The Prince's Trust

Experience

Smut in this chapter was kinda too short to take out but I have made it skipable and it should be blatantly obvious how to do so when the time comes towards the end ❤️

^^I can't even explain how much I love this picture of Dec and I would love an interviewer to ask Dec what he thinks of it 😍 I bet he'd blush and Ant would laugh at how cute he looks.

Okay on with the story...

I've decided, after two weeks experience, that I do not like travelling.

It felt like we'd been on the move for months now, we'd ridden through the night on most occasions and taken only an hour break as The Prince wanted to cover as much ground as possible. I was lucky, for most of the journey I could ride Bambi but all the soldiers had to walk and I couldn't even imagine walking that far.

On the occasions where we did stop for the night it was nice, Ant, Robbie, Stevie and me always slept around the same campfire and every night I'd practice my reading with Ant. I was getting better, I could sort of read the smaller words with some of Ant's help and almost do whole sentences with only a little help. After I got too tired to carry on, he'd continue a bit more of the story until I'd fall asleep snuggled safely in his arms.

We'd just managed to exit the mountain pass after 16 days of travelling. Despite Ants precautions of having men scouting the Rocky terrain above us we were lucky and weren't ambushed once.

One thing that moving with an army did do, was bring everyone closer together. I had a lot more friends in the camp and felt like I was part of a little family. Of course there were the occasional argument, usually resulting in violence, but that was expected when everyone was tired and hungry and very close to each other. Ant or Robbie always sorted those out pretty quickly though.

On the 17th day we'd crossed quite far into the southern lands, and had descended into thick forests. Ant insisted we found a nice clearing to rest in so once we'd finally found a place to camp I was worried I was moulded onto my saddle and that I wouldn't be able to get off. I was so achy, hungry, tired and my butt really hurt, I was not a happy Declan.

Ant seemed fine as he pulled out of the roll matts and worked with Robbie to get a campfire going. I fed and watered Bambi, unhooking the equally grumpy Chips and Tekka from the cart. I tied the two bigger horses next to Bambi and got to work on giving them a nice scrub down before bed. It was getting dark by the time I'd given their teeth a clean, checked their hooves and removed their bridles and saddles.

When I was finished with my chores, I gave all three a goodnight hug and wandered quietly back to where Stephen was cooking some dinner. My nose twitched as the warm smell of stew wafted by, I grinned, "Smells good Stevie."

"Thanks." He deadpanned with disinterest but I shrugged it off, I think he liked me really. Ant was sharpening his sword against a tree with Coco grazing around the grass beside him, they made quite a handsome pair those two. 

The beautiful black stallion looked up when I approached and stepped forward to affectionately rub his large furry cheek against mine. I giggled and petted the large horse's head before reaching into my pocket and pulling out a sugary treat.

"Don't tell the others," I whispered cheekily, placing a kiss on Coco's snout and looking down at Ant who was watching me with amusement. 

"You need to stop spoiling him." He commented and I laughed, grabbing my book from my bag and making my way back over to Ant easily.

"You're just jealous cause he likes me better." Ant chuckled and placed down his sword so he could open up his arms for me to cuddle up into.

"He only likes you because you'd let him get away with murder."