Ronan's Tale

Chapter 2

I awoke to someone dabbing my wound with a damp rag. I was laying inside a spacious guest room on a queen size bed. The room had a small chandelier, a vanity, a closet door, and an expensive patterned carpet on the floor. I was stripped of every possession I'd had besides my pants. As I stared up at the ceiling of wooden boards, I heard someone say off to my right, "Oh. You're awake."

I looked closer at the person addressing my arrow lesion and recognized her immediately. "You're that girl from the alley. You shot that arrow at my left arm. You're the reason I'm here right now. Yeah, where is here, anyway?"

The girl, still wearing her green archer cloak, breathed a mixed sigh of relief and guilt. "You ought to know what's going on. You have every right. This is my father's house, and his fathers before him."

I began to connect some dots. No commoner would have a home with a room this immaculately decorated. Not to mention, this girl couldn't have been an archer unless she held some position of status enabling her to circumvent the law.

"You... you're the princess. King Kyoros's daughter."

"Give this man a cookie." The princess sat on a three-legged stool and picked up a bowl of green sludge and the rag. She rubbed the edge of the rag in the slime and raised it to my left arm.

"Whoa, crazy lady!!" I shouted. "What is that stuff??"

"Ugh, you weren't expecting hot cocoa, were you? Magic isn't cheap, so you better get used to this ointment."

My eyes widened. "Magic?"

"Yeah, silly. What else could heal fatal injuries in mere moments?"

I tried moving my arm, but it was still kind of sore. Rather, I turned my head to gaze upon my cut and found it rapidly shrinking, the dried blood disappearing from my skin.

"It's wonderful, isn't it?" I heard the princess say to herself.

"Yeah," I replied, "Very neat."

The princess cleared her throat and then twirled a stray hair around her finger. "Aren't you going to ask my name?"

"I think 'Princess' is enough of a title for you."

The girl scowled. Her face reminded me of the moments we had in the alleyway.

"Regardless, my name is Saoirse. My father will be requesting an audience with you soon. You better get ready."

Saoirse stood up and walked out of the room. "Your belongings are in the closet," she called out after she shut the door.

I hopped off the bed, walked to the closet, and dressed. I also equipped my knives. I didn't know if Kyoros would have my head or not.

When I was ready, I walked outside the room and found Saoirse waiting across the hall. "This way," she told me, pointing to the left. The hallway had an elaborate, chunky rug that dressed the floor from end-to-end, large, arching windows that were adorned with stained glass scenes detailing the royals' history off to my left, and the occasional wall-mounted torch to my right.

We walked in silence towards who-knew-what with King Kyoros involved. Eventually, Saoirse broke the peace.

"How come you always steal so much food? You could never eat it all."

"I steal for both myself and other orphans. Without me, countless innocent children would have starved to death."

Saoirse was quiet for a few seconds, then she spoke. "I never thought that many orphans lived in our city walls. We should do something about it."