Chapter One: Why I Hate Public Events

Chapter 4: Day One

One can often tell what kind of day one is going to have by how they are woken up in the morning. In my case, I am going to have many miserable days. I awoke to sharp pains circulating my abdominal region, all of my limbs feeling like stone, and my head feeling like it was about to split in half. I was hungry, sore, and had a splitting headache (most likely do to the lack of liquids I consumed yesterday), not to mention I was completely exhausted. I pulled my aching body into an up-right position trying to get my bearings. It was a good thing Hagen came along, because I had no clue to where we were. Speaking of Hagen, he was still peacefully snoozing on the hard, cold, and damp ground. I then did a thing that I now very deeply regret. I kicked him. Hard. I honestly had not meant to hurt him, just well, kinda to get him moving with a little nudge from my big toe. Now this was not the right thing to do, but as mentioned before I was not in a very good mood, and considering that Hagen almost got us thrown in jail last night, I was not particularly happy with him. He awoke with a curse.

"Rorrie what in the name of King Garow the 3ed was that for?"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard......."

"Yeah, well you did. That hurt!" Hagen growled as he tenderly rubbed his ribs.

"Shouldn't we be off by now? The sun is almost to the noon point."

"Well, be my guest and lead the way." We were off. We headed North West, the opposite direction of the Daidurrions. We started out in a dead run, which only lasted for about a mile. We the slowed down to a jog for about half an hour, then eventually moved on to a steady walking pace. We stopped somewhere about three miles in to have a quick breakfast, or shall I say lunch, for it was about noon. Slowly but surely we tarried on, mile after mile. My steady pace became less even, my packs excruciatingly heavy. My muscles and joints ached. Looking up at the sun, I expected to see it rather low in the sky, when in fact it had hardly moved at all. Hagen didn't look like he was fairing much better, his shoulders slumped and his shirt was dark with sweat.

"Hagen, I'm tired." I know I sounded like a stuck up brat, but at this point I really didn't care, besides, it was only Hagen. Now if it had been Jayowd, Leo, or maybe even Gavin it would have been a totally differ story, but it wasn't, it was Hagen.

"Oh really, because I'm just bursting with energy" He responded flatly. "You know Princess, this whole adventure thing was your idea."

"Don't call me that."

"Call you what?" Hagen turned around giving me, as what Kaylub affectionately called the 'broken-hearted puppy dog stair'.

"Oh you know what I mean," I snapped back, kicking the poor plant in front of me in frustration.

"Sorry sweet-heart, I'm afraid I don't." The moment those words left Hagen's lips I suddenly regained all my energy, or at least enough to dive at him and pin him to a tree. I was getting ready to punch his brains out, when he ducked and grabbed my waist flipping my over his shoulder. Now I can't remember the exact details, but what I do remember is kicking and grabbing, rolling on the ground, and threating to claw his eyes out. Ok maybe that's a little dramatic, but I was pretty mad. Of course Hagen ended up pinning me to the ground, where he sat proudly on top of me gloating. Then he pretended to be all nice and help me up of the dusty ground. It was rather irritating .

We walked on. It was a dull and boring walk. Neither one of us wanted to speak to the other, and we were both tired and hungry. I welcomed the silence, it gave me time to think and reflect on what had happened over the last forty-eight hours. It's crazy how things can happen so fast, one moment you're curled up by the fire place reading a book and teasing your brother about his love interests, and the next you're headed to the royal city with hopes of getting information on the ones who captured that same brother. I didn't want to believe it, I didn't accept it, in fact the only reasons I was here, walking in the woods on a doomed wild goose case, was that I had been telling myself that this was happening to someone else. Someone other than me, someone far, far away.

We made camp about an hour before dusk. Hagen silently strolled out of our camp hoping to catch some game for our supper. I unrolled the packs and gathered some firewood. I stacked it in the center of the clearing then sat down to wait. It was almost dark when Hagen came back holding a rabbit in each hand. We could barely see as Hagen attempted to start a fire in the dark. After a couple attempts he was successful. I stretched out on my mat as we roasted our rabbit in long sticks I had found. I pulled my blanket over my knees and snuggled deeper inside my warp cloak, which I had just put on. The difference in temperature is crazy around here. One day it is boiling hot, and the next it is snowing, the nights are almost always frigid no matter what time of the year it is. The temperature, along with the worn out soil are the two main reasons farming is so bad back in the province. It seemed like hours before the rabbits were done and both of us were starving. The moment Hagen announced that they were cooked enough to be eaten safely we both pranced upon them like a cat chasing a mouse. They were gone before you could say 'goat gloating over a grasshopper'.

"Hagen I'm sorry for what happened this afternoon" I apologized meekly. Looking back at it now the whole thing seems silly and childish and I was quite ashamed at the way I had acted.

"No, I'm sorry to. I shouldn't have provoked you like that. It was rather cruel now that I look back at it." It was too dark to see Hagen's face, but by the tone of his voice, which was soft and gentle, I could tell he truly meant what he said. Feeling satisfies with my apology; I let my tired body drift off to sleep. My last thought being, that if this is day one, then we are going to be lucky to stay alive.