My Princess

Chapter 40

January passed both all too slowly and surprisingly quickly at the same time, Narcissa and I trudging forwards with no real direction and simply trying to put one foot in front of the other. Our routine was the same, walk from 7am to noon, take a short break to replenish our water, walk from 1pm until the sun began to set, camp for the night, and eat whenever we actually had any sort of sustenance which wasn't everyday.

The Winter was proving to be a rough one, the few animals we came across scrawny and without much meat on them. It also didn't help that the only things I could catch these days were the weak ones that were too skinny to go on much longer anyways since my own body was feeling the strain of prolonged starvation.

Narcissa and I both had lost a considerable amount of weight while in the North mountains, our clothes becoming baggier, our bodies struggling to maintain a healthy temperature. We were just as weak as every other living being out here but just as determined to stay alive, refusing to forfeit the fight for our own survival.

It was now the beginning of February and we were traveling through a densely packed little forest of Evergreen trees, the branches still full of life even after a Winter of intense blizzards. It was a nice change of pace from the open ice and mountainous terrains we had been traversing these last 3 months and there seemed to be more wildlife holed up in the safety of the trees, giving me just the smallest bit of hope we could actually get a decent meal and peaceful night's rest here without the worry of a sudden snowstorm burying our frozen bodies.

"You know this kind of reminds me of the forest we used to get our Christmas trees at back home. It obviously wasn't in the North Mountain but it's just as pretty as I remember the one back home being." Narcissa chatted idly, watching as the needles swayed gently in the breeze, providing us with shelter from the worst of the cold and keeping the snow flurries off of us.

"Ah yeah. I remember when I was super young seeing people from the castle hauling those massive things through the village. It took like 20 of them and 4 horses to get it up that hill!" I laughed, thinking back on the memory of a toddler sized y/n, fingers sticky with hot cocoa as I watched the yearly affair with my father. It had been a big thing to watch them take the royal family's Christmas tree to the palace, not that any of us would ever get to see it decorated inside of course.

"Yeah believe me, my parents made just as big a deal out of it within the castle walls as they did outside of them. My sisters and I were all lined up in our best dresses when they brought it in and were forced to watch them set it up however long that took. Of course we didn't get the joy of actually decorating it ourselves like normal children did but Buffy would sneak me up to the second floor balcony and let me put the star on top sometimes." Narcissa giggled at the fond memory of her family and hand maiden.

"Look at you being a little rebel princess Black." I teased the other girl, getting an eye roll and a shove that nearly landed my ass in the snow.

"Oh shut up y/n. Clearly I'm in my rebellious phase now." Narcissa flipped her hair behind her with a little hmph of satisfaction, making me laugh.

"Yes I do believe you have earned the title of rebellious teen. This is gonna be a fun story for your future kids. 'Mommy, why do we live in a rundown shack in the middle of the woods?' 'Well you see kids, your mommy started off as the most beautiful princess in all the land but made a stupid decision to ditch the prince and fall in love with a peasant girl and they ran away together to live happily ever after.' My god." I paused, thinking. "We are such a cliche fairytale. Princess gives up everything and runs away to to be with her one true love."

Narcissa and I both laughed, wondering how our lives had gotten so turned around in such a short span of time. It had only been a few months that we had been on our own but I could no longer imagine it any other way. Just her and I, traveling the world together, finding out all kinds of secrets that probably should have stayed bottled up if I was being brutally honest.

Stopping for our usual noon sit break, I left Narcissa refilling our water supply while I went in search of some food. I had managed to fasten some more sharpened rocks to smaller, sturdier sticks and secure them with bits of animal hide to make 3 little daggers alongside my spear. I was actually fairly decent at throwing the smaller weapons, and more accurate, making it easier to get a meal. Plus they didn't exert quite as much energy as the spear did which was certainly a bonus when you're quite literally starving to death.

The little Evergreen forest proved to be the perfect place to hunt small game, squirrels, birds, even a couple of deer that were far too fast for me to catch but were a promising sight nonetheless. Within 20 minuets of hunting I managed to bring back 3 squirrels, presenting their limp corpses to my traveling companion like a bouquet of roses, which in our case they pretty much were.

"My Gods I could kiss you right now." The other girl was salivating at the sight of the first proper meal we had had in weeks and the grin on my face told her I clearly felt the same.

"Any other time and I'd take you up on that. But right now, I just wanna eat."

I had the furry vermin skinned, cleaned, and spit roasted in record time, wasting no time tearing into the sweet meat. I couldn't say I had ever been so happy to have squirrel before. We didn't even speak, just stuffed our mouths with as much of the meat as we could stomach without getting ill, our bodies unused to having their fill.

We set off again after several minuets of basking in the feeling of full bellies, a luxury we couldn't often afford these days. It was certainly a much better feeling walking with too much food in my body, my steps more energized than they had been when I hadn't had enough. There was even a little pep in my step now as we climbed the gently sloping hill of snow dusted trees. It wasn't until later into the evening, when the sun began to dip behind the tree line, that disaster would finally strike, rocking our small world yet again.