Freedom

Chapter 3

"Sorry I didn't catch your name?" He puts his hand under his Chin and crossed one leg over the other.

"You are not answering my question," I say feeling annoyed. " What do you mean you don't have enough money?" We are currently in a restaurant eating bread and soup, and this man just told me to follow him to find his treasure, and right now he's telling me that he won't have much money?

He sighs heavily and smacks his lips. " okay look, you know I steal stuff right so obviously I wouldn't have enough money. Plus, this money was supposed to be enough for one person but I'm fine with it because I just really need your help finding the treasure"

I scoff. "So you are saying that you are just using me so that I can enter whatever place your treasure is?"

"Hey at least I was nice to share my money," He says and takes a bite of bread in his hand.

"Stolen money" I sigh. I couldn't help myself but feel bad for him a little bit. The prices now everywhere eat high and apparently not everyone here can afford it. It's funny that I don't even have money when I should have enough.

"Hey," He says catching my attention. "Your right, I'm using you and I'm sorry but this treasure is really important. Please just cooperate with me? Please I beg you" he puts his hands together like he was praying and shaking it, begging me.

I cross my hands together and sighed. "Alright" He does a quiet 'yes!' and for the first time, I see him smile. That was pretty cute. "Oh and-" I say and he turns to look at me. "- My name is Scarlett " I continue. There was no harm in saying my real name. No one knows how the princess looks nor knows her name. Basically, no one knows anything about her.

"Ohh that's an odd name," He says making me confused.

"What do you mean odd?" I raise an eyebrow

"It's not a bad name, is just that that's not a common name," He says making me feel more at ease. I thought my name was weird or something.

"Oh," I smile.

"Asher" He put his hand out waiting for me to shake it.

"Asher?" I say almost like a question and put my palm in his and we shake.

"That's not a common name too" We stop after two shakes and retreated our hands.

"My name is quite common actually" He leans back in his chair.

" really? I never heard that before" I say surprised. I really never did. Well probably because I was always in the castle so I never really heard of names like that.

"You are kidding. There are literally three more Ashers down the road. Maybe even more?" He shrugs and drinks water from his cup.

" oh, sorry" I suddenly felt nervous and made a small laugh.

"So? Ready to go?" He asks me and stands up from his chair. I do the same. He puts money on the table and scoots out of the restaurant.

"Hey wait!" I shout and ran after him. "Where are we going?"

He takes out to look at the map and closes it back. " we are going treasure hunting" he simply says and starts walking, leaving me behind.

"Asher!" I call his name but he doesn't listen. I sigh and ran after him. Gosh, he's so fast. " Can you please slow down?" He suddenly stops making me jerk on my feet.

"That's my normal speed. You gotta catch up princess" He chuckles and continues to walk ahead. "Princess?" I say out loud. I quickly run to his side so that I don't get lost

"Wha- what do you mean princess?" I ask slightly scared. I really hope he doesn't know I'm really a princess.

"You are slow," he says but I just kept quiet not knowing how to answer that. "You are slow and always tired just like a princess," he says unamused and shrugs.

I gasp. " I'm pretty sure princesses aren't like that!"

"Well, I'm sure because princesses are spoiled and they don't always have to walk," He says making me feel offended. I calmed myself down by taking a feel breath.

I bite my bottom lip. "Alright I guess your right but I'll show you I'm not a princess," I say proudly. Now that I'm out of the castle, some of my princess images have to go. I want to blend in with everyone here, outside the castle.

"I'll wait for that" he laughs and suddenly stops again. I jerk on my feet again, almost falling to the floor. He didn't help me but I managed to catch myself by putting my palms on the ground. I quickly stood up straight and wiped the dust off my dress.

"Ash-"

"Shush!" He puts his hand over my mouth. I frown and look at what was in front of me. "Guards," I say in my head. I push his hand away from my mouth and wiped some sand off my face.

"What are we gonna do?" I whisper in his ear. We were standing in the middle of the road. There are people around us and right now the guards are blocking the entrance where it leads through the woods.

"I don't know but we need to get through it" He whispers back. We both stare at some people with big wagons with horses in front going through. We happen to look at each other at the same time. I gulped. I think we both have the same idea.

"No" I say softly. I was scared. I'm scared to get caught.

"We just need to get into someone's wagon and we get through," He says quietly to my ear. The guard's eyes turn to us and we quickly turned so that our backs are now facing them.

"I had the same idea but I'm scared!" I whisper shout.

"We will be fine," He says assuring me. He turns to look around trying to figure out something. "Just follow me" He grabs my wrists and pulls me with him. He drags me to a huge wagon. We looked around and made sure the owner wasn't looking. He quickly pushes me into the wagon and he gets in.

He puts his finger on his lips telling me to be silent. I followed as he says. It was so silent that I could only hear people talking and my heart beating. That seems too easy though, I feel like something bad is about to happen. I shut my eyes as the wagon moves. Eventually, I felt the wagon not stopping. I open my eyes to see that we passed through the guards.

"Oh my goodness! We-"

"SHH" Asher covers my mouth. " We still can't talk so loud! What if the owner hears us?" He whispers frustratedly.

I immediately remembered that the owner can catch us and even push us out because we illegally got on. I smile sheepishly and he rolls his eyes. He sighs softly and leans back into the side of the wagon. The wagon was pretty huge, loaded with wood boxes and it was sheltered by cloth over it.

I felt this thrill in me. "I can't believe I just did this!" I say in my head. "I can't believe we just did this!" I whisper shout. He laughs silently at my reaction. This thrill, I have never felt before. It's like a mix of nervousness and excitement. This is my first adventure and I can't wait.