The False Prince and Princess

Chapter 3

Hello, again! I will be trying to update as much as possible, but I can't promise anything with school and the holidays. Hope you like it so far.

Conner came out of the orphanage with a boy and a girl trailing behind him. The boy was tall but thin and had black hair badly in need of a cut. The girl looked the same but slightly shorter.

They both climbed into the wagon, and Conner eyed the small cut on Sage's throat and the red slap mark on Roden's cheek. "Any trouble, Cregan?"

"Nope, I think you'll find Sage and Rose slightly more cooperative though."

Conner smiled, which looked more like a deranged monkey barring its teeth, and said," Glad to hear it. This is Tobias and Ella." He pointed to the new twins. "They will be joining us on our quest."

"What quest?" I questioned.

"Patience," Conner answered. "Patience is the mark of a ruler and something all of you should learn." That was the first clue I got that something wasn't right, and I felt that we were all getting into something terrible.

I remembered Tobias and Ella because of our quick stay at Gelvin's Charity Orpahanage, but they stood out from the others mainly because they were educated and tried to learn everything they could. They got special privileges because they were one of the few with a hope for success.

Tobias looked at Sage. "You're bleeding."

"Really? I thought it was just some tomato juice coming out of my neck," my brother had to reply. After he realized that Tobias didn't care for his sarcasm, he seriously (if that's ever possible for him) said," It's mostly stopped and doesn't hurt much."

"Do I know you?"

"We were here about six months ago."

"Oh, I remember. You both locked the headmaster out of the orphanage for the night, right?"

Sage grinned in response," At least we ate well that night."

Tobias grew more serious and Ella scolded," That's not funny. We may not eat well most of the time, but that is because there isn't much to go around. That food you gave out was supposed to last the week, and we were all very hungry after you left."

Our grins faded since we never knew about that. "Sorry," I mumbled even though I knew it wouldn't make a difference.

The rest of the ride was filled with uncomfortable silence. Eventually, we found a small clearing to stop at.

"They're trying to hide us," Sage muttered to everyone else.

Roden shook his head and said," It's safer here in the open. They're just trying to protect us."

I had to disagree since taking orphaned twins seemed a tad suspicious to me.

Mott got off the wagon and yelled orders to everyone for what to unload from the wagon and where to put it. Sage and I were assigned to stay in the wagon and hand things to others on the ground.

"Afraid we'll run away?" Sage asked.

Mott looked at him and said," Any trust you get will have to be earned which I believe will take the both of you a lot longer than the others."

I noticed that Mott was the one taking charge of everything while Conner was just considered the master of the group. Mott didn't seem like the normal vigil who was practically useless from a leadership stand point and was allowed to do things without asking Conner's permission. Cregan seemed to have to listen to him as well and was currently getting the fire going.

After everything was done, Mott called us to gather around so Conner could talk to us. "Talk to us? What about eating?" Sage complained, but I had to agree with him since my stomach was screaming at me to eat.

"We'll eat after we talk. Come and sit," Conner instructed gesturing to the area around him as I rolled my eyes behind his back.

I ran to get a spot on one of the logs, but Sage got there first and tried to take the entire log to himself until I smacked him on the head and made him move over. Roden and Alexa sat next to me, but everyone else sat on the ground.

Conner coughed to get our attention and said," I know I haven't said much about why I have all of you here, but I'm sure you all have your own ideas from the likely possibilities to the wild ones. My plan falls into the latter of those."

Tobias and Ella seemed to perk up at this and looked like they would do anything to please Conner. They both irritated me as much as Roden though Alexa was the only one I didn't absolutely hate at the moment.

Conner continued," But there is danger in my plan, and failing could come with terrible consequences, but success could have great rewards better than your imagination." I doubted that since I had a rather large imagination and could think of some really big rewards.

"But, in the end, only two of you will be chosen. I need the twins that can prove to me that they fit my plan which is very specific."

Tobias raised his hand which showed he was educated, and he seemed to want to rub it in to the rest of us. "Sir, what is your plan?"

"Great question, Tobias, but this plan is very secretive. Before telling anyone, I would like to offer the chance to leave without the feeling of regret or cowardice. I have alerted you to the dangers and rewards, so if you don't feel up to it, you can take this as your opportunity to leave."

Mostly everyone looked at us since we had been wanting to escape since the beginning, but something was nagging me to stay, and I could tell that Sage had the feeling too.

Latamer and Lydia obviously didn't have the same feeling. "I think Lydia and I would like to leave," he coughed. "I'm not fit to compete against anyone else, and neither of us are ones to face danger even for a reward."

"Alright then. I will have Cregan drive you to the nearest town now," Conner said.

"Tonight?"

"Yes, the rest of us have more to discuss tonight."

Latamer nodded in understanding and thanked Conner as he turned to leave. I was beginning to wonder if I should take the same route until I realized something was wrong. As Mott waved Latamer over to the wagon, I wondered where Cregan was.

"Latamer, Lydia, stop!" I yelled but my warning came too late as an arrow was released and found its way to Latamer's chest. Lydia gave a scream at the sight until the same happened to her.

Sage leapt towards Cregan with a cry and tried to overpower him. I ran over to the fallen twins in my wishful thinking that they would be alright, but they were both gone.

I looked over and saw Sage still wrestling with Cregan over a knife until Mott lunged at him, tackling him to the ground. "You killed them," he growled as I walked over to help him up.

Conner came up to us eerily calm. "Latamer was sick and wasn't going to get much better, and I think he provided a good lesson to everyone else here. Lydia was just weak and wouldn't have lasted long anyways. Now you can go rejoin the others or take a wagon ride with Latamer and Lydia. It's your choice."

Now we were stuck with this madman until we were chosen or killed for not being useful any longer.