Royal Blood

Chapter 13

She furrowed her eyebrows together, trying to think of the place where we were going.  Then coming up empty she looked up at me questioningly.

Alyssa’s POV

I hate surprises.  Chase wouldn’t tell me where we were going and why.  It was making me frustrated.  What surprise could be outside?  He had ran for about five minutes now. As I looked back, the castle kept on getting smaller and smaller as we went.  He was right.  It would have taken me ages to walk this far, and the healer had told me not to ride any horses, in fear of my wound reopening.  I looked forward again and found us weaving in and out of tress.  Everyone that passed by I was afraid we were going to hit it.  It was as if at the last second we would narrowly miss them only to come upon another one.

“We’re here.” Chase said as we came upon a clearing.  He gently set me down and I looked around curious of what this surprise was.  Glancing around I noticed the trees that were surrounding a small grassy clearing that had a small stream that bubbled and flowed off to one side.  What caught my eye though, was the blanket that was set up in the middle of the clearing with a basket of food on top.

“A picnic?” I asked.

Chase nodded, smiling, “I figured that you were tired of being cooped up in the castle and would like to do something, and thought this would be a perfect solution.”

I laughed at his smiling figure. “A perfect solution indeed,” I replied. I made my way over to the blanket, laid down, and smiled up at the blue cloudless sky.  “It’s absolutely perfect.”  I said breathing in a breath of fresh air.  I had missed going outside this past week.  I would stare out the window wishing I could walk out right then and there, get on my horse, and just ride around.

Chase came over, sat down and crossed his legs.  I turned to my side and propped my head up with my hand.  “So when did you find this place?” I inquired.

He smirked at me, “During one of your many naps.  I got bored and decided to start exploring the grounds.”

I nodded.  Now I knew where he had disappeared to when I had woken up and found him gone.  I reached out and fished an apple out of the basket and took a bite.  It made a loud crunching sound as my teeth sunk into it.  I laid back down on my back and stared at the sky as I ate the rest of it.  I enjoyed the quiet peacefulness of this clearing.  No one knew where we were, and no one was there to bother us. 

“It’s nice out here, don’t you agree?” Chase said as he laid down next to me.

I nodded my head.  “I wonder why I had never found this place before, with all the exploring I do.”

When I was done with the apple I reached over and grabbed some bread.  Sitting up I mutely looked around at my surroundings.  Chase was still lying on the ground staring straight up, seemingly lost in thought.  That’s when I had an idea.  I tore off a small piece of bread and threw it at him.  It his cheek, bounced off and fell to the ground.  Stifling a laugh I quickly adverted my gaze, acting like nothing had happened and took a large bit of bread.  Out of the corner of my eye I watch as his gaze slowly travel from the piece of bread on the floor to me.

“Did you just through bread at me?” He inquired in a disbelieving tone.

I decided to play stupid, and looked at him with wide innocent eyes, “I have no idea what you are talking about! Why would I through bread at you?” I said faking confusion.

He stared at me for a moment before looking away.

I smirked and turned away, what an idiot I thought. Then I felt something small and hit me on the side of the head.  I looked to the ground and saw a piece of bread and then up to Chase’s smirking face.

That’s when an all out food fight started.

****** ****** ******

“Fine, I give up, I give up.” I laughed as Chase pelted me with bread pieces and I put my hands up in a surrender gesture.

He smiled and lowered his arm.  Finally the onslaught of food had stopped and I laid down on the grass panting and laughing.  Somehow I had ended up with no food while Chase had a pile of it.

“Ha! I won!” Chase yelled as he sat down next to me with a smug smile.  “The almighty Princess has surrendered!”

I rolled my eyes, “You only won because you cheated.”

He looked at me with mock innocence, “How dare you suggest I cheated! I was merely using my skills to my advantageous, like any normal person would have done.”

“A normal person doesn’t have super speed and then proceeds to use it against someone who doesn’t.  So in other words you cheated.” I said pointing out that little fact.

He nudged me in the shoulder, “You are just mad that you lost.”

“Maybe I am, but that still isn’t an excuse for you cheating” I muttered grumpily.

He rolled his eyes, “You’ll never be able to prove it.  Are you ready to go back yet?”

“How long have we been here?”

“Probably about an hour,” Chase answered.

I nodded and started to get up, “I guess we should. Someone is probably missing us.”

He sighed and got up standing next to me.  “Let’s go.”  Chase lifted me up into his arms and I wrapped my arms around his neck, getting ready for the run back to the castle.

I nodded towards the blanket and basket, “Are you just going to leave those there?”

Chase shrugged, “I’ll come back for them later.” He replied, turned heel, and took off running.

As soon as we walked through the door we were met with an angry king.  “Alyssa!  Where have you been?!?” He yelled

“I was walking around the grounds.  I needed some fresh air after being in the castle all week.” I calmly stated.

“You should have told someone, or had a guard go with you!  The man who tried to kill is still out there you know!” he said continuing on with his rant.

“I was fine, I had Chase with me.  Now what do you need?” I knew my father well.  He wasn’t really worried about me, he had tried to find me and I wasn’t there so now he is mad, but wants to come a crossed as concerned to anyone that is watching.

“Oh, well I came to find you to inform you that we will be hosting a ball in three days time.  I had already sent out the invitations a couple of days ago, and just haven’t had enough time to tell you.”  His concern was completely gone, just like I expected it to be.

“A ball?  Is it for any certain reason?” I asked

“No, no reason, just thought we hadn’t had one in a while.” He replied, but the evil glint in his eyes contradicted his words.

“Ok…  You remembered to invite Liz this time right?”

He stared at me in confusion for a moment before his face lit up in realization, “Oh you mean Elizabeth?  Yes of course I remembered to invite her.”  For some reason my father never thinks of Liz as Liz.  He always calls her Elizabeth and acts like he forgets her nickname.  I think he does it just to annoy me.

“Good. Well I’m going to go eat.” I told him as Chase and I shared a knowing look.  After our food fight we hadn’t had anything left to eat.