Bluebirds Without Wings | Julie and the Phantoms

Stuck

When Princess Julie wasn't anywhere in the castle, Luke called Flynn. His arm was shaking, having to keep his eye on the Princess at all moments now. The King told him they'd all have to eat together and that her trips outside the castle should be kept at a minimum. They showed him six different escape plans for the castle and two for the town. The Princess wasn't allowed to leave city limits.

And he felt anger. As much as he wanted to shove it down, he felt angry with himself for believing the Princess was fine with him. She ran off, again, without a single word. He wished he was at the academy to punch out everything he was feeling on wooden training men. His guilt was also catching up to him, and as much as he didn't want to care about the Princess, he already did.

His phone rang, and when he answered it, Flynn told him, "She's in Costa Verde."

"What?" Luke asked. Costa Verde was a town over, but it still took a while to get there.

"She got there on horse. Get one in the stables and head there. Don't get the car. There's no roads in Costa Verde wide enough for a car. I learned that the awkward way." Luke was still processing how far the Princess got on her own, and he felt himself get even more upset.

"Okay," he sighed into the phone. "Thank you, Lady Flynn."

"No problem," she said. "Go easy on her." She hung up and left Luke feeling like the wind just got knocked out of him with a long wooden board to the ribs.

The horse the caretaker gave to him was well-trained, but Luke wasn't an expert on horseback. He found himself holding back the reigns when the horse went too fast, but he swallowed down anything that tasted like breakfast when he remembered he had a job to do. He asked the caretaker for directions to Costa Verde, and it was fairly simple to get there.

It took half an hour before he saw tall stalks of corn in the distance and when he got over a hill, he realized it was acres of it. He let the mare go faster, seeing that he was more comfortable and that she was having a good time. He closed his eyes at moments, not enjoying the dirt and possible bugs going into his mouth. The corn fields stopped, and there was a small town there. He saw a wooden sign that had a corn painted under the carved in COSTA VERDE. He pulled back the reigns and looked around, the few people around raising eyebrows and whispering. He saw a woman rush her kids back inside their small brick house, her daughter dressed in a yellow dress waving at him before the door was shut in her face. He guessed men in suits riding horses didn't come around so much.

"Can I help you, young man?" a woman's voice asked him. He turned the mare to face the woman who seemed apprehensive of him, but she stood up straight with an authoritative look.

"I'm looking for Princess Julie," he said, covering the sudden light of sun with his hand.

"She's over there with the kindergartners," the woman pointed. "Around the corner of that blue house, go straight and you'll find her." Luke bowed his head at the woman and thanked her before taking off, feeling his heart hammer into his ribs. He had to confront her, and it was burning him. He used to be fine with her not wanting him around as much as it stung. But her leaving after they sang together on a stage, after he met Julie, it confused him. It made him want to scream.

He saw her down the road in her lilac dress from the morning, standing on the second plank of a wooden fence, overlooking cows. She heard the horse when Luke brought it to an abrupt stop, and he made eye contact with her. He knew he looked furious, forcing himself to unclench his jaw as he got down the horse. She got off the fence and stood still as he approached her, his footsteps making dirt rise.

"You are not supposed to leave with out me," Luke found himself shouting, his hands flailing. She looked down at the ground, and he turned away, sighing. He ran his hands through his hair. "I'm sorry, Princess Julie. It's not my place to yell at you."

"I'm sorry again, Sir Luke," Julie told him, her voice soft. Then a wave of guilt flew through him. Her big eyes wouldn't look up at him like they usually would. Her back was slouched, and her hands were clasped tightly together as if she would turn into dust. "I know I've been nothing but trouble for you."

Luke crossed his arms, looking up at the sky. He didn't know what he was searching for anymore. "It's just very dangerous these days, Princess. You have to understand that I can't let anything happen to you." He looked back at her, and he found her eyes staring at him. "You don't have to talk to me or tell me anything if you don't want to. Just let me be there. I'll stay up to twenty feet behind you, I just need to do my job." The Princess' eyes started to water and that's when Luke started to really get nervous. "Wait, please don't cry," he told her as the first tear fell. She wiped it off with the back of her hand and shook her head.

"It's impossible not to," she said, gesturing at the fields with her free hand. "I'm about to lose them." Luke raised an eyebrow. "These towns. These people. They don't think they're worth fighting for." He looked out at the kids that were now at a further distance, chasing each other and their laughter echoing through the air. They hit him like bullets. "They're the only reason I look forward to being queen." Alex once told him to stop cowering away when a person was crying and to just hug them. But Luke couldn't get himself to move forward to her.

He was stuck repeating himself. "I'm sorry, Princess."

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A/N: Super short chapter because I'm about to upload 16 right after this!!