When Your Feathers Flutter Down to Me

Chapter Two: The Princess And The Outskirts

As the carriage rode along the backroads, multiple bumps helped to bring the princess back to her senses. Her shoulder was still burning with pain from the branding spell, and it was only a moment later that she realized she was tied up and gagged. "Mmm!" she let out, drawing the attention of her guards.

"Oh, so the princess is awake now?" one said in a snide tone.

"Come on, don't antagonize her. She was royalty, you know," the other said.

"Yeah, whatever. I don't think it really matters anymore, but you're probably right. An unhappy princess would be pretty annoying to deal with for the rest of the ride," the first guard agreed.

Overall, going from the palace to the outskirts of the kingdom was a six day trip. Currently, they had only been on the road for about six hours. "Man, I can't believe we have to go all the way out to that hellhole just to get rid of this garbage," the first guard complained.

"Dude, what did I just say? Don't antagonize her!" the other said sternly.

"What's the big deal? She treated us like ants, so why should we have to show her respect?" the first guard said.

"Well..." the other guard didn't have a response. There was no way to defend against his comment. After all, he was right.

While Princess Elisia was known to be absolutely awful to demi-humans and monster people, it was nearly as bad for anyone who she deemed under her, especially those who exactly were. Whatever unlucky soul got the job of being her attendant bore the brunt of her vitriol, but that didn't make her personal guards immune. While these guards with her now had never served Elisia, they had heard stories.

There was the story about how a bird had flown too close to her, so she had a guard thrown in prison for failing to protect her. There was the story of how her food had tasted a little weird at a restaurant, so along with having the entire establishment shut down, she had the guard with her nearly poisoned for not checking for such substances in the princess's own food himself. Then there was the story of a guard who had claimed to be devoted to her, but when he had expressed as much, Elisia had called it disgusting, and the guard quit his position soon after.

Many more stories followed ones like these, and they were well-known among the guardsmen. Having the chance to be the ones to escort her out of the kingdom as a prisoner would've normally been one the guards would be clambering for. But, because of the distance, they had drawn straws instead, leading to the two guards in the carriage being the ones tasked with the job.

"Face it man, this girl never cared about anyone but herself. She's getting what was coming to her," the first guard continued. This comment, however, drew a muffled shout of protest from their passenger lying on the floor.

"Mmph!" she cried indignantly.

"What, got something to say princess?" the first guard spat, then removed her gag just to find out what she wanted to say.

"How dare you say such things about me! When I get back to the capital, I swear I- mmph! MMM!" Her words were cut off by the re-gagging from the guard. "MMM! MM! MM!!!" Elisia kept making noise, determined to be heard.

"God, just shut UP already!" the first guard exclaimed, while at the same time standing up in the carriage and giving a swift kick to the princess's abdomen.

"Mgnnh...!" she groaned, her eyes going wide from the impact.

"What the hell dude?!" the other guard yelled.

"Man, I always wanted to do that," the first guard said with satisfaction.

"You can't just KICK A PRINCESS!" the other guard shouted.