The Runaway Princess

Chapter 5

I woke up in the morning to the sound of someone else in the room. Looking up I spotted Thala crouched by the wardrobe, a variety of clothes strewn around her. She glanced up, spotted me, and froze.

"Good morning," she said sheepishly. "I didn't want to wake you, but since you're up, you can help me find an outfit."

"Outfit for what?" I asked, perplexed.

"Didn't you know?" She asked, before continuing on. "Today we arrive in Piscor, and they are having a moon festival tonight. It would be very rude to wear work clothes during a festival." My despair must have shone on my face, as Thala continued quickly. "Don't worry, your dress from the other day is done being washed so you can wear that." With that, she turned back to her search as I tidied myself up before leaving.

Outside the sun was shining brightly and there were a few others roaming the deck. I ended up talking with Baylen and convinced them to give me a lesson on the ropes of the ship. We had just finished when I heard Hortensia cry out that she could see land. I turned my head both ways but didn't see anything.

"You won't see anything for a bit," Baylen laughed. "Hortensia has a higher vantage point and has better eyesight than us." I flushed, upset at my inexperience in this situation. "But now that we're here, everyone is gonna go change into their festival clothes, you should as well."

We parted ways and I paid a visit to Odette to get my dress. She had already changed into a maroon dress and had let her hair down, it was grey and black strands reaching her hips. She gave me the dress and I headed back to my room to change.

Later we docked on the outskirts of Piscor and prepared the rowboats to take us to the capital. Piscor only had a small area of land in the center, known as the capital, but everywhere else was boats floating on water.

As everyone grouped up I looked at their outfits. I saw Odette's earlier, and Embeth and Adair were wearing the same clothes as normal, due to not being able to change out of their death clothes. Thala was in an oversized pink shirt with a belt around her waist with heels and a high ponytail. Hortensia was in her same dress, but with a maroon scarf around her waist. Storm was wearing a magnificent mid length red dress and had her hair up in a high ponytail.

Cypren and Amare showed up as we were splitting into the boats. Amare was in a light blue fluffy dress with knee length boots and Cypren was just wearing a navy jacket over his clothes. I was with Baylen, Storm, Adair, and Embeth, everyone else was in the other rowboat. Storm got in ours last. In the boat we each took turns rowing, and on one of my turns, I noticed Baylen fluttering their hands at someone in a boat a short distance away. I looked at Storm in confusion.

"That's Nisi," she explained. "It's used a lot here since people are normally in different boats and need to communicate with one another." I turned back to Baylen, watching their hands with this new knowledge.

Soon we had reached the capital and I saw that the festivities were already in full swing. I turned around slowly taking everything in.

There were small wooden stalls everywhere, selling food trinkets and animals. The vendors were calling out to the crowd in a variety of languages, and I heard one even use Aregian. In between the stalls, there were little yellow lights and larger red lights in paper containers strung along with them. The ground was made up of stone pieces smoothed together, but I saw that it was currently covered in colors, and as I looked around I saw a small group of children coloring another part of the ground, using some form of led I assumed. The capital smelled like baked bread, sweet tarts, and smoke. I turned towards the source of the smoky smell and saw another Tagapa swallow a ball of fire.

I stepped backwards in shock, stumbling into Storm who was behind me pointing something out to Embeth. I apologized to her, but she just smiled at me before looking back at Embeth only to find she had left.

"Damn her," she muttered. She then turned back to me. "What do you think of the festival?"

"It's incredible," I replied. "I don't know what I want to see first." Storm's mouth quirks into a smile at that.

"How about we find something to eat?" she asked. I nodded a yes and we walked together towards a stall selling baked rolls with meat and cheese. By the stall, we found Amare and Cypren who were also looking for food. We bought a large roll to eat together before reentering the crowd. I saw the good in Nisi as Storm tried to say something to me but I couldn't hear it. I tapped my ear and shrugged. She sighed before grabbing my forearm and leading me out of the crowd.

"I was trying to tell you that we should leave the crowd for one of the balconies," she said. "But now we are on one, so I needn't have bothered."

I turned to look at the balcony. It was a section of the capital with a white marble floor and a fence at the edge that had a clear spot of the ocean in front of it. I walked to the edge and looked down, seeing pink and orange corals to my surprise along with small multicolored fish darting in and out.

Amare and Cypren found us after a minute and set the food down on a small table in the center, and they sat down next to it. Storm and I joined them, but it became quickly evident that Cypren didn't care about our presence. Instead, he turned to fully face Amare and started feeding her parts of their food. Storm and I exchanged an amused look before starting to eat too. I'd never had this before, but as I tasted the warm buttery goodness mixed with the roasted meat and melted cheese and the explosion of flavors coated my mouth, I knew I would have it again. The food apparently came on a degradable plate, and so after we finished Storm tossed it into the water.

"It's made of a fiber that is actually healthy to the fish," Storm explained. She and I were on one side of the balcony, in an attempt to escape the other two. Apparently, when you save someone's life they become very susceptible to falling in love with their savior, or so I heard Cypren say. Storm rolled her eyes.

It continued like this for some time, Storm and I conversing to try and drown out the confessions happening a few feet away before we left to find dessert. We were walking in a different part of the capital as before and I spotted Embeth being taken somewhere by some guards. I turned to tell Storm but I see she was already looking in that direction.

"I tried to warn her," Storm said irritatedly. "But could she listen, no!" I laughed at the face Storm was making, and she looked at me before smiling back. In the next area, most people were dancing, and I spotted Baylen playing their accordion with the band, and Hortensia and Odette dancing together.

"Would you, uh, like to dance?" I turned and saw Storm offering me her hand, her face angled downwards.

"Sure," I replied before taking her hand.

I glanced subtly at the other dancers to see where I should put my hands before placing them behind her neck as she placed hers at my hips. We struggled to follow the steps but after some time we found a rhythm together. After a while, the band switched with another group, and during the break, we went off to the side and met with Baylen. Together we all went and bought delicious chocolate-covered strawberries. While at that stall, we overheard people in an argument about there not being any coffee cake, and Storm gave me a look that screams 'I told you so' about the coffee being in high demand. We decided to stay in a secluded plaza with fewer people, and the three of us were joined by different members of the crew throughout the night. At one point, when it was Storm, Thala, and I, I asked about checking Amare and Cypren. Thala bursted out laughing and Storm sighed audibly.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see them until late tomorrow," Storm said as Thala continued laughing. "They are probably holed up in an inn somewhere."

We didn't end up seeing them until later that night. They showed up merely to say that they would be on the ship and asked when we would be coming back.

We headed back when the sky started turning lighter colors, half asleep. On the way there we grabbed all the crew members that we can find. Most were easy, while others, like Adair who was modeling for a painter on a boat halfway from the ship and the capital, were much harder. The boat groups were different on the way back, but no one seemed to care. Embeth also wasn't back, but Storm mumbled about getting her in the morning and Adair assured me she would be fine. I changed back into a part of my day clothes, placed my dress on the floor, and got into bed. My last thought before falling asleep was that these people on this crew seemed to be becoming my family, and I didn't mind that a bit. They were already closer to me than my own father and brother.