Cinderella Monogatari - Prince Charles's Sister

Zaral's Plans

                                                                A week later all the teachers in the castle were fired and new ones taught you. All of Charles's fencing teachers were fired and your teachers were fired too, the only teachers you had were your new ones, hired by Duke Zaral. You saw nothing wrong with your new teachers until, you saw Charles paсing around in the hallway, barely focusing on his surroundings, thinking about something else. Could it be that.................. Firing our teachers was a plan by Duke Zaral to get revenge on you, Charles and Alex for scaring his daughter with your horse on the hunting trip? Or is he going for something much bigger....................... Or are you just overthinking the situation....................................

                                                                        Anyway you had no time to think about this now. You were riding your horse, Penelope out in the forest, racing after Charles who was going after Duke Zaral. You feel like Charles was unto something, and you had to follow. But carefully, so that nobody notices. About 10 minutes later, Penelope halted without your permission. You quickly caught yourself and looked at your horse sternly, wondering why did it stop for no reason. The guys were far off from here, you were just getting held back, but Penelope wouldn't move. Your pulled her reins once to make her turn around and go forward, but she just swayed her head and didn't move forward. You kicked her in her abdomen with your foot gently as a friendly reminder that we're on a chase, and if we'd be having breaks, we'll only get lost. But she wouldn't move. 

                                                                    You kicked her again but this time harder, already getting impatient. In a chase, every second matters. She only perked her ears up higher and closed her eyes, not bothering anything you were doing. As you looked at your horse Penelope, you remembered about a 6th sense animals have. Maybe Penelope knew something you didn't. You sighed, sitting up straight and perking up your ears slightly, breathing evenly and closing your eyes. It was weird. You didn't hear any horses running nearby. Even if they were far off from here, horses feet, especially hooved ones, could make enough noise and vibration for people every couple of miles to feel or hear. Unless, they were specially trained horses that were able to run silently. Which you highly doubted. 

                                              All of a sudden, Penelope jolted her eyes open and dashed forward without your permission. (again) You quickly opened up your eyes, holding on to the reins, watching where your horse was taking you. You ended up standing near a cliff where your horse stopped, from afar you didn't see anyone except for a lonely house at the other side of the cliff, and a tall wall of rocks on the other. 

                                                                   *Time Skip*

                                      You got off your horse and examined the edge of the cliff you were on for a couple of minutes.  There wasn't anything major around where you were until you heard a horse running from behind you. It was Charles! He was on his horse, with supposedly Cinderella's "pets" running behind him. He saw you from a distance and stoped as he got close to you. "Alexa, what are you doing? Why are you here?" You looked at him and answered, "You disappeared not warning anyone, so I followed you." He sighed and looked down saying, "Well, then you better get out of here now. There's no need to stay with me anymore." He looked up at you, looking right in your eyes. "Alexa, the guys down to the other side of the cliff are dangerous. They're Zaral's comrades and subordinates. You shouldn't interfere with them or you'll get in the same trouble as Cinderella." 

                                                    Your eyes widened as you heard Cinderella's name. "What do you mean Cinderella? Is she here?" you asked Charles. He quickly covered your mouth and threw you in some nearby bushes, jumping over the cliff on his horse, slowly walking up to the house in front of him. Suddenly, you heard the door to the house open and a set of heavy footsteps vibrating through the ground. You stayed quiet and didn't move, scared that they may spot you. Honestly, you didn't believe that blabber your brother said that they were dangerous or anything, but you never underestimate your brother either. He's very smart and energetic. Even if he seems like a total playboy with no cares, he has lots of ideals and puts too much stress on himself because of other people. He also loves and cares about everyone in his family and his friend group. You stayed quiet and listened, because Charles pushed you in the bushes for a purpose. He heard the men walking out to the front door and wanted to protect you from them so he quickly 'got rid of you' by pushing you in the bushes. 

                                                               The man walked up to the end of the front steps and held someone captive as it sounded. Because he was threatening Charles, saying stuff like, "If you don't want me to hurt this girl, then drop your weapon and walk back to the end of the cliff." Well, based off of their dialogue it seemed that the captive was a girl, probably Cinderella. You heard Charles walk up to them and drop his weapon walking closer towards Cinderella. But the man just smirked and threw Cinderella off the cliff, you quickly reacted and ran quickly towards her and caught her midjump, whistling to Penelope that raced out of nowhere to catch Cinderella and you. 

                                         Penelope caught you and brought you to the cliff back again. The men stared at you two in shock, while Charles just kept staring wide eyed at you. "Alexa, what are you doing?!" you heard Charles yell to you. "Get out of here now! Do you know what you're getting yourself into?!" The man that held Cinderella started laughing and chuckled out, "Look who's playing hero?" You scowled at him and let Cinderella go and took out your whip. Since you were  a girl, people didn't accept a girl doing fencing lessons, so you practiced using a leather whip. You made your horse charge and you jumped up from your horse, jumping right at them, using your whip to make them drop their guns. You quickly took Charles and put him on your horse, taking Cinderella on the way, quickly racing off back home.