The Princess's Guard

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"The.. the princess! I yelled at the last split scond I thought I would be audible, then went back to running at full speed in order to not lose sight of the princess. Everything had happened so suddenly that any reaction I was trained to give had gone way over my head, not that I could do much to get help in the commotion anyway. Not losing the princess was my only priority in that moment.

I kept running behind her, yelling her name. As my voice got louder, she began to run even faster as she'd thought I was getting closer to her. We had made it well into the woods, with me screaming at her and her running as fast as she could while lifting her ankle-length dress. To my surprise, she was an incredibly fast runner to the point that I was barely keeping her in my sights. She wasn't saying a word, not making noise in any way whatsoever, just running as fast as she could. "Princess, please stop, you could be putting yourself in danger!" I yelled, to no avail. There was no response from her and she kept running like I hadn't said anything.

Over time she started getting slower, and hear breath became gradually more labored. I saw this as a good opportunity to catch up to her, but I couldn't physically stop her since it wasn't clear to me whether touching or pulling her would aggravate her even more or even get me in trouble or not. It had been a very long time of both of us running, and her ability to keep running for such and extended amount of time through so many barricades had left me fascinated. She's a princess so she must have had some physical training, I thought. Maybe she was more focused on agility then strength alone, which explained why she was so dainty yet had so much stamina.

A few minutes later she collapsed onto the floor, out of breath and crying silently. "Ugh..." I heard her huff. "I fucking hate you all." she said, breaking her princess etiquette of avoiding cussing. "All of you were in on this too, huh?" she was barely holding the sentence together due to being out of breath.

"Princess Norah, I..." I was at a loss for words, and out of breath aswell. "Your father only wants the best for you." I thought of the only thing that came to mind. I was just following orders, after all; and I had faith in the king that he was doing the best thing for his nation and his daughter.

She sighed, then looked at me. Her hazel eyes had many hints of green that were gleaming in the setting sunlight. Some of hair was stuck to her face due to sweating, and some of it was tucked into her cape's hood. Her look wasn't aggressive or overly sad, she just look tired and incredibly disappointed. "That's what you'd think, of course." She looked down at her hands, her long eyelashes covered her eyes entirely. "...or at least say."

I didn't want to scare her off with the idea of taking her back to the carriages, and honestly I didn't quite know where we were, either; but I thought I could put her in more danger if I tried to to anything rash. "I understand your perspective, princess." I said to her in a calm tone. "However, you could've put yourself in grave danger. There may be wild animals or even ill-intentioned people in these woods." I tried to explain my frustrations gently. I was exhausted from running and I was sure that my legs would've been bleeding if it wasn't for my armor. I took my helmet off and placed it at my hip, holding it with the side of my elbow.

"What was I supposed to do?" she said, locking her eyes back with mine and raising her voice. "Just suck it up and bear getting to know this guy for days, only to disappoint everyone in the end when they know I'll obviously refuse?!" she dusted herself off, then moved to get up.

"Princess Norah, be careful!" I said, remembering that she had run through all of those bushes and branches with only a dress, so her legs were most likely battered. As I said that, she shuddered in pain, and I reflexively grabbed her as she was about to fall down.

"Lord, I just felt that..." she said in one breath. "I think my calves are bleeding. In like... many places." she was holding onto my shoulders, grabbing my armor tightly.