Roses Always Have Thorns [Completed]

9. Trade

Rose felt how she woke up to the sound of leaves and sticks crumbling. She slowly opened her eyes and, after a few moments in which her eyes adapted to the light, Rose looked around her to see how Alekzandre was already up, walking around in an agitated manner.

'What are you doing?' Rose mumbled in confusion as she squinted her eyes.

Alekzandre froze in place. How was she up already? The sun didn't rise more than what he approximated to be 30 minutes ago. Since it was already a late September, it would mean that it should be around six in the morning. He should've been more careful!

'Oh, you woke up.' He said with a dry laugh.

'What are you doing?' Rose asked, now more aware of Alekzandre's position.

Alekzandre looked around. The distance between them was just fine, so she shouldn't get triggered. What could be wrong-

Alekzandre felt how one of his cheeks twitched. He was standing in the middle of a bush nearby.

'Oh, I, um...' Alekzandre began, unsure of what to answer.

'Doesn't matter.' Rose said, as she raised to her feet. 'Let's go.'

Alekzandre didn't know if he should feel relieved for the fact that he shouldn't give an answer, or feel annoyed by getting bossed around by some little, foolish girl.

He couldn't help it, in his opinion. If he tried to negotiate with her, he'd only help the fire grow. He got out of the bush and nearly tripped as he did so, before catching up the red-haired girl.

They walked deeper into the forest for quite some time, giving Rose a slight feeling of anxiety. Miss Black taught Rose from a young age about all the dangers that the forest beheld, but she never even attempted to teach her how to defend herself from all those mighty beasts.

Rose couldn't blame her, though. The chance of a lady adventuring into danger just like that was very slim, and she almost felt bad for being part of that small community.

'What was the town that you live in called?' Rose suddenly blurts out.

The question bugged her for quite some time. She still was an educated being, and, in her opinion, she deserved to know exactly where she was.

'Oh, we're in district three.' Alekzandre answered with a shrug.

'District three?' Rose narrowed her eyebrows.

Alekzandre looked at Rose and sighed deeply. He didn't take into account that the way he spoke might sound like a foreign language to the sassy girl.

'Yeah, that's what-what the locals, call it. Don't really know why, and it slips past me how others call it.'

'Oh.' Rose relaxed her face as she looked away. 'District three. Got it.'

Low-class people could be very weird, it was true. But, no matter what Lady Van Burgh said, she didn't think so harshly of them. In her opinion, they had their own beauty, even without the fancy make up and dresses she grew into.

'Say, so you ran away from Lady Van Bughin-' Alekzandre began, putting his hands behind his head, letting a very rich and dark forest appear on his armpits to show.

'Lady Van Burgh.' Rose corrected as she pursed her lips, after restraining herself from making a comment at his nasty exposition.

'Right, right. Anyway, if you ran away, don't you think  that she might want to take you back?'

'I doubt it. She's evil.'

'You sure? I mean, she managed to raise two kids...'

'What's your point?' Rose snapped.