Untitled Princess Carolyn Project

Chapter 13

The next morning I'm woken by Jackal.

"You need to eat and then we need to get going." He says.
"I actually need to talk to you about that." I groan, sitting up.

"What?"

"I went out last night to buy a tent and the people who own the shop offered to give us a ride to Guardalla."
"What?! You went into town by yourself in the middle of the night! With Leidan palace officers everywhere and Aurelia herself?! And then you actually told these random people who you were and what we were doing!?"

"It's not like they're going to hurt us. They helped me avoid two Leidan officers."

"You ran into two of them?!"

"Yes, but I'm fine! Please just listen, it's a free ride to a major Opelan city. We still have such a long way to walk and like you said we could run into horrible things in the forest up North."

He goes to say something but stops himself and takes a deep breath.

"I'm sorry, I'm upset that you went off on your own because it is dangerous and we need you."

"Thank you."

"However, I'm not sure how much I trust these people."

"We could at least meet them." Says Perellies from the doorway. She's holding a plate with a chunk of meat and some berries on it.

"That's the thing, I don't know if I trust them not to hurt us if we met them."

"Jackal, it's 3 Larsches against a couple ailos. We'd win either way."

He thinks for a second before shaking his head disappointedly.

"Fine. Eat your breakfast, Analia, and then we'll pack up and go see them."

I nod and take the plate from Perellies. The two of them walk out to put out the fire and clean up the area. I finish my food and place the plate in the small bag we've been putting our dirty dishes in. I leave the shelter and find Perellies and Jackal bickering again.

"Stop it! I do not!"

"You do! You can't deny it!"

"Okay, both of you. Let's take down the shelter." I interrupt.

"Are we telling them that we're siblings again?" Jackal asks.

"They'll certainly believe it with you provoking Perellies all the time."

He laughs and we begin to disassemble our shelter. 20 minutes later we reach Lemons Stack Shop.

"Who's Lemon?" Perellies asks as we approach the store.

"Good question." I respond.

Marlein and Tate are out front. Marlein is anxiously looking around while Tate is running in circles with his arms out like a plane. Marlein sees me and waves. I wave back and we pick up our pace.

"Good afternoon, Analia." Marlein says, smiling.

"Hello, Marlein. These are my brother and sister, Jackal and Perellies." I say motioning to each in turn.

"Nice to meet you both." Marlein says, nodding quickly, "I'm Marlein, and that's my younger brother Tetsuhn. My older brother is in the back loading up the vehicle we're going to take. His name is Niyuhn. Neither of them speak Merid so I will be your translator, should you need anything. The vehicle's interior only seats two people so you three and Tate and occasionally me will be sitting in the- um- the-" He pauses for a moment thinking hard. He shakes his head, "I apologize, I don't remember the Merid word for it."
"That's alright, I think we'll figure it out." Jackal says coldly.