Up For The Test (Aru Shah AU)

Chapter 2

Third Person

"Philipe?" Aru asked.

"Yes, ma'am?" he responded.

"First, call me Aru and just Aru. Not Princess Aru or Arundhati. If someone has an issue, bring them to me."

"I shouldn't, ma'am," the older gentleman replied.

"Can you deny orders from me?"

"No, ma- Aru. It's nice to meet you."

"I'm sure it's a great honor to meet you too, Philipe! Now, is there a nice meadow I can go to lay down in? I used to love to do that back down in the city," Aru sighed.

"Yes. Let me get one of the boys to show you while I go set up your room to your preferences. What color comforter?"

"A sage green would be perfect, sir!"

Philipe nodded and walked away to find a boy to bring Aru to the nearest meadow.

A jet black horse neighed and it startled Aru. She walked over to its stall where it was bucking. Aru looked at the other stalls and noticed every horse had a name except the one she was in front of.

"Hey there, girl. Calm down," Aru coaxed. The horse backed up in its unusually large stall. Aru carefully climbed over the stall door, having no idea how to open it. "We should name you. How about Coco?" Aru tried.

The horse stomped its hoof and Aru jumped back in fear. "Ok, you're not a Coco. Uh, Pepper?"

The horse seemed to calm down a bit. "Pepper is a good name. I'll call you that from now on. I'm Aru!" she said peppily.

Pepper bucked up her front hooves and hit Aru in the shoulder. She was thrown against the door from the force. "Ow!"

She rolled up her sleeve and realized it was just going to end up being a bruise. "Nothing I haven't been through before," Aru mumbled. Pepper backed up and laid down with her head inches from Aru.

"Stop looking so proud of yourself," Aru muttered.

"Shah?" a voice called. "Where'd you go?"

"Of course Philipe chose him," Aru whispered to Pepper.

Pepper huffed and nudged her shoulder with her muzzle. "Ow!" Aru yelped.

The door that Aru was leaning against opened, and she fell to the floor with a loud plunk. She opened her eyes to see Aiden looking down at her. "What the heck are you doing in here?! This horse is wild, and no one can get her to calm down!" Aiden yelled, dragging Aru out by her arm.

"Some manners you have."

"I have plenty, just not towards you. This horse could've hurt you, but no. You must not think things through before doing them!"

"I'm fine, Acharya!" Aru yelled, getting up off of the hay-covered floor. "You don't know anything about me, so I don't think that you should be able to speak about how I think."

"I know enough to know that you must be dim-witted!"

"What did you just call me?"

"Dim. Witted," Aiden emphasized.

"I'm the dim-witted one?!" Aru scoffed.

"Yeah!"

"You can go sit your royal, arrogant, obnoxious, cocky, immature butt back down in whatever country you are originally from because I personally don't appreciate your huge ego," Aru scoffed.

"Did you just call me obnoxious?"

"You bet I did, Acharya. I didn't tell a single lie there."

"And to think that I was going to try to be nice to you and bring you to the meadow."