Journey

Chapter Twelve~ A Loyal Bird

The sun woke me up. Its rays hit my face until I finally decided to get up. I got up and walked over to my bags. The dress on my dresser caught my eye. It was sparkling. The sun reflected off of it sending rainbows on the ceiling, a small smile pulled at my lips. I unzipped the bag and looked through the clothes in it. I choose to wear the pink tunic and the jeans. I slipped on my shoes and looked at the dress once more. I grabbed the doorknob. The door opened, but not because of me. Reth popped his head around the door, " Oh sorry, I guess you are up."

I shrug, " The sun is awake, so I am awake."

"I need to ask you something," he says as he comes into the room and closes the door behind him, "I brought you to the dress shop because the King is hosting a ball to find his daughter a husband. I was wondering... if you would come with me."

I take a moment to process. I've been to balls before, but this would be huge, "Are you kidding me! Of course, I'll go with you."

"Good because we already got the dress and the suit," he said with a smirk. what a smart ass.

I stood on my toes and gave him a small kiss, "Thank you for asking me. Now, let's go have some breakfast. I'm starving"

Reth grabs me and twirls us around in circles, I laugh and tell him to put me down. "You're going to make me sick!"

He sets me down softly and gently places his forehead against mine, "I know what we can do today."

"And what would that be?"

"We can go look around the stores again?"

"Didn't we see everything there was to see already? what else is there to do on this island?"

"Nothing I guess, but I can think of one other thing we could do." He wiggles his eyebrows at me. It takes me a moment but I get what he was insinuating. 

I gasp and slap at his arms, "Gross! You know I'm not ready for that!"

"Okay! Okay!" He raises his hands in surrender, "I'll wait, we can wait. We can move slowly, Annie. I won't rush you into anything." He whisks me into a hug and kisses my forehead, "I do love you."

I look up at him. I feel bad that I haven't said it back yet, but I've never loved someone before. How do you know that you love someone? My heart flutters in my chest as I stare into his eyes. Maybe this is what love feels like, I've never felt anything like this before. But everything is happening so fast. I ran my hand through his hair, "I've never been with a man before." I admit softly. 

His eyes widen a bit and his breath rushes through his lips blowing my bangs back, "I understand, Annie. I'd be so happy to be your first, but, again, I don't want to go too fast."

My whole face turns red and my mouth opens slightly, "Thank you, for understanding."

"Of course."

...

After finishing breakfast, we left the ship on the dock arm in arm. "So where are we going first?" I asked.

"How about we just take a walk and see if anything intrigues us," he said. I nodded and took his arm. We made our way down the road with all of the shops. We approached what looked like an exotic pet shop. The shop had large windows to showcase all of the animals within. I pulled Reth towards the door, and he followed without question. A bell jingles above us, as we make our way inside. 

A little boy whips around to greet us, "Hello! What can we do for you? Is there anything you are looking for in particular?"

"Hi, what kind of animals do you have here," I asked the little boy with a smile.