The Princess and The Bandit

THIRTY FIVE

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"Good thinking on the snakeroot, your grace, but it is only good for sucking out poison from the bloodstream,"

Lena, an apothecary who lives with her wife, Kara, on a village by the foothills several miles outside the borders of Reiham Port, tells Lauren.

"However a very small trace of it always remains on the skin, latching on it, giving the wound an infection right away. The snakeroot extract limits the poison's ability to spread so it settles on the cut. That's why this looks worse than it should. However, when untreated properly and soon, the effects would be more adverse,"

"Camz already has a fever, I think it's getting worse. What are we going to do now?"

"The worse of it is already over, your grace, as the poison has been taken out of her system right away. All we have to treat now is her wound. We need to treat it properly otherwise the wound will get worse with the infection. But I'm afraid the snakeroot poultice you made won't be enough for that. This is a unique kind of poison . . ."

As of about an hour ago, Lauren and Camila were welcomed by a married couple, one of which stumbled upon them soon after they managed to defeat the serpentina bandits who attacked them once again. Unfortunately though, because of that attack, Camila has gotten herself hurt.

Worse than before Lauren has ever seen.

Kara, the kind stranger, helped Lauren right away and brought an injured Camila to her home, where her wife Lena knew a much more effective way to treat a poison infused wound. They both recognize who Lauren is and was still too kind to help her despite the risk she brings with her. It's almost a common knowledge by now that the Arcadian princess on the run is a target for those who seek to rule the empire.

Word, pretty much like a disease, has plenty of ways of spreading after all . . .

While Lena knows way too many things about medicine and continues to babble away about it, princess Lauren only knows a fraction. Now, she's learning a thing or two from the kind apothecary and realizes just what kind of effect a serpentina poison has.

But what truly terrified her the most was the fact that she almost lost Camila out there. She wouldn't be able to forgive herself if the bandit died because of her recklessness. She wouldn't be able to go on, thinking she had lost her chance to show Camila that she meant so much to her now.

Because of that, Lauren can no longer deny her feelings.

She knows, she's well aware that it is mostly frowned upon to be romantically involved with someone who doesn't have similar noble status as her, but that's just other people's opinion. In her opinion, whatever someone feels is always valid, that it shouldn't warrant some kind of judgment or prejudice based on their social standing. That's just how people feel and it can't be helped sometimes, what it needs is respect and open mind.

Her feelings for the bandit has grown into something she had never felt before. It is something that is so strong and insistent, something that is both beautiful and daunting. It is something she wanted to explore and not hide or hold back anymore just because she has other priorities or a huge responsibility to her people.

Her only concern about it all is that Camila may not feel just as strongly as she does. It already hurts to think that she's nothing more than a nuisance to the bandit. But she'll take whatever is given, after all, you can never force anyone to feel something they don't.

As long as Camila is safe and happy, alive and being her infuriating and beautiful self, Lauren is okay with that . . .

The princess is done ruminating how she had gone from being annoyed to this. It's time to accept the simple fact that she has fallen for the bandit.