Kingdom of Refuge

Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own pokemon, but I did draw Drew in the picture above

Scrawny? SCRAWNY?!?! HOW DARE HE JUST-

My slender hands shook furiously, and my for once un-make up painted face boiled bright red. My sapphire eyes turned into icy fire, and I took several threatening steps towards him. I resisted the almost uncontrollable urge to kick him where it hurts the most. And kick him hard.

"MIA! calm yourself!" Misty grabbed me from behind, entirely over pronouncing my fake name to remind me not to blow my cover.

Breath in, breath out. Breath in, breath out. In, out. In, out. In, out.

He smirked. "Feisty, huh?"

I growled. "Why you-"

"Mia! Stop it!" This time she forcefully seized me by the neck of the poor brown servant's dress. I felt myself sliding violently across the floor to the other side of the room.

"Please excuse our friend. She has never met anyone of a higher class than her. She grew up on a small horse farm. She is very good at handling horses."

I internally let out a sigh of relief. Horses are something I can do. I insisted that I be the only on to take care of Tor, including exercising, grooming, and... other things.

"Ash! Come over here!"

"Yes sir!" A tall skinny boy with messy raven hair rushed in and stood before Prince Drew. "Reporting for du- OW!!!" He swiftly brought his hand up in salut - of coarse, not forgetting to poke his eye in the process.

"Enough with the formalities, Ash. It's OK."

"Heh heh... Right. What do you need?"

"I would like you to show these two young ladies around the castle."

Great. So my friends get a tour of our new home, but not me? Just great.

"Excuse me, but what about THIS YOUNG LADY!?!??!??!?!?"

He calmly rolled his emerald eyes. "Well, for one, I do not consider you a young lady. Two, I am going to show you to the stables."

"No. I want to go with Misty and Dawn." I felt good - and defiant. He stepped closer and closer until he towered over me. He never broke his calm demeanor, but his eyes revealed his rage.

Any normal girl might have shrunk back or squealed, rattling off apologies as fast as humanly possible. Although he was quite menacing due to the fact that he now controlled my future, I held my ground.

I felt my insides churn. What is he going to do to me?

"You," he said in a horse whisper. He then raised his voice, obviously struggling not to yell. "You need to learn some respect!"

He then grabbed my wrist and pointedly marched out the door. OK. I have had more than enough of being dragged today.

"I can walk by my self, thank you very much!" I twisted my arm in an attempt to shake him off with out physically attacking him (which I wanted to do so badly).
Instead, his grip only tightened. "I'll let go when I want to, and not a moment sooner."

I spun around so that my sapphire eyes burned into his serene emerald ones.

This is going to be a long day.

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"Here we are. Do your thing."

He turned and began to walk back to the castle.

"Hey! Would you mind telling me where the supplies are!?"

He stopped, his head still high in the air.

"I'm sure you'll figure it out. And second, you are to address me as sir."

"Fine then, SIR!" I emphasized the sir much more than necessary. I made a pouty face and turned towards the stable, with quite a bit of sass I might add.

"I will teach you respect." Was his only response before walking proudly back in the direction of the castle.

OK, being a servant who takes care of the horses I can do. Putting up with that guy? Someone save me.

I wandered down the long row of pens, each containing one or two beautifully taken care of horses. A large white stallion with a few spots of dark blue snorted and stuck his soft muzzle into the side of my head.

I laughed. "Well hello to you to... Absol." I said reading off of the small gold plate mounted on the dark brown wooded stable door containing all of his information.

He whinnied and pointed his white nose to his currently empty feeding trough. "Your hungry, aren't ya? I guess I might as well feed all of you." He whacked me lightly on the head. "OK then. You first!"

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After lifting bucket after bucket for each of the seven horses in this stable, it was no wonder that my arms were so sore. My guess is that there were many other stables throughout the castle property, and I was simply working one of them.

I took the time to read each plaque to learn a little about each horse. It turns out that Absol is Prince Drew's horse. Too bad he isn't more like Absol, the sweet playful thing.

I spent the rest of the evening getting to know the horses. Giving them a chance to trust me. If I don't form that bond, it's going to make my job twenty times harder. That would be a disaster...

All I can do is wait for someone to come show me where to sleep. I am going to need to learn how to fit in here.
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Hey! I'm back!
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