The Servant Queen

Trice River

Ani

I sat in front of Walter on the same horse as he held on the reins. I told all of Oliver's directions to Walter, so we headed toward Trice River.

"Couldn't we have just taken Oliver's other horse?" I said.

"Let's not steal from our benefactor. One horse is sufficient enough," Walter said. "Unless, you're uncomfortable being this close to me?"

He was probably smiling behind me, but I didn't want to turn around to look.

"What do you think?" I said, annoyed.

He laughed. "Get use to it, servant girl. If we're going to act like siblings, we're going to act like we're close to each other."

"Some siblings aren't close..." I said, leaning forward to create as much distance as possible.

We rode in silence and entered a thick forest. Our speed decreased for nearly an hour before I smelled a sharp, bitter scent. I closed my nostrils and breathed only though my mouth. Walter did the same. He halted the horse and hopped off to look down from the hill.

"Didn't he say that River Trice wasn't poisonous?" he said.

A wide black river slowly flowed downstream, thick and dark.

"He did," I answered.

"Should we still listen to him?"

"How am I suppose to know? He is just as much as a stranger to me as he is to you," I said.

"Let's just follow his directions anyways," Walter said, climbing back on the horse.

"You're trusting Oliver? If the poison is still active, it'll get into our lungs."

"Of course, I am. He's a fan of me. Why would a fan kill me?" he said, jokingly.

"You're too full of yourself. Just because he knows your name, it doesn't mean anything."

He hit the reigns. "It's the same thing with you. Why do you trust me?"

"Intuition," I said.

"See?"

We followed the river. After a while, it made me wonder why we couldn't just go through the forest and travel through there. I rested my head on the horse's neck. We traveled down the river for nearly the entire day and I had hardly any sleep last night.

I want to sleep.

"We're in the land between the Eastern Region and the Central part of Stone Kingdom now," Walter said.

"Mm," I responded. My eyes were becoming too heavy. I just wanted to go to sleep.

The sun was becoming a hazy orange as it started setting.

"You know what? Let's just set up a camp to rest," Walter said suddenly, and stopped the horse.

"Okay."

I was too tired to get down the horse, so I settled with just laying there in its soft, but scratchy mane. I followed Walter's movements with my half-closed eyes. Walter dug through his leather bag from the side of the horse, pulled out a thin sheet, and laid it on the ground.

"This isn't much, but it'll do, servant girl."

"Hey...don't...call me that, Walter. You said I wasn't going to be a servant anymore," I said, drowsily.

"You're right." He touched my mask, pulled it off my face, and dropped it on the ground. "You aren't a servant anymore when you're with me."

I looked at his eyes without looking away for the first time. It was unusual... I've never noticed how handsome he was.

"What?" he said.

"You're strange, Walter. Why do you look so sad even though you're smiling?" I said, about to touch his face. He grabbed my hand, stopping me.

"You're sleepy."

He lifted me up into his arms and placed me on the small sheet on the soft ground. There wasn't enough room for the both of us on this sheet, but Walter was about to lay down beside me. With my finger, I drew a line in the soft dirt beside me.

"What's that?" he asked.

"You... aren't allowed to cross this, Walter."

The last thing I saw, before I fell asleep, was a bright shooting star flying across the sky behind him.

"Good night."

A/N: I apologize for the short chapter. Did you check out the music video above? It's the same singer from the last chapter. Such a nice voice...