Alliance

Chapter 7

Ophelia's POV

I am back at my room. I just woke up and am packing all my things for the journey. Xavier and his men will come in 2 hours to meet so we can leave on the trip. After last night, I am starting to think that he isn't that bad after all, but that doesn't excuse his bad manners.

I put on my blue dress and strap my sword around me and look into the mirror trying to fix up my very long brown locks. My hair always gets curly in the morning. I go outside to see how everyone's doing with packing. Edmond comes to me, "Ophelia, I am done packing all your necessities."

"okay that's great, when will Xavier be arriving-" just as I was about to finish, I see Xavier and his men arriving in horses. He comes near and gets off his horse coming towards me.

"Greetings, Ophelia. Are you guys ready."

"yup let's go."

I motion all my men to get on their horses and we set off. Me and Xavier are riding in the front while all our men are behind talking and getting to know each other. We ride in a medium pace, not too fast, just as much as making my hair fly through the wind, but slow enough to talk. "So, how did you become leader?" I ask breaking our silence. He doesn't say anything, are you kidding. He is making me feel like an annoying child. "Hello?" Then he looks at me, I almost flinch forgetting how intimidating he looks.

"My parents died when I was a baby, and my uncle took over until he died when I was 12 so I fully took over."

Wow, he was that young, "wow, I'm 17 and still haven't fully took over."

"well, everyone's different." he says while facing ahead. Man, I am really finding every opportunity to make myself look weak, maybe I should just keep quiet and focus. We ride for hours in silence while I had Edmond ask me if I needed anything every hour. The sun had now set, so we decided to camp for the night, plus our horses were tired. His jacks started a fire while me and Edmond tied our horses next to each other. Then, our horses started putting their heads on each other. I giggled and joked, "I think they have a little crush on each other." Xavier didn't say anything and just looked at me. "um do you ever laugh?"

He looked back at the horses and said, "there is no point." and he left towards the camp fire. I really can't believe this guy, how does he show no emotion other than anger?

Xavier's POV

Ophelia is very different than me. I don't like small talk, I prefer keeping it serious and focused, and she finds every chance to talk. And she is very childish, when she giggles, she looks different, livelier even. I was staring at her trying to think about her face when I realized what I was doing so I left to the fire. It was a chilly night. I wonder if she has a coat. Everyone got to sleep wrapping themselves in their blankets. But I just sat on the log in front of the fire, thinking about why I care so much about this girl, she's just a random person. Then hear someone get up from a distance and walk towards me. When they got near, I realized it was Ophelia who looked sleepy. She came and sat next to me on the log which. She asked in a tired tone, "why aren't you asleep?"

"i can't sleep. Why are you awake?"

"I'm cold." she said as she moved closer to me placing her head on my shoulder trying to get my heat. I looked down at her and she had already fell asleep on me. I carefully take off my coat and wrapped her.

I whispered, "Ophelia, hey did you fall asleep hello?" No response. She was shivering. Firstly, is she that dumb to bring warm clothes, secondly it isn't even that cold. Maybe she gets cold easily. I sigh and pick her up bridal style and look down at her face. I can't believe I'm saying this, but she looks kind of beautiful while asleep. I take her over to where she was sleeping and place her down and lay down next to her, staring at the stars.

I wake up to someone shaking my shoulder. My eyes shoot open to find Ophelia shaking me. "What?!" I yell.

"What are you doing next to me??"

I stand up brushes my hands through my hair, "you came to me first last night." I say that as I leave to my bag to get some water, leaving Ophelia following me. I rip off my shirt to change, my old one got muddy.

Ophelia's POV

I woke up to see Xavier sleeping next to me, what the heck? And he said it's because I called him there, I don't know about that, but I do vaguely remember talking to him at night. Oh well.

I am standing behind him and he takes off his shirt revealing his muscular body. My jaw kind of drops, I have never seen such muscles. Just then he turns around to go get another shirt and he looks at me. "What" he asks, and I could've sworn I saw him smirk.

"N-Nothing" I say walking off to my horse trying not to look back at him. He did that on purpose oh my god. Everyone starts getting on their horses to continue. I ride next to Edmond this time because at least he will talk to me. Xavier just rides next to one of his jacks in the front.

His hair makes him look...Decent. It's messy and dark. As I am examining his hair Edmond catches me off guard, "You like him?"

I almost choke, "what! Do not!"

"Ophelia I can see it in your eyes."

"I-I do not! If anything, I dislike his m-manners, he is cruel." I say as I can feel my cheeks heat up.

"whatever you say your highness" he says. I cannot believe this, I don't like him! Do I?