She's a Rebel // Ben Finn x Princess

Chapter 9

"Why's the ground here different?" was the first thing I heard as soon as my shoes touched the soil outside Knothole Island's almost comically large village gate. A helpful sign, labelled "New Knothole Glade" - ironically ancient and tastefully misspelled - towered over us. "It's softer, how is it softer? What is it made of?"

"Shut up, Ben." I sighed. "It only feels different because you think that it feels different." I looked to him, as he stood, looking frankly under-dressed in a plain white shirt ("it's like we're going undercover!"), and staring with a perplexed expression at the grass beneath his feet. "You should be questioning why you're such an idiot. We don't have time for this; the faster we get this over with, the sooner we can go home."

"How does this place even exist? Didn't they, like, die in a Balverine attack, years ago?" He mused, watching the sky above his head as he walked, possibly in case it changed colour without him noticing. "It's weird that they can just control the weather, you know, I'd rather live with the Dwellers than somewhere like this. Oh," he gasped, tapping me on the shoulder in his excitement, "do you think they want free passes to move to Bowerstone?" I sighed and shook my head and Ben laughed. "We should try and convince them, you know, hand out flyers, tell them how great the mainland is."

"Oh, how they've needed you this whole time to tell them how to avoid Balverine attacks by just moving, never mind all these years that their clans have inhabited this island," we walked through the gate, into the incredibly empty village. "Wow, Ben, try and calm these crowds, my hand is going to ache from all these autographs."

It was impossible to describe the village as anything other than 'quaint'. Even the breeze seemed to only be there to provide something for neighbours to talk to each other about; the whole place seemed one small scale scandal away from total social isolation. It was incredibly difficult to distinguish it from anywhere else in the kingdom. As we walked across the wooden bridges that connected to a fountain in the middle of the lake, I felt the urge to mention the weather. Thankfully, the chieftain called us over with a wave of his hand, from where he was drinking mercilessly in the tavern, saving us from any small talk.

"The Queen! I'm sorry that you're here on such an overcast day. I could fix it, with a few hours and a strong adventurer like you at my side!" He bellowed before he stood up, shaking our hands with a cheerful vigour. "I am the current chief of this here village, took over from the last one about 20 years ago, but I'm not really in charge, in the conventional sense of the phrase. You'd want to see Jessica, in the shop across the lake, for any official business. I'm little more than a formality, as they say, every seat needs a butt and mine just happens to fit the one in the town hall," he sat back down, laughing to himself. "But I suppose you're here for your brother, yes?"

I looked to Ben, and he looked back at me, wearing a similar expression of confusion to the one I wore. I glanced around the empty tavern, half-expecting to see my brother with his arm around Mary in some dark corner. I thought back to what Reaver told me - The Temple of Avo wasn't that far from here. If Logan was around here, that would be an extremely unlikely coincidence. And everyone knew that there was no such thing as coincidence when Reaver was involved.

"It's been a pleasure to meet you," I spoke in the general direction of the chieftain, who had seemingly forgotten all about us and was far more interested in his ale. I pointed to the shop directly opposite and Ben nodded, as we set off walking. "I don't like this, at all. Something feels really... not right."

"It'll be okay, Rosie," Ben replied, as he fell in step next to me. "No matter what's going on here, we'll sort it out in no time, and things'll be back to normal before you can say "my brother's a wanker". Not that you'd say that, of course, you're far too nice." He smiled at me, a confident, charming smile, and I believed him. With him, nothing could be too bad. He held the shop door open, with an over-dramatic bow and I was thankful he couldn't catch my beaming smile.