The Thief and Prince

Chapter 4: Liar

"Hey Cora, toss me some jerky, yeah?" Amiri calls out as we weave our way through the evergreen forest whose canopy gently sways in the breeze. Nine days have passed since our departure from Pavia and I've gotten to know all of my traveling companions rather well and would even call them friends—save for Crispin. He's practically joined at the hip with the tanned assassin Amiri and has even warmed up to Laria.

When it comes to me though, I am met with guarded walls and cold insults or am completely ignored all together.

There was a brief moment during a thunderstorm where we had to huddle together under one of the canvas tents and wait out the rain when he was somewhat civil. The four of us crammed inside for two long hours while the skies opened up, drenching everything beneath it and soaking me to the bone. Cold and wet, my teeth began to chatter and after telling me to shut up or get out, he went back out into the storm and came back, giving me his coat. Sure, it was probably to get a few moments of silence, but I couldn't help but find the notion to be kind. When it cleared up, he demanded his jacket back and disregarded me for the rest of the day.

Smirking, I dig into my almost depleted pack and pull out a salted strip of venison and throw it underhand to Amiri, who catches it with ease on his horse. "You know, just because you've gone through your food already doesn't mean you can go bumming off of ours," I tease. In reality, I don't mind in the slightest sharing my goods with him seeing as that he's usually the one that supplies us with breakfast and dinner, finding small rabbits and stealing eggs from nests and such.

We've done what we could to avoid staying in towns and villages as best as we could, only passing through and keeping our heads down when one was unavoidable, but truth be told there are a few supplies that are running low that one cannot scavenge from the woods.

Closing the small leather satchel that hangs from my saddle, I sit up and stretch as much as I can and a large yawn escapes my lips. Judging from the position of the sun, I'd say it's probably three in the afternoon, so when Crispin orders us to stop for the night, I'm a little surprised.

"Already?" I ask, slightly pulling on my horse's reigns to make him stop. He lets out a small huff of annoyance but does as I command.

"Why must you always question me?" Crispin retorts, dismounting from his horse with ease and I avert my eyes from his toned body—something I've had to do many a time during the past week.

Shrugging, I slide off my saddle and land with a satisfying thud as my boots hit the soft forest floor. We fall in the mundane motions that have now become routine—Laria and I set up camp while the boys get wood.

Since the first few days of our departure I've come to notice three things, the first being that I'm no longer incompetent with pitching tents as the steps are now engraved into my mind. The second is that my body has grown accustomed to the long days of riding, and my muscles are no longer sore. Lastly, Laria has begun to steal more than a fair share of glances from Amiri.

At first, it was quite clear that she somewhat detested him due to his obnoxious behavior and comments, but as days passed with nothing else to do but idly chat, the pair has somewhat simmered down and become cordial with each other. Amiri has made it clear that he fancies her given his drunken statements around our nightly fires, and as of late they have begun made her blush. Even now, she looks in the direction the two boys went off as she begins to work on his canvas tent.

She must feel my eyes on her because she looks at me then quickly down at her hands, focusing on what she is supposed to be doing. I grin and shake my head, continuing to work on my own.

"You know that it's okay to find him attractive as well, Laria" I state as if I have years of wisdom under my belt when in reality, there is slim to none.