The Last Princess

Chapter 56

Thank Nalvia for Aiden.

He regained his composure in a fraction of a second and quickly replied, "Oh, sorry, Mom, we left it in the Forest. Come on Elvina, let's go get it." He quickly pulled me around, back into the trees.

I exhaled as we ran in. "That was close." He nodded. "Yeah. Now come on, we better find some food fast." "What are we going to find here?" I asked. "Watch and learn, Princess." He said, raising his hand upwards.

Ignoring my glare, he closed his eyes, and from above, small, hard objects began falling onto the ground. I blinked as one hit my head. "Ow! Aiden!" I cried. He was obviously doing it, because none of them were even touching them.

I covered my head with my hands to avoid getting hit, but they kept falling on my arms, and as I looked down, I realized that the small objects were, in fact, nuts. I picked one up. It brought back memories of Aiden and I eating together after the camp was attacked. He had brought me similar nuts and berries. I let go of it as a particularly large one hit my head. "Aiden!" I yelled.

I swear I saw him smirk.

Closing my eyes, I focused on the nuts falling from above. I felt a tug in my head, and they stopped hitting me. I pushed them a bit, to land on a particular location...

"Ow!" I opened my eyes to see Aiden glaring at me, all the nuts now falling on his head and then bouncing off onto the ground. They all fell on his head first, every single one of them, so I supposed I was a bit deserving of the glare he was giving me.

But really, he had started it.

He pushed a hand up, and the nuts stopped falling suddenly. He glared harder. "Really?" I shrugged. "You did it first, you know." He closed his eyes and all the nuts gathered into a huge mound in front of him. It was quite large.

"Now what?" I asked (extra cheerily, just to annoy him more). He rolled his eyes. "Now we take this back to camp." The mound levitated, gathering in front of him. I tried to not look as impressed as I really was.

We ended up back in front of Grove, who's stare was now (if that was possible) even more suspicious. "That took way too long." Aiden responded quickly. "We left it deep in there, Mom." Grove shook her head with mock amusement.

"You kids." She let us go, hitting the back of Aiden's head playfully and going to the camp kitchen while Aiden and I rejoined Maple and Arden, who were entertaining Meadow along with Fawn. "And that's how the brave soldier defeated the vicious dragon!" Fawn finished, just as we came.

"Hey, guys." She said, glancing up. "And then what happened?" Meadow interrupted, looking adorable in a light pink dress, her blond hair tied back in a braid. "And then they lived happily ever after, the end." Aiden said as we sat down.

"Hey!" Meadow said indignantly, hitting her brother's arm. "Ooh, that hurt, Meadow." Aiden said, rubbing his arm where she had hit him, pretending to be hurt. Meadow pouted playfully and turned back to Fawn. "So then what happened?"

Fawn shrugged. "Well, then the soldier was given a huge reward by the King and got to marry the Princess. And, like Aiden said, they lived happily ever after." Meadow clapped. "I want to go on an adventure like that, Fawn!"

"Oh, you do, do you?" Fawn grinned at the excited girl. "Okay, well then, let's go!" She picked up Meadow, and twirling her around once, set her back down. Holding her hand, they raced off, Fawn narrating another imagined tale to Meadow.

Aiden grinned. I could see in his face plain adoration for his sister. It was one of those rare moments where I saw past the sarcastic rebel and found the soft boy hidden inside. "So..." Arden said, making me swing my gaze back around to him. He, unlike his twin, didn't hide the softness, which was plain on his face. Both brothers were so different.

"Have you met any of met any of the new soldiers?" Maple asked. I shook my head. "No. I don't really know any of them personally, you know." "They never talked to you?" Arden asked. I raised an eyebrow at him. As if Ivy would allow any soldier to talk to me.

"I guess not." He nodded. "Most of them are good, but...even with them, we're really, really outnumbered." Aiden said, looking frustrated again. "We'll never have more soldiers than her." He continued. "So then...what are we going to do?" Maple asked helplessly.

It was true. We'd all gone through so much to come here...and for what? We weren't anywhere close to beating Ivy. So what were we going to do?