The Last Princess [EDITED]

Chapter 20

"Maybe it wasn't your father's fault. But something happened between them. Don't let your emotions cloud your judgement."

I pursed my lips, looking away. My feelings weren't hindering my logic. Aiden hadn't been there, in the prisons, to see what Ivy did to us. He hadn't heard of the wonderful things my father did - my sisters had told me about him. It was the only way I could know him - and I would not let Aiden tarnish his image.

Aiden sighed. "Let's go back."

I nodded. We walked back to our camp, only to be stopped by Grove.

"Where's the food?"

Thank Nalvia for Aiden.

He regained his composure in a fraction of a second and quickly replied, "Oh, sorry, we left it in the Forest. Come on, Princess, let's go get it." He quickly pulled me around, back into the trees.

"Where do we get food from?" I asked, my voice sharp.

"Watch and learn," he said, irritation edging his voice before he closed his eyes, head tipping up to the sky.

From above, small, hard objects began falling onto the ground. I blinked as one hit my head. "Ow!" I cried. He was obviously doing it, because none of them were even touching him.

I covered my head with my hands to avoid getting hit, but they kept falling on my arms, and as I looked down, I realized that the small objects were, in fact, nuts. I picked one up.

It brought back memories of Aiden and I eating together after the camp was attacked. He had brought me similar nuts and berries. I let go of it as a particularly large one hit my head. "Aiden!" I yelled.

I swear I saw him smirk.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the nuts falling from above. I felt a tug in my head, and they stopped hitting me. I pushed them a bit, to land on a particular location -

"Ow!" I opened my eyes to see Aiden glaring at me, all the nuts now falling on his head and then bouncing off onto the ground. They all fell on his head first, every single one of them, so I supposed I was a bit deserving of the glare he was giving me.

But really, he had started it.

He pushed a hand up, and the nuts stopped falling suddenly. He glared harder. "Really?"

I shrugged. "You did it first, you know." He closed his eyes and all the nuts gathered into a huge mound in front of him. It was quite large.

"Now what?" I asked, head still aching from the hits I'd taken.

He rolled his eyes. "Now we take this back to camp." The mound levitated, gathering in front of him. I tried to not look as impressed as I really was.

We ended up back in front of Grove, who's stare was now even more suspicious. "That took too much time."

Aiden responded quickly. "We left it deep in there, Mom." Grove shook her head with mock amusement.

"You kids." She let us go, hitting the back of Aiden's head playfully and going to the camp kitchen while Aiden and I rejoined Maple and Arden, who were entertaining Meadow along with Fawn.

"And that's how the brave soldier defeated the vicious dragon!" Fawn finished, just as we came.

"And then what happened?" Meadow interrupted, looking adorable in a light pink dress, her blond hair tied back in a braid.

"And then they lived happily ever after, the end." Aiden said as we sat down.

"Hey!" Meadow said indignantly, hitting her brother's arm.