Cadha (#wattys2016)

The Portrait

"So, where are you planning on going?" asked Reid.

            "I'm going to the palace kingdom to see if I'm the lost princess.  The description sounded a lot like me."

            "That makes sense.  I have an idea," he said.  "We can go to the local tavern.  They supposedly have a portrait of the lost princess in there.  We can check and see if it looks anything like you."

            "Does that mean you'll come with me to Airdiere."

            "Of course! I couldn't let a little lady travel that far all by herself."

            We turned down a small street off the main road and worked our way through a crowd watching a young man play some sort of violin.  He was really good, which explained the crowd, and when he was finished people threw coins into a cap he had laying on the ground.  "Come one," said Reid as he pulled me away from the distraction.  "We can't get caught up in anything.  Tying the clerk up won't buy us a whole bunch of time.  Another guard will find him eventually."

            We passed a lot of merchants selling different wares such as necklaces, pots, clay bowls, and different types of food.  We hurriedly walked past them and the roads grew less and less populated.  As the merchants' booths grew sparser we began to walk past more and more houses.  We made our way through a maze of back roads and alleyways and finally reached the outskirts of the village.  The tavern was the outermost building in the village, but you could hear the sound of raucous laughter and men talking loudly from a distance.

            Reid stopped me outside the doors to the tavern. "You don't have to go in there if you don't want to.  It's not exactly an ideal place for a lady to be entering," he said with a tense look on his face.

            "I can take care of myself," I said as I flexed my small arms, imitating him from his story earlier.  I wasn't sure what he meant by it not being safe for me.  I'd worked in a tavern before.  I was sure I could handle myself in there.

            Reid just laughed at me, but he turned towards the door and said, "Then let's go in.  We'll only stay to look at the portrait and then leave, okay?"

            "Okay," I replied.  I wondered what he was worried about as he opened the door as discreetly as possible.  It was obvious he didn't want to attract attention, so I kept my head low and kept my eyes on the ground as we entered.  As I walked in, the familiar smell of weak ale and grease invaded my nose.  The room was hazy from the many men smoking their pipes and the roaring fires on either side of the open area.  It brought back many memories from when I had worked at the inn in the palace city for a year.  I didn't like it one bit.

            A few seconds after we walked in, a large man with a short black beard and a bald head came out from behind the bar and yelled, "Reid, my boy. How are ya doing?" If we were trying to get in and out without attracting attention, that wasn't going to happen.  Many of the men turned their attention to us and I felt a lot of eyes pass over me.  "I'm doing great," Reid replied to the bartender.

            "Well, obviously. I'll bet this beauty you've got tagging along with you has something to do with it," the bartender said.  I blushed at his comment; I had never considered myself beautiful, but apparently others did.

            "Um..." Reid started awkwardly. "Well, were only here to look at the portrait they've got of the lost princess.  I'm going to help..." Reid stopped.  He looked sheepishly at me and asked me, "Um... what is your name?"

            "It's Cadha," I said with smile.

            "I'm going to help Cadha get to Airdiere."

            "What a noble thing to do," the bartender replied sarcastically.  "I'll go get it real quick," he said as he walked towards his bar.  When he left the attention of all the men in the room turned to us, but luckily their stares were short lived as the bartender came out only a few seconds later.  "Here it is," he said as he handed it to Reid.

            "Whoa!" Reid exclaimed as he looked from the portrait in his hands to my face and back to the portrait.

            "What?!?" I asked, annoyed that he wasn't revealing what was so profound about the portrait to me.

            "Well, you'd better just look at it yourself."

            He handed the portrait over to me and I gasped as I looked at the girl painted on the canvas.  She had my dark hazel eyes, my raven black hair, and my slight build.  Even her smile mimicked mine.  The only slight difference between the two of us was that the girl in the portrait had a slightly rounder face than mine and was wearing a much nicer dress than I was.  It was as if an artist had come and painted a portrait of me.   I had only been expecting to come in here and see how close we looked alike, not come face to face with an almost exact rendition of myself.

            "This looks so much like me," I said without really thinking about it.

            "Not really," Reid said in a matter-of-fact tone.  I looked over at him, confused.  Was it only my imagination making the portrait of the lost princess look like myself?  "You, my dear, look much lovelier."

            A few men who had been listening in on our conversation whistled.  I blushed, only because of Reid, and looked back at the portrait.  "Stop it," I said.  I didn't want to fall for him, but I knew I already was.  I turned around to look at him and he had a huge toothy grin on his face.  I turned away again and looked around the tavern and saw that almost every man in the room was watching me with rapture written on their face.  I didn't understand why they were watching me so intently until the bartender kneeled down in front of me.

            "My princess," he said and bowed his head.  I felt embarrassed that he was giving such a big show, and then all the men in the room kneeled down as well.  My embarrassment quadrupled in seconds.

            "No, no, no," I said quickly.  "I don't want to you bow down.  I don't even know if I'm really the princess yet."

            Reid was the first to reply, "Then let's go find out."

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AN:

How are you guys liking the story so far? I'm surprised at the amount of people reading it. I didn't think it was that good! 😜

What do you think of the men kneeling down to her. Was that too much? I wasn't sure, but I put it anyways.

You know the drill...

If you like it please vote

If you see anything I could change or you wanna chat please comment. I love hearing from you guys!!!

I wills try and keep posting on Tuesdays, but I get really busy during the holidays.

- Thanks -