𝖇𝖚𝖗𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗 ♡ 𝕞𝕠𝕞𝕠𝕛𝕚𝕣𝕠 𝕗𝕒𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕤𝕪 𝕒𝕦 [✓]

How to Get Along With a Horse

This chapter brought to you by Princess Yaoyorozu, the bad and delusional actress!

I glower at the horse.

"I need to get out of here right now," I snap.

If a horse could shrug, this would be the Horse. He snickers at me in amusement. Horse facial expressions are really hard to read, but this Horse is making it quite obvious he's mocking me.

"No," he says.

I continue to glower at the Horse. "Then how about we make a deal?"

He sits down, quite suddenly, and swishes his tail. "I want to know how you got that voice and why it said what it did." Pretty easy convincing, that was.

"I want to ride you back to my Kingdom."

The Horse regards me, carefully and quietly. "We have a deal. But if I find your information to be incorrect, you're dead."

I glance over as Kaminari snores particularly loudly. Jiro rolls over, slaps him, and rolls back to her normal position. After a moment, I can hear her breathing slow down. Crickets chirp quietly around us.

Well, if I die if my information is wrong, Horse can't get all of his information. "I don't know why the voice said what it did," I tell the Horse. "But you heard it because of this."

I pull out a small orb that glitters in the moonlight. The pale, otherworldly off-white light makes the orb seem all ebony and shadowy silver, but I know in the day it shines like the dark greens, midnight blues and royal purples of the deep seas.

Horse clearly recognises it. "Oh, you've already got one of the Assets," he says, amused at the irony of... something or other. "And you're going to use it against... heh. Heh." I blink a few times before I realise that's Horse's version of a laugh.

"So, will you get me out of here?" I demand, stuffing the orb back into its pouch and raising an eyebrow at Horse.

"No," he says.

I gape. "But you promised!"

Horse seems to shrug. I wonder how he can do this stuff so easily compared to ordinary horses. "And you only fulfilled half of your part of the bargain, kid."

I bristle at being called kid. "Well, you still owe me a half-escape, then," I say. What would half an escape look like anyway?

Horse sighs. "Yes, I suppose I do. And luckily for you, I'm in the habit of keeping my bargains."

I grin wickedly at Horse. "Well, half an escape is the plan for it. So you're going to help me with that."

Horse sighs again and sticks out a hoof. I put my hand on it. "It's a deal," the chestnut animal tells me.

♥✿❀♪timeskip♪❀✿♥

"My Princess Yaoyorozu, I have written to you a poem expressing the depths of my flowery love and affection! For you!" Kamimari declars.

"Oh, really?" Jiro asks, looking up from our supplies with a smirk. "Let's hear it, then."

"I was planning on reading it to the Princess anyway!" Kaminari declares. He clears his throat.

"I am in love.
Why has such a cruel fate befallen me?
When I close my eyes, I hear your heartbeat
I open them to see you, Princess, slender and fair
I wish to be a Prince worthy of you
I am in love.

"I pretend I don't notice you
And you truly don't notice me
My tears fall; I am broken and ignored
One day, you'll disappear without me
I cry as you smile
I am in love.