The Fourth World

Chapter Two

Chapter Two (Dolan)

I perched on the roof of a house, watching Wissy's thugs look for me. I was still laughing, the look on Wisteria's face was priceless. I held a jar of spiders in my hand, recovered from the baker's cart after her outburst.

"I found you!" Said a voice behind me, and I almost jumped off the roof in shock. When I saw who said it, I almost wished I had jumped off the roof.

Wisteria had snuck up behind me, knowing that I wouldn't be able to see her from my left. She punched me in the face and I almost dropped the jar.

"You put the spiders in the cart!" she cried angrily.

She wasn't very good at punching, but I thought her hit might've been hard enough to leave a bruise. "You hung me in a tree!"

"Technically I wasn't the one who hung you in the tree." She shoved me and my foot twisted around her ankle, sending us both flying of the roof.

Wisteria landed in the pile of straw, I wasn't so lucky. I landed on a pile of crates, my armor heavy enough to break two or three of them.

I groaned, my leg bent awkwardly beneath me. Wissy sat up, spitting straw out of her mouth. It was all over her. Stuck in her dress and tangled through her hair. Worst of all, the jar of spiders had broken and now they were crawling up her legs.

She gave a blood curdling scream and sprinted off, leaving a trail of straw behind her.

I pulled myself out of the broken boxes and looked at my leg. It didn't feel broken, so I gingerly tested my weight on it. It hurt, but at least I could walk on it.

"Dolan are you okay?" Trem Willam, another knight, ran up. "I saw you and Wissy fall."

"I'm okay." I winced as I stepped away from my landing site. Trem's younger sister Valerie walked up. She had flowers tucked behind her ear, probably from her flower cart.

"Were you and Wissy having another bout of love?" she teased.

I rolled my eyes and turned away. Trem and Valerie lived just down the street from me. We had grown up close enough to be siblings. I had always been invited to the Willam's house for dinner when my father was out of town.

Trem looked up at the sky. "The sun's going down, we better start heading home."

I nodded. After dark, the night guards took our place. They were a group of harder knights, older and more serious than the day guards. I had originally been assigned as a night guard, but my father stepped in. He didn't want me out after dark.

We walked down the cobblestone road. Valerie skipped a few feet ahead, pretending to be an Ovenree noble. "And for breakfast," she said in a bad imitation of their accent, "I will eat vegetable pies and the finest fruit juices."

Our families weren't actually poor, in fact, because of our statuses as knights, we did quite well. But every kid pretended to be royalty once in awhile.

"I will wear dresses of fine linen, and wave to my subjects while riding in my horse drawn carriage."

"I met Princess Aelina today." I said to Valerie.

"What! You didn't say- What did she- When did- How-!"

"She found me in the woods so I escorted her back to the castle." I shrugged. Trem and Valerie looked at me in shock.

"What was she doing in the woods?" Valerie asked.

"What were you doing in the woods?" Trem asked with his eyebrows raised.

"I don't know, I didn't ask her." I answered Valerie's question to avoid Trem's.

"Was she super regal?"

"Did you say she found you there?" Trem and Valerie asked together.

"Not really," I responded, completely ignoring Trem's question. "She was a lot more, casual than most nobles. She didn't mind me at all."

"You're not answering my questions." Trem said. "What were you doing in the woods? Was it Wisteria again? Is that why she's mad at you again?"

We arrived at my house.

"Do you want to come over for dinner?" Valerie asked, clearly eager to hear more about the princess.

"No thanks, I'll be fine." Valerie looked disappointed, but nodded a good night and started walking towards her house. I turned, about to open the door, but Trem stopped me.

"Listen Dolan, I know you and Wisteria don't get along well, especially after what happened a couple years ago-" I stiffened under his gaze, which just sent a sharp pain back up my leg, "but try not to make too much trouble before your father gets back."

"Goodnight Trem." I finished walking through the door.

***(Aelina)

Wednesday morning I put on a pretty, but simple blue dress and made sure I had shoes on. Rigel swooped in through my window. He made a shrill calling noise before saying. "I have a message for you!" in a sing-song voice.

"From Bellatrix?" I asked hopefully.

"No, from the Queen." He said in an annoying high pitched song.

"What did she have to say." I said in frustration.

"She sent a map of the Ovenree territory, just in case King Harold needs one." This time Rigel said it in a poor Raulle accent.

"Fine," I grabbed the map from Rigel, "Now go find something useful to do."

Rigel squawked then flew back out the window. I felt bad for snapping at him, but I was frustrated with the lack of support from Bellatrix. Didn't she realize how important this was?

There was a knock on my door. I opened it to find a young maid standing there.

"Excuse me, m'lady. His Majesty the King requests your presence downstairs." She looked hardly older than I, but still shorter. Her hair was Raulle's trademark blonde and pulled back in an untidy knot on the back of her head.

"Thank You for telling me. Inform him that I am on my way." I said kindly. The girl nodded and swiftly exited the room.

I made my way down into the hall, where I found King Harold talking to a delegate from some eastern border.

"Ah, Aelina!" He said when I stepped in. "I wanted to tell you, the conferences have been moved to tomorrow because the Duke of Rendale won't be able to make it. You can relax for today."

I nodded and smiled.