brothers. Though they might be disappointed I didn’t bring back a trophy for them.”
“They expected you to bring back spoils of war?” Alina raised an eyebrow.
“Oh no. That was a small joke between us. They’ll be glad I’m returning in one piece.” They both laughed. Senri glanced over at Alina and grinned. The princess looked down and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
“And...is there anyone else you look forward to seeing?” The question came forth hesitant. Senri tried to catch Alina’s eye and determine what she meant by it, but Alina stared straight ahead.
“The other townsfolk, I suppose. They’re good people.”
Alina sighed. “No lovers, then?”
“Huh?” Senri’s eyes widened. “Oh, no. No one like that in my life, currently.”
A corner of Alina’s mouth turned upward. “I see.”
Senri looked away as her face grew hot, the lilt in Alina’s tone much too obvious. Yahn cried out a greeting and waved a hand at Nat, who had returned from his scouting mission. He waved back and Senri pushed her horse closer to the front of the line. The party came to a halt as Nat rejoined them. His horse looked worn from the hard riding.
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