Untitled Princess Carolyn Project

Chapter 14

When I wake up the next morning. The two beds are empty, but Tate and Perellies are still on the pullout. The shower in the bathroom is going and I'm not sure who's in it. I reach into our bag by the nightstand and pull out a small block of cheese, given to us by Belleth and Jessa.
I take a bite and start to look around the tiny room. There's a door to exit right next to Marlein and Niyuhn's bed. Jackal and I's bed was a few feet away from theirs, on the left. On the left of our bed is the pullout couch and on the wall on the right of the couch is the bathroom door. On the other side of the couch is a small window and there's another in between the beds. On the wall opposite our beds are two lamps mounted to the wall and what looks like could be a space for a painting.

The door to the bathroom opens and Jackal walks out drying off his hair.

"You put your disgusting clothes back on after you showered?" Perellies, who apparently just woke up, says, crinkling her nose.

"Good morning to you too, Buttercup." He smirks. He then nods at me, "Good Morning to you too."

I smile and Perellies pushes past Jackal to get into the bathroom. The door shuts and I hear the shower start running again. Tate sits up rubbing his eyes.

"Where did Marlein and Niyuhn go?" I ask, sitting on the bed.

"To go get the truck. They're going to pull it around to the front and Marlein will come up to get us where they're ready."

"Do you know how much farther we have until Guardalla?"

"I don't, but they said there's about 3 more towns we could possibly stop in. I don't know if that means we're going to be traveling for another 3 days or if we just have places we could possibly stop in."

I nod. Perellies gets out of the shower a little bit later. The three of us talk about the wallpaper in the room until Marlein comes to get us a few minutes later. We all pile back into the truck and continue our journey up to Guardalla.

"Marlein?" I ask about an hour into our drive.

"Mhm?" He responds by tying a piece of rope for Tate to play with.

"Do you know how much farther we have to go?"

"Should not be too much farther. We are hoping to get there by the end of the day. Unless we have to stop for a long time we should meet our goal."

I nod.

"So we're about halfway there?"

"Yes, according to the map we are around halfway to Guardalla. If we are not fortunate we will have to stay in an inn for another night."

"Thank you." I smile.

He nods back. Everyone else is off in their own little world. Jackal has been staring at a single box for the last 40 minutes at least. Perellies is lying face up with her eyes closed and the sun on her face. Marlein was staring at nothing until Tate asked him to tie the rope. I turn and lean against the slats on the side of the truck, staring at the trees again.

I imagine what life will be like when we get home. I imagine Perellies and I would share a room in my house and Jackal would take Drake's old room. One day we'd live on our own either with our own spouses and our own families or together in a nice house. I imagine the town would grow and improve. The people would be wearing nice clothes, the baker would have huge cakes in the window, the school would be bigger and the kids smarter, the houses wouldn't be falling apart anymore.

I really hope that everything we've heard about Norlin is right. I hope things improve for everyone in Opela as well as my old town.

I begin to imagine what my life would've been like if I hadn't been lost as a child. I wonder what my family is like and how different I would be now if I was raised in a palace. I don't think I'd want it. I imagine growing up eating in a giant dining room, having almost nothing to do with my parents as I got older. I might have enjoyed having a big room all to myself and a nice warm shower every morning.