The Lady and The Hunter

Chapter 9

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"We have word on the princess, my queen. She was last seen boarding the Inevitable, dressed in hunting attire." A guard said, bowing.

"How dare she?! Does she have any idea how much trouble she's going to get into?! Then again. If she dies at sea, we have nothing to worry about, right my dear?" the queen turned her attention to the king. "Yes, of course.." He said, avoiding eye contact.

"There's something else, my queen." The guard continues. "What is it?!"

Another guard enters the throne room, pulling Eliza with them, and pushing her to stand before the king and queen. "We found her trying to leave the palace grounds with this bag of gold. The only way she could've possibly gotten this was by stealing it or the princess gave it to her before leaving. Perhaps they planned something." He said, handing the gold to the guard beside him.

"Please, sister, Laura is old enough to explore and do as she pleases. She's an adult!" Eliza spoke.

"Elizabeth, your daughter shouldn't have left the palace's grounds. It puts us at risk! Our empire could fall because of this!" The queen shouted. "It isn't our empire, sister. It is just yours. I shouldn't have made this deal with you. It is not right!" Eliza shouted.

The maidens and guards in the room quietly glanced at one another and the queen noticed. "Get out. All of you!" She shouted at them and they all quickly left.

"You were too afraid to rule over this kingdom and the other, dear sister. So I decided to. Our deal was I take the kingdom, you work for me and I raise your daughter as a princess! All to keep your secret safe. In return, you never go back to the ocean. Abandon your home, abandon all the beasts you called your family." She spoke.

"That was all until you decided to make it a business to have hunters hunt my family! Those beasts are innocent!" Eliza shouted.

"Guards!" the queen yelled for them and they quickly entered.

"Please-"

"Take her away to the cellars. Lock her up!" They grabbed hold of her and began to pull her from the room. "The people deserve to know the truth, sister! You have to tell them the truth!" Eliza shouted as she was pulled out. Her yells quickly faded before it all became silent.

"So, you were sisters.." the king started. The queen only scuffed before laughing. "Not by blood. We were best of friends. Close enough that she trusted me to run half of her kingdom on land as she ran the other in the ocean. Of course, I didn't let her do that. I decided to cast aside her kingdom once I had the power. Told her to never go back or I would have her hunted, her kingdom revealed and destroyed. She had no other choice but to obey."
She said.

"Why..?" The king asked.

The queen's eyes softened at the thought of the man she used to love before the king.
"Julius." She started. "We both loved the same man, but in the end, he chose her over me. They had a child together, Laura. Ever since then, my heart blackened!" She stood up in anger and walked away. "And I've never felt so powerful.." was all she said before exiting the room.

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As the day went on, Laura sat at Red's head, staring out at sea while Jacob kept working on the boat, fixing what was broken. Maisie sat inside the boat, managing to open the fruit she had for the first time with her knife.

From time to time, Jacob would glance over to Laura, a worried look on his face and Maisie would notice this. She finally spoke up to him. "Maybe you should check on her. I'm no adult, so I'm not sure how to approach 'em." She said, handing half of the fruit over to Jacob. "Well learn this kid. She needs space. Now I need to catch some fish because someone ate all the fruit." He said, glaring at blue before grabbing a spear, and tying a long robe to the end of it.

He made his way over to Red's left fin to get closer to the water.

Laura's PoV

The sound of grunting caught my attention. I closed the book I was reading, wiping the tears from my eyes before looking over to see Jacob throwing his spear into the water to catch fish. "I guess we're out of food.." I mumbled, rising from where I sat.

Moments later, Red began tilting to the side as she swam in a circle, causing the fish to jump out of the water. I chuckled slightly as Maisie managed to catch a fish in her hands, excitedly showing it to Jacob. I couldn't help but smile at how close they were becoming. It almost felt like they were family.

I made my way over to them, watching as the seagulls caught themselves a fish as well. "I'll help prepare something for us to eat, my maid- my aunt Eliza taught me," I said as Maisie ran over with the fish.

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"Well it wasn't quite like what she made but it was great nonetheless," I said, walking over to Jacob as he was continuing his work on the boat. I noticed that he stopped, watching as Blue pulled himself away unable to move quickly from all the fish he ate.

He stopped looking, turning his attention to me. I sat down next to him as he placed his hammer down, sitting properly as well. "She cares deeply for these creatures, Jacob." I started and he nodded. "They're not so bad.." He said, earning a low growl from Red.

"Jacob.." I started. His eyes were focused on me, and I didn't know exactly how to say what I needed to. How do I tell him that I was the princess? I was afraid to. Afraid he'd be angry with me or treat me differently from how he did now. I looked down at the book in my lap.

"When this is all over-" My sentence was cut short when he placed his hand on the side of my face, gently tilting my head up. "Jacob?" I called out to him. "It looks like your wound is almost fully healed. It's good that you let it breathe. It will leave a scar, but you'll still be beautiful either way- What?" He asked as he noticed that I was staring at him.

"Thank you.." was all I could manage to say. He got up from where he sat, a small smile on his lips. "Any time." His attention soon wandered over to Maisie, who was back at it again, removing the spears from Red's back and this time he decided to help her.

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