The Last Princess

Chapter 30

I was up early, as usual.

Soon, Birch and I were joined with Grove, Meadow and Arden. Who I tried very hard not to look at during breakfast. His twin was sleeping late (as usual, apparently- the family told me that Aiden couldn't get up early to save his life).

Arden and I avoided each others' eyes because I don't think he wanted his family to know about our late-night incident. Which was embarrassing to say the least.

Five minutes after he'd left, I'd walked back to my own room and fallen asleep (no mention on how long I might have taken to fall asleep). Now we were barely looking at each other. Which was a bit worrying. What if he didn't mean any of it? What if he'd thought it over and decided that liking a powerless princess, who would probably never even rule, was useless.

Fortunately, I was distracted from these disturbing thoughts by another dilemma. Which was somehow almost worse.

Birch insisted on making me practice the 'controlling the Forest' thing. Even though I had showed absolutely no promise yesterday. Which led to a useless hour, during which I became even more disheartened, Aiden woke up and joined us, and Birch was called to the main rebels' camp for something.

Aiden noticed me and Arden acting uncomfortably right away. "I'll go. You can...talk." he said with a pointed look at Arden. He stalked back into the house, leaving Arden and I alone for the first time since last night.

"So..." Arden tried. "Yeah, uh..." We stood there awkwardly for what seemed like forever. "Last night was nice." he said nervously. "Yeah, it was." I said, shyly smiling at him. "Can we...meet again?" he asked. "Of course! I'd love too." I agreed. We stood there again, until Birch came in.

I coughed and looked away from Arden. Birch was holding something in his hands (which Aiden was reading over his shoulder). Both looked puzzled, and worried.

"What happened?" Arden said quickly.

"Well, uh, it appears...the Prince is getting married." Birch said, sounding as surprised as I felt. "What?" I said involuntarily. Birch nodded.

"To who?" Arden asked urgently. "I pity the girl." Aiden murmured.

For once I agreed with him.

Birch cleared his throat and read out, "Her Royal Highness Queen Ivy Elowen, the late King Rowan Elowen, the late Basil Elm and the late Clover Elm, request your presence at the wedding of the Prince Forreston, and..."

"Who?" I asked.

"Our sources say it's a maid."

"Who?" Arden asked.

"Some elf called...Maple. Maple Elm."