Princess And The Thief

Arabella or Rapunzel?

I woke up to the sound of birds and fresh rain. A yawn escaped my mouth as I sat up. "Breakfast is ready!" Jack called, seeing that I was awake. I walked slowly towards the heat of the fire, careful to not get to close to the heat, and sat down. But embarrassingly missed and hit the ground harder then expected. I guess I was used to chairs being pulled out for me before I even asked. I felt reassuring hands pull me up and help me sit on a hard rock not too far away. He handed me my plate of food. I quickly dug in, grateful for some food. The berries were fresh and were better than the castle's blueberries. The eggs were also cooked perfectly. He obviously cooked himself meals often enough.

After I finished eating I realized that I hadn't heard one bite from Jack. Or a word in fact. "Where's your food? Aren't you going to eat?"

"Nah, I ate while I was waiting for you to wake up from your beauty sleep." We started to pack up camp, well, mostly him, but I helped here and there. After a little while we started walking on the trail towards safety once more. Every once and awhile I would feel Jack's strong, comforting hands help me over a tree root or rock. After awhile I realized I actually looked forward to him helping me, but I shook it off and decided to strike up conversation.

"So, I forgot to ask, what is your reason for being this far out?"

"I was, hunting," he answered while helping me over another obstacle. I didn't know much other than hunting, other than my dad going out once and awhile saying he'd bring back some snares.

"Hunting for what?"

"Stuff we can eat, like hares, deer, or elk." I realized that they probably killed the animals, I guess that was hunting. I suddenly felt like only eating veggies from then on. Poor bunnies. "Whose we? Your family?"

"Yeah,"

"How many siblings do you have?" I started thinking he might get annoyed at all my questions, but he actually sounded amused.

"I have way more than I can count, and way more than my mum ought to have." I laughed again, I felt sorry for him, but also kind of jealous. I wish I had that many siblings. "What about your family?"

"Well, I'm an only child, so you're lucky you have so many siblings."

"Trust me, in no way am I lucky to have so many, so why do you want to go to the castle? Not many people go there unless they're there to see the king and queen." This stopped me from walking, I had never thought of a reason to tell him why I wanted to go to the castle! I wish I had Mary here...Wait,

"I'm a maid at the castle, today was to be my first day, but, as you can see, I got kind of sidetracked."

"What job did you get? Wait, so let me get this right, you're sixteen right? I heard that to be a maid you had to be at least at the age of sixteen to be hired."

"I don't quite know yet, I guess whatever they think I can do, and yesterday was my sixteenth birthday." I suddenly remembered that yesterday really had been my birthday. Not like it changed anything. I felt sad, when I had ran away I had missed the big ball my mom was always so excited about every year and the cake, the big, towering cake.

"Really? Happy Birthday! Well, late birthday anyways."

"Thanks."

After a few minutes of silence, Jack said, "do you want to know something interesting?"

"Why not?"

"Yesterday was my seventeenth birthday, I just remembered, being out here so much, you kind of lose track of the day, ya know?"

"What? Really? Are you telling the truth? If you are, doesn't that mean we're like, not-connected-in-any-way-whatsoever-twins?"

"Have I lied to you yet? No. And yes, I'm telling the truth! And that's just weird, because I'm a year older than you." He said laughing.

"True, but we're still born on the same day you know. That's got to count as something."

"hmmm...Maybe, well, we're here."

"What do you mean by 'here'?"

"The end of the forest is here."