The (Not So) Perfect Princess

We chase down a river

I was sick of trees. That’s all we’d been seeing for three days in a row. We’d gotten a short break at the village, but, for obvious reasons, we couldn’t stay. But honestly, at this point, I kind of wished the soldiers had captured us, because I was completely and entirely. Sick. Of. Trees. If we had to spend one more night in the woods, I would go insane.

We sprinted around trees and over roots until Scout dropped to the forest floor and refused to move. I couldn’t blame him—we’d run for a good forty-five minutes, and I was spent. I slumped to the ground against a tree, and released the little girl’s hand. She scrambled backward, her face scrunched up. I’d almost forgotten she was with us.

“Well that hurt,” she said, rubbing her hand.

I blinked. “Oh. Ah, sorry about that.”

“Wait a second,” Eily said, walking over. She squinted at the little girl. “Who is that?”

The little girl’s blue eyes widened with fear. She jumped to my side and cowered behind me. Her fingernails dug into my arm, and I winced.

“Eily,” I cringed. “I think you should sit down.”

“But who is she? We can’t just keep inviting every person we meet to join us!”

“Eily.”

“I’m serious! I used to think three was a lot, but then you came along and we were almost caught twice, and now she—”

“Eily!”

She turned and stared at me. “What?”

“Just sit down, okay? Please?”

She huffed, but back up and plopped down on the ground. The little girl’s gripped loosened.

“She’s the one who saved me,” I explained to Eily, she just stared at me. I was fairly surprised myself. I turned down to face her. “What’s your name, honey?”

Her wide eyes were still locked on Eily, but she squeaked, “Nessa,”

I smirked. “I like it! My name’s Avani.”

Nessa looked up at me, eyebrows scrunched together. “That’s kinda weird.”

Q choked back a laugh.

“Wait!” Eily yelped, making Nessa jump. Eily stood up, head cocked, eyes wide.

Everyone was staring at her.

“Eily, wha—” Q started, but Eily slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Shut up! Just everybody, shut up for a second!” Eily ordered, her head still tilted at an odd angle. She had an intense expression on her face, telling me she was trying to focus on something—hard. Seconds later, Eily started jumping up and down, a smile spread all the way across her face. It was like someone had injected her with liquid sugar.

“Eily?” I asked, starting to get worried.

“We gotta go,” Eily half-answered, scooping up her bag and heading off in some random direction.

“Obviously,” Q said, helping me up. Scout also scrambled to his feet. “But to where?”

“The river!” Eily snapped in exasperation. “I heard a river, and we need to go now. It’ll lead us out of this sad excuse for a village and back to civilization!”

Q just stared at her. Eily just rolled her eyes, grabbed the boys’ wrists, and began stomping off. After a second she called, “You coming or not, smarts?”

“I guess I don’t really have a choice,” I mumbled mostly to myself, and knelt next to Nessa. “I’ve gotta go now, okay? Just d—”

“I thought I was coming with you.” Nessa cut me off, her eyes narrowing.

I raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t you rather go back to your family?”

“My family’s dead.” Nessa replied, unmoving. The tone of her voice took me back. It was stone hard.…practiced, as if she’d had to explain to a lot of people about her family. It made my heart drop.

“Oh. I-I’m sorry, I just—”

“So I can come with you, right A-van-i?” she struggled with my name, but her eyes lit up at the mention of leaving.

“SMARTS! Come on!” Eily yelled. She was getting frustrated.

I sighed. “Are you sure you want to do this, kid? We’re on the run, you know.”

She simply shrugged. “I have nothing else here.” I winced. Nessa reminded me a little too much of myself. I twisted my body to allow Nessa to climb aboard my back, which she did. I pulled myself to my feet, hoisted Nessa up a bit higher, and jogged after my friends.

Author's Note: Ahhhh sorry for the super short filler chapter ^.^