The Girl in the Slippers

Chapter Four- Caspar

Chapter Four

Caspar

THE MUD WAS everywhere. It was in his shoes, on the bottom of his pants, streaked across his shirt and, Selene have mercy, it was in his hair! No matter how many times he washed while in the military settlement, he could not get rid of it. The substance seemed to seep into his very soul.

Caspar did his best not to fidget as they trudged through the forest to get to the coast of the Isle, where the boat towards the mainland was waiting for them. They had spent the last two months training with the new recruits of the armed forces. If it had been night time, he would have been able to shift into his other form and run instead, as all royal lycans could change into their wolf anytime unless it was a new moon. However, it was still midday, so he was stuck on foot with the rest of their small entourage. The trip from the base to the ocean had taken the better part of the morning. Marius was leading the group, head held high and shoulders straight like a stick had been shoved up his behind. Caspar admired his determination to look unaffected by the awful conditions (it was still winter!) but also felt exasperated. Why did his brother always have to act like the perfect prince? He hadn't looked affected by their terrain for their whole stay. Just watching made him feel tired.

'You're lagging, Cas,' Marius called from ahead, turning to look at him but not breaking his march. 'Perhaps all of that ambrosia last night was a bad idea?'

Caspar and some of the recruits of the royal army who were also training on the Isle had celebrated his return to the capital with a wild party. There weren't many women, however, it had still been a fun occasion to get loose. Marius did not approve, especially after he found him wondering around the camp in an ambrosia-addled haze at eight o'clock the next morning, the time that they were meant to leave.

'Have you ever had ambrosia before, brother?' was his sceptic reply.

'I have.'

'Are you sure? I can't imagine you ever having a bit of fun.'

'You are not the type of person I would like to have fun with, little brother.'

Little? Caspar was thirty minutes younger than him and he told him so.

'Thirty minutes might as well be ten in matter of maturity.'

'Someday, Marius, I will get you so drunk that you'll have a thousand women... Perhaps at your bachelor party!' The older prince glared over his shoulder before declaring Caspar a lost cause, sitting as far away from him in the boat as possible.

The Isle of Ilias was off the coast of Province E, which they had passed through quietly to avoid fanfare while travelling to their destination. All in the group were hoping for the same reception on the way back, particularly Caspar who believed he had just spent the last two months in the Land of Undead. Every muscle ached, especially the ones he never knew he had.

There was a rumour that the alpha family were busy preparing for a wedding anyway, probably for the leader's daughter, so there wouldn't be a large issue sneaking in and out. Caspar knew of the wedding because his parents and Katarzyna would be attending in one week, according to the sparse letters that had been sent to them from home.

Province E was smaller than average but it made up in charm. It was a sprawling city of blue and white houses, situated on a steep hillside and surrounded in lush green forest on one side and the coast on the other. The cobbled streets sloped downwards until they reached the shore below, blending into the luminous sand. From what he understood in the minimal governess lessons he attended, the primary business in Province E was tourism, as the beach was too narrow to become a wharf for trade. Because of this, the residents lived an easy lifestyle. The alpha had only one child, a daughter who was probably soon to be married, and his wife had grown ill after the birth. Since Province E was one of the few sections of Selene that didn't send a type of trade, like silver or poppy oil, to the crown, his mother had only sent a letter of condolence and not attended the funeral.