The (Not So) Perfect Princess

We "borrow" some food

Eily walked confidently ahead of our group, seemingly knowing exactly where she was going, although the town square wasn't hard to find. She strode past strangers and stepped right up to a large wooden stand. It could've passed for a house, but I could clearly see food stacked in drawers and shelves: ripe fruits, fresh veggies, steaming pastries oozing with some kind of jam. And in the very back, I spotted an iced-down glass bottle of something that looked suspiciously like apple cider. My mouth watered.

The old woman behind the stand smiled coldly at us. She reminded me a little too much of Mrs. Bolshire, except this woman looked much tougher. Bolshire was just a frail old lady.

"Just one apple, please." Eily said sweetly. I frowned. Please and Eily did not go together. Eily dug around in her bag until she found what she was looking for, and then tossed it on the table. It was a rusty metal pence. Not worth much at all. I couldn't help but wonder where Eily got it.

The woman's eyebrow rose, but she snatched up the pence and grabbed an apple from somewhere underneath the table. "Seems like quite a little lunch for just the two of you."

The two of us?

I quickly glanced around and found that both Q and Scout had vanished. They must've left before the creepy saleswoman had seen us. Eily wasn't fazed though, so I guessed it was some sort of plan.

Eily pouted. "If I could, I'd buy this whole stand. But that one pence was all we had."

"Well, you just might be able to get some more of my delicious food if you've got anything worth trading in that bag of yours." The woman purred, eying Eily's brown bag.

Eily gripped her bag tighter and smiled at the woman. "Lay one finger on my bag and you'll leave here with one less hand."

Before the woman could respond, Eily snatched up the apple and quickly strode away in the direction of the abandoned part of town. The apple Eily was holding was big, red, and totally free of bruises. It looked delicious, but I had to concentrate on something else.

"Where's Q and Scout?" I asked, hurrying to keep up with her. The two of us were moving quickly through thick crowds of villagers, almost all of them eyeing the food Eily had grasped in her hand. "Where did they go?"

Eily shrugged. "I have no idea." She took a gigantic bite out of the apple, juice running down her chin.

"Hey!" I said, grabbing for the fruit, but Eily held it just out of my reach. "I'm hungry too, you know!"

"Yeah?" she took another bite. "Well I paid for this, so it's mine."

"But-" I was about to make some pathetic excuse like 'I want some too', when a muddy arm slipped through mine.

"Q?" I asked, now officially confused with everything that was happening. He had one of his arms linked with mine, and the other with Eily's. He also looked incredibly happy for a guy who'd gotten lost during our lunch break. "Okay, what is going on? What were you guys doing? And where's Scout?"

"You lovely ladies look famished," Q continued, ignoring my questions. "Would care to join me for a feast?" Eily just bit deeper into her apple, which was now almost gone. I just stammered something and let Q lead me farther down the dirt road. More and more people were giving us suspicious looks, but I couldn't really blame them. I could only hope that it took the soldiers a while to get out of that forest. Scout practically dragged us down the path until we were in a part of the village that seemed to have no one living in it. Everyone was down by where that old saleswoman was-she seemed to be the only person with food. I wondered if there were even any farmers in this town.