The Runaway Princess

Chapter 6

Waking up in the morning was getting easier every time as I was getting used to the routine of the crew. I walked outside onto the deck, letting the crisp air cool myself down from the warm air inside the room. I walked back in and got ready for the day and untangled my hair with my fingers.

As I reemerged outside I spotted Storm and Thala laughing together while walking off the side of the ship and onto one of the rowboats.

"They have to go and break Embeth out of jail." Baylen said, also laughing. I turned to them in surprise.

"What did she do?" I asked, fear creeping into my voice.

"The better question is more likely what she didn't do. The running joke here is that almost any time we go to an event that Adair doesn't particularly care about, Embeth gets locked up before the end of the night. I have to admire her family bond however, she would do anything for Adair, even resisting her need to steal, insult, or vandalize stuff."

My eyes stayed forward as I placed this information into my head, and watched the rowboat sail away.

Shortly after Odette came outside with a large pot with some amazing smelling soup inside.

"Since the food is hot, we might as well start eating before it goes cold." Odette explained as I sat down.

"What is it?" Adair asked suspiciously, scrunching her nose at the bowl of soup Odette passed her.

"Since we are in the best place in the world for seafood, I made clam chowder with salmon!" Odette explained happily and I spotted Hortensia rubbing her hands together in excitement.

Piscor food became my favorite after only a few bites of the chowder. It was creamy and filling and the salmon flaked apart in my mouth as I ate it.

Storm and Thala showed up shortly with an exhausted Embeth carried between them and their faces all lit up when they spotted the food. Embeth made it to her sister's side, to my left, before slumping down and eating her portion while sulking. Storm sat on my right side with Thala headed across the circle and they took their portions enthusiastically.

"Let's aim to leave around noon everyone, so make sure to get your shopping or supply requests in well before that. We don't want to accidentally leave without someone again." At that Storm looked pointedly at Thala though Thala had the grace to look sheepish.

The morning passed in a blur. After eating I helped Odette with cleaning what we used to eat and I became very happy that we were on a ship and could get new water, and that since we hadn't left Piscor yet, that we could get rid of the dirty water. Hortensia joined us for a little bit but didn't try to help out.

After we finished cleaning, the others sat on the floor with Cypren and Amare who had joined us, and learned a card game that you normally played with money, but they didn't use anything. I didn't participate but instead watched from the circle.

"This is really fun!" Hortensia exclaimed.

"Just wait til you play with real money," Cypren replied though quickly quailed as Odette gave him a stern look.

"Alright there are too many people here, we have nothing left to clean so go make yourself useful elsewhere." Odette said, frustration edging into her voice.

I headed below decks with Amare and we sat in silence for a few moments before she offered to do my hair.

"Uh sure!" I replied. I was used to people doing my hair, as I had servants in the palace to do so for me everyday, but when Amare asked me to do hers I didn't want to say no. That's how we ended up laughing til we cried at the birds nest I made Amare's hair into.