A kind, gentle, yet naive princess runs away from her caged up life, hoping to finally experience life beyond the palace walls.
However, her freedom is short lived when she stumbles into the hands of four, devilishly handsome, pirates.
As their pr...
[[I do not own music or art used in this chapter, please enjoy the story! - L RANDY]]
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The morning after the bear attack was, to say the least, awkward.
It had been tensing since the sullen walk back to town. Kazuyuki led the way and made no effort to josh around with Alana, and the pirates had nothing to say either. Ivo offered several times to carry Alana the rest of the hike back, but she refused. The young princess was still shaken by the incident and seeing the demon forms for the first time.
She knew it was wrong of her to become apprehensive of them based solely on looks, but it had finally hit her what they were... demons.
Alana told herself over and over they were nothing to fear, that they were her friends, just that they looked completely different. However, she had only thought of them as men her entire journey with them, realizing they had abilities beyond her comprehension was challenging to wrap her mind around.
Initially, Kazumi wanted to leave Kori the day of the attack, but thick ice had formed around the ship and on the water leading out of Kori. He immediately put the lower crew members to the dangerous work of breaking apart the ice. In the meantime, the pirates and Alana had no choice but to stay another night in Kori.
At the moment, she sat with Koyuki at the kitchen table, helping to slice vegetables for the rabbit stew meant to be prepared later. The pirates were close by but also put to work by Koyuki. Alana could see Leven and Leopoldo arguing back and forth over an ax to chop firewood, or rather Leven yelling at a giggling Leopoldo. Ivo and Kazumi were given the task to skin the rabbits. Before they left, she heard Ivo joking to Kazumi about how he should not be the one to skin the rabbits or he might find inspiration. She did not understand what he meant by that but either way, she ignored it.
Alana had no clue where Kazuyuki had gone off to, nor did she care to inquire. She sat almost in a daze as she haphazardly chopped potatoes. Alana was doing her best to ignore the images of the carnage of the day before that kept flashing in her mind.
She wondered how the pirates seemed completely normal after witnessing something like the attack, she was on the verge of tears herself.
"You chop like a little princess," Koyuki commented, snapping Alana from her haze.
"Excuse me?" Alana's heart stopped in her chest, only hearing the word 'princess'.
Koyuki chuckled before using her knife to point to the mishappened and jagged looking vegetables.
"You cut like a princess," Koyuki repeated. "Like you have never done that in your life."
Alana forced a dry chuckle looking down at her various-sized pieces of potato.
