The King's Crest

Chapter 8

I had gone ahead and dug a grave for the man. We put him in his proper grave and covered him up marking his grave with a cross and flowers. The men weren't as sure about the flowers, but I had insisted. He may have tried to kill me, but he was still a human.

Rem stared horrified with eyes glazed over at the grave. He had taken the life away from a man and he clearly wasn't handling well. I was actually glad he was having a hard time handling it, I would have been concerned if he wasn't. "Jeremiah, I know this is not the easiest thing you've ever endured, but if you hadn't done what you did, I'd be dead. I owe my life to you in more ways than one." I said as I squeezed his hand.

"Really Jeremiah, what you did was absolutely needed. It probably won't be the last time one of us will have to do that," Kenneth paused as he looked up at us, "we need to get going guys."

We went on our way leaving the grave and town behind us. All of us turned and took one last glance as we walked away. For the next couple of hours all of us were silent as we walked. It would have lasted that way, too if Kenneth hadn't so casually have asked, "So, before the traumatic morning, how did you two sleep?"

"Well, I had a dream," I hesitated before I said "it was actually more of a memory. It was from when my parents were alive and I was a little girl. Rem was briefly in there, too." I looked away when I thought about it. The thought of my parents was still sometimes hard. Especially after dreams that seemed so real. It was like I was really there again.

"I was?" Jeremiah questioned. "I actually slept pretty well. Compared to the ground we napped on yesterday, that bed felt so nice. I crawled into bed and was asleep in minutes."

"No kidding. He snored all night. Loudly. Really loudly. Actually I'm surprised you didn't hear him from your room Katerina," Kenneth laughed.

"So the rumors are true. I have heard many stories from his servants that he snores extremely loudly. In fact some say he is the loudest sleeper in the world," I teased.

"At this point I would have to agree with them," Kenneth agreed.

"Alright come on! At least I enjoyed my sleep," Jeremiah jokingly commented. We laughed as we pushed each other back and forth. Then the three of us took turns debating what was currently happening in the kingdom. We all gave optimistic ideas, even though we all knew that the people who knew we were missing, were probably worried.

I thought of my uncle. He wasn't even allowed to know where I went. All he knew was that someone who was at the ball was murdered. Then I didn't show up home the next couple of days. He must be so worried. Then there is Kristine... I promised her father I would keep her safe and now I don't even know what happened to her. I could only hope she managed to get home soon.

We soon came across another town, this one more of a farm town than the last one. We decided to take advantage of that and buy some things while we were here. Kenneth and I wanted to split up to get what was needed quicker and meet up at the end of the town when we were done, however, Jeremiah refused to try it. He didn't want anything to happen to us while we were separated. So we all went together to gather supplies.

We went first to get the food we needed. We argued about what to get but decided to stick with the essentials. We bought some fruit and nuts deciding that we already had enough meat, cheese, and biscuits to last a few more days. "Do you happen to have any white willow bark by any chance?" I asked randomly. "Oh, and some melaleuca, too."

"I don't personally, I'm afraid. Try the peddler across the way," the shopkeeper said. We thanked her and went on our way to the peddler. I knew it wasn't much of a chance, but I had to know.

The peddler must have overheard us because as we walked up he told me all he had was white willow bark and not melaleuca as well. I decided it would have to do. I paid them the mandatory money and went on my way with Jeremiah and Kenneth. "What do you need that for?" Kenneth asked me.

"Well, remember how I told you I had a dream last night about when I was younger? Well, my father was the royal physician when he was alive and I just remember him always saying how white willow bark helped with everything. I can't remember everything else he taught me, but I feel like the white willow bark will be helpful," I explained.

They couldn't argue with me due to their weariness so we just went on our way. We needed to find horses first before we left the city. We searched for them but couldn't find any. We were almost outside the gate when we saw horses for sale. Unfortunately, we decided we couldn't spend any more money for the night knowing that we still had a long journey. I whined about how much longer it would take without them, but Kenneth and Jeremiah told me to be a man.

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In no time at all we were outside the city gates, barely missing its nightly closing time. It was getting dark earlier and earlier as the winter went on, and we knew our time for getting to Rethain was shortening. The longer we waited, the more chances of Prince Alexander ruling Vezana became more and more possible. Still, we needed to sleep and eat.

We pulled off to the side right next to the city gate hoping they would give us some warmth through the night. I pulled out the rolls and cheese for us to eat for supper that night. We each savored our food as much as possible tonight knowing we needed to conserve our food. "Kat, I know it isn't the most comfortable sleeping situation, but you have to sleep closer to us tonight. We won't relive last night," Jeremiah demanded.

"Rem, I know you're concerned, but we can't it isn't-"

"No arguing on this one Kat! I won't lose you, too! This is one of the only times I will use my position as your prince to tell you no," Jeremiah said strictly.

"Alright, goodnight," I said firmly back sharply as I laid down to sleep. At least I was the one who chose where we sleep. Jeremiah and Kenneth laid down too, slightly farther away from me than from each other.

A few hours later I was sound asleep when I woke up to hear Jeremiah scream. I woke up blinking with a start and looked to see a pack of wolves surrounding us. One was biting on to Jeremiah's ankle as he tried to smack it off. I grabbed my dagger and waited for my view to clear before I threw as hard as I could at the wolf attacking him. My dagger hit its target and killed the wolf freeing Rem for now.

I slid Jeremiah's sword at him as Kenneth, now fully awake, jumped up with his sword and attacked the next wolf coming at us. All of us were attacking the five remaining wolves around us. Another was killed. I now was defenseless seeing as my dagger was plunged into a different wolf. One started coming near me and I had nothing around me. It tore off my cloak and threw it over the wolf in hopes of it slowing down the wolf for a second.

That second gave me time to look around me. I quickly grabbed a rock semi near me and threw it at the wolf under my cloak. The wolf fell to the ground. I looked to see Jeremiah and Kenneth back to back slashing at whatever came near them. I went to grab my cloak back from the dead wolf noticing they were handling the rest. As I ripped of my cloak the wolf underneath lunged at me. Kenneth, out of nowhere, swooped in front of me and stabbed the wolf. I gasped and stared at him as he winked and ran back to Rem. Unfortunately, the wound to the wolf wasn't fatal.

I ran to the other wolf that my dagger was in and pulled that out just in time to first stab the wolf that Kenneth hadn't killed and throw it once more at the last wolf that was about to attack Kenneth and Rem from behind. Once again beat up we all looked at each other and collapsed to the floor.