The (Not So) Perfect Princess

I meet up with an old friend

"Why do we have to eat in here?" I complained, not really caring if I sounded like a five year old.

"Well, for one, we don't want that pie salesman guy to see us with this," Eily explained. My eyes were quickly adjusting to the pitch darkness, and I could see her outline now. "Second, it's impossible to eat anything out there with all those people running around. This alley might be dark, but it's the only place we'll be able to eat in peace."

Nessa was apparently now awake, because she started wriggling around in my arms so much I almost dropped her.

"Avani," she whined in my ear. "I'm hungry."

"You want some pie?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes!" she squealed. I could now see much better, and could make out Nessa's tiny face amongst her wild mane of ringlets.

"Alrighty then," Eily interrupted. "How exactly are we going to go about eating this?"

"Like this," Q said, and dug into the pie with his bare hand. He devoured the handful of the delicious-smelling pie within seconds, and then licked his fingers.

"Hey!" Eily protested, but Q was already going in for a second helping.

"I want some!" Nessa yelped, her small fingers groping for the pie. I took a step closer, and she stuffed her face. The baked good was already half gone, so I snatched up a huge handful and wolfed it down. Hopefully Scout had already gotten his fill, because Eily suddenly wrenched the now almost-empty pie tin away from everyone's grasp.

"If you guys insist on eating this thing like crazy people," Eily said. "Then I get the rest."

"Fine by me," I said. "When can we get out of this gross alley?"

"Hey, if you want to get trampled, be my guest," Eily said through a mouthful of pie. "Just don't wander too far away."

"Yes, mother," I teased, and turned toward the entrance of the alley.

I wasn't that surprised when my head began to spin as soon as I stepped out into the light-my eyes had just adjusted to the darkness, too. I also wasn't that surprised when I almost immediately bumped into someone and just about dumped Ness onto the ground.

"Hey, watch it kid." The man growled.

"Sorry, I just-" I glanced up, and my voice faltered: it was Archie. My heart skipped a beat. I couldn't tear my gaze away from him. I mean, I knew the guards were coming for us, but I didn't expect them to find us so soon.

Archie scowled at me. "What are you looking at, brat?"

I blinked. He didn't recognize me? I quickly ducked my head. "Um, nothing. Sorry for, er, bumping into you."

"Well maybe if you'd actually watch where you're going you'd-" Archie squinted at me suspiciously. "Wait, don't I know you?"

"No," I said a little too quickly.

Nessa frowned. "What's going on Av-"

"Anna!" I practically shouted. "My name's Anna. Now, ah, I should probably get going. My little cousin here is very sick, so, um, bye." I turned on my heel and strode away. It took all my willpower not to run.

"You're name's not Anna," Nessa said.

"I know. I was just faking, Ness."

"Ivy said not to wander too far."

"I think you mean 'Eily', and yeah, I know."

"So what're you doing?"

"Just trying to get away from that man," I cautiously turned and searched the crown behind me for Archie.

Nessa's blue eyes grew wide. "Is he a bad guy?"

"Uh, yeah, you could say that." I couldn't find Archie in the ocean of people, but that didn't mean he wasn't there. I decided to take a chance and circle back toward the alley.

Thankfully, I made it back safely. Eily, Scout, and Q were huddled in a little circle just outside of the alley, all of their eyes scanning the multitude of people. Eily's eyes finally found their way to me, and I walked over to them. Eily's face was twisted into an even deeper scowl than usual, but I didn't have time for her to fume.

Before anyone else could say anything, I said, "The soldiers are here."

Eily's expression immediately melted into shock. "What?"

"I just ran into one, but he didn't recognize me."

"What should we do?" Q asked nervously.

"Just keep moving and pray they don't run into us, or vice versa." Eily answered. I still found it a bit comical how Eily was the one giving orders, instead of practically-six-foot Q.

"Also," Eily continued. "Today is the last day to find that ship. I say we sprint to the border of this stupid town and get aboard that boat early. Better safe than sorry, right?"

"Sure," Q agreed. "But how exactly were you planning on getting on that ship?"

"Well, I was thinking we'd stand in line and buy us all tickets," Eily said sarcastically. "Q! We're going to sneak aboard!"

"Actually, we might not have to sneak on," I interjected, setting Nessa down and taking her hand.

"Oh really, smarts?" Eily said.

"Yes, really. I happen to kind of know the Capitan of that ship."

Q frowned. "And by 'kind of' you mean...?"

I fidgeted. "I, er, met him once."

"Ah. Once."

Eily gripped her bag. "Well, that's great, but getting chummy with the Capitan won't guarantee our safe passage."

"That's true," I admitted. "But we don't really have any other choice."

Eily huffed, but didn't argue. "Whatever. Let's just keep to the backstreets, okay?"

She turned and disappeared into the crowd, not waiting for an answer.

The four of us followed her, my heart still pounding from my close encounter with Archie.

Author's Note: Alright heres the thing. I started writing this story about last June on Word on my computer. I didn't have a Wattpad account and i wasn't planning on showing it to anyone it or even writing it in chapters, so the whole thing is a huge mess when it comes to publishing. That's the only reason some of my chapters on Wattpad end at random spots. If they didn't end randomly, some chapters would be 50+ pages long, and others would be 10, and i really needed to get that cleared up bc it's confusing everyone, including me :/