Two weeks until we gat a new king.
I brace myself as Malcolm bursts through the trees, I glance down into the water, making sure Archer’s ducked under the rocks. I swear to the gods above if Mason gives it away I’ll strangle him. Violence is bad my ass.
“Malcolm? I thought you were with Archer.” I look up at him and let his grey eyes search mine for the lie we both know I’m telling. I don’t let myself glance over at Mason but I can tell he looks like he’s about to combust, dumbass.
“Alysia, I do hope you’re not lying, but we both know you are, so let’s get Archer from whatever hiding place you’ve stuffed him in and–” Malcolm gets cut off by Archer breaking the surface of the water and gasping for breath and coughing up the little water he did swallow. Malcolm stares at the prince flopping around in the water then back to Mason and I.
Archer pulls himself up onto the rocks, spluttering and coughing. Dash bursts back through the trees with the stick in his mouth and a few extra tangled through his fur. I watch as Dash tackles Archer, sending both of them tumbling back into the water. I hide my grin being my hand as Archer fights to get back to the surface from under Dash. I clear my throat and have to look away from Mason’s bewildered face to watch Archer convince his dog to get off him. Archer sighs and floats on his back.
I stifle my laughter, Mason’s reddening face only making it worse. Malcolm seems to break from his trance and leans over the rocks and grabs Archer by the back of his shirt, the linen stretching as Malcolm drags the prince up from the water.
“Prince Archer! Your mother has been worried sick! You’re meant to be at lunch with the Pridor royal family!” Malcolm yelps while he pulls Archer to the tree where our cloaks are hung, dragging the green one down and clapping the wet fabric around the prince’s shoulders.
“Yeah, I could go for lunch.” Archer says when he seems to have finally finished drowning and his guard starts to drag him away from the creek. Malcolm sighs and picks up Dash’s collar, clipping it around his belt for safekeeping on the journey back to the castle.
I take in the two royal emassetors infront of me, one a gaurd and one his charge. Malcolm’s dark hair is cut to the standard while Archer’s blond curls usually only flop into his eyes whenever he steps, but the water weighing down his hair is sticking it to most of his face while he tries to comb it back. Malcolm grabs the crown from the tree limb Archer threaded it on, shoving the gold unceremoniously onto Archer’s head as he dragged the soggy prince away. Dash races out of the water, chasing the pair walking away.
As soon as the three disappear into the trees I double over and laugh so hard my sides hurt and my vision blurs with tears. I point at Mason and choke out a few inaudible sounds before finally gaining my composure. I let out a few more gasping breaths as I stand up again, the sides of my mouth quivering as I look at Mason’s now less red face. Gods above he looks stupid.
I take a deep breath before talking, “Let’s climb the wall.”
Mason looks at me with the bewilderment of a trapped deer, spluttering out some ramble about it being dangerous and dumb while I skip over to the wall. I jump up to get my hand into the highest handhold I can before sliding my foot down the wall until I find a foothold. As I pull myself up the wall Mason’s prattling gets a tone of stress before he decides to follow me.
When I reach the top I pull myself up without much fuss and flop backwards, laying on the warm rock below me and letting my red clothes dry in the sun. After a few minutes a panting Mason drags himself over the ledge and flops down next to me, his blue clothes leaving a puddle of water around him. I grin at him and sit up against a tree as Mason starts complaining about stupidity and bad choices.
“I can’t believe you always manage to get me to do these ignorant stunts, I’m going to stay right here and you can’t make me–”
“Your cloak’s still on the tree.” I roll my eyes at him as the realisation dawns on him, knowing damn well that I won’t get his cloak for him. He mumbles something as he moves to make his way back through the trees, not listening to my taunts about him being too scared to jump into the water.Long after Masons left, long after I’ve laughed at him for tripping over tree roots as he crashed through the trees, the sky’s became dark and the constellations have come out. I stare up at the stars. I have to admit, I’m jealous. I don’t have any royal duties to attend to or a dad who wants me to follow in his footsteps.
Or a dad at all.
Not much I can do about that, do I really want one though? I don’t think Archer talks to his often and Mason seems scared around any authority so I can only imagine him around his dad.
I let myself sigh while I watched the birds fly overhead. The rocks dig into my legs as I stretch them out. My clothes are now dry and my cloak probably is too. Now, immature Aly would have jumped down into the water and gotten all wet again while mature Aly would walk down the long way to the left of the cliff.
I sigh and stand, stretching out before I start walking. As soon as I get to the ledge I send myself down into the water below. I gulp in one last breath as I hit the water and let the sharp cold flow around me. I paddle to the surface and drag myself out from the small lagoon we have claimed as our own. I pull my cloak over m wet shoulders, hugging the dry fabric around me as I start to make my way out of the forest and back to the streets of Kire.
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