WITCH - The Queen

Chapter 75

Agathe

Agathe looked out of her bedroom window, smiling.

There was more than one reason for her to smile.

· At last, the rope she had had to beg for arrived. Prince Marlon sent a very large package with a few hundred meters of rope. And he promised even more.

· Soldiers combed the country in search of clues that would point to the whereabouts of her daughter.

· Prince Marlon also sent a letter.

And especially the contents of the letter made the beautiful queen smile. Queen Franka and King Henry had died suddenly and unexpectedly. In her hands, Agathe held the invitation to the funeral.

Julia

Flordelis was in a good mood and babbled about anything she could think of. And that during the entire way to the villages. Already halfway up Josefine wanted to eat the centaure. Leopold and Julia had a hard time trying to stop her. Flordelis, however, was unaware of this.

Julia grinned as she held Josefine by the hand to stop the dragon girl from doing stupid things. In fact, this was the best way to make sure Josefine stayed 'nice'. Something Leopold found amusing.

The small, delicate Julia kept the evil, big dragon under control with cuddles and holding hands. Julia sighed. She won't be able to hold hands with Josefine on a battlefield. What would expect if they left the tent village to stand in her mother's way?

Marko, Cleo, Charlotte, Leopold's parents, and Jane were also on their way to do some shopping. They went to another village. However, they did not have much money. Getting everything needed promised to be complicated.

Julia had a list with her, of everything she wanted to get. The yarn was at the top of the paper. Yarn, small daggers, flour, blankets, sturdy shoes, because hers were broken...

And that was only a tiny part of everything they needed. She could only hope that some things would find their way to them in other ways. Tents for an entire army, for example. And would someone sell her daggers on the market? A 'sixteen' year old girl? 'Seventeen' at most? Unlike Leopold, someone would always think of her as a child. As a teenager... She looked enviously at Leopold, who not only was twenty-two years old but also looked like it. When would he stop aging? In two years? Or at thirty? Then, they would look as if there were fourteen years between them forever. But there were only three years between them.

Arriving in the village, the group looked around the small market square. They were shocked to discover that the price of flour had risen again. Flordelis shook her head, stunned. And the blacksmith refused to sell weapons to a group of 'children'. Annoyed, he explained to them that he only sold weapons to young adults over twenty-five. He considered anyone under twenty-five to be too reckless to entrust them with weapons. (In addition, he did not sell weapons on the market – they had certainly expected that.) The search for yarn was also unsuccessful. It was temporarily sold out. At least, they found some new shoes for Julia and some warm blankets. Instead of yarn, they bought wool. And since Leopold's shoe sole said goodbye on the market square, they also bought a pair for him. And with that, they had spent all the money they had with them.

Julia very much hoped that Peter would be successful in selling his paintings. If necessary, he also wanted to sell clothes that he could not take with him. Peter was reluctant to part with his robes, shirts, puffy cloth trousers, and beautiful dresses. That was a true, great sacrifice.

"I think we're being watched!", Josefine said suddenly.

"Watched? By whom?" Flordelis frowned. "Why should anyone care about us?"