The Prince's Trust

Refuge

^^damn Dec 🤤

Super long chapter this time, sorry about the delay 😬  warnings here for mild mentions of rape ⚠️

Please enjoy and comment because it keeps be going knowing you guys enjoy it ❤️

The editing on this probably isn't great but I'm so tired these days my attention span is a bit lacking 😅 I think it's legible

A whole week passed of basically nothing... or atleast nothing I cared about anyway. I was stressed, as soon as I left my room there would be atleast one councilman waiting to talk to me about his new tax plans that we're going to 'benefit the crown' or rebellion soldiers hand me papers that apparently 'I must read' because they wanted more resources that I didn't know if they needed.

Anne hadn't let me out of the castle to go exploring, claiming that she was waiting for the her royal guard to return from far south so I'd be protected. I tried to argue that I didn't need protection and that I was protected, but with Carter gone on his mission and Ant working all the time the truth was that my only protection was a 5"5' gardener and an even smaller boy who struggled to walk in a straight line without bumping into a wall or something.

The only good thing about my days were the times I got to spend with Ant, almost every night he'd sneak into my room and we'd just cuddle and talk. I wanted to go further with him... but he said it felt wrong with my mother at the end of the corridor. Which actually, I agreed with.

It was the start of the first autum month. Much to my disappointment, when id woken up that morning Ant was already gone, I was a little upset that we couldn't cuddle a bit in the but when Forrest came barging into my quarters like a stampeding elephant I was glad of the Prince's sudden disappearance.

Forrest had too much energy for such an early time in the morning, it made my head spin as he pushed back all the curtains and tugged off the thick layers of blankets covering my star-fished body. I don't think the younger boy once paused to take a breath as he yapped endlessly about my plans for today and a few princely duties I had to perform.

I just buried my face into my pillow to block out the light and pouted a little into the fabric when I felt a hand tugging at my ear.

Very slowly, with a quiet frown etched on my sleep ridden face, I lifted my head to squint up at my attacker only for my eyes to widened suddenly at Ember sat there, tugging at my ear with a face of concentration, as if expecting something to crawl out.

He didn't notice me staring right at him, only frowned deeply and shook his head, mumbling some incoherent words under his breath before standing up to move towards the window which looked out to the settlement.

I decided it was best not to spend time deciphering what was going on in the unique mind of the small ginger and turned my attention to Forrest only to have it drawn straight back to Ember when the absent boy walked into a table.

"Firefly. What did we literally say about looking where we are walking?" Forrest chided and Ember blushed, tiptoeing overcautiously around the giant table as if worried it would try and bite his ankles off before stepping up to the window as he'd planned.

I giggled and bum shuffled off the edge of my bed so I could plop my feet down onto the cold stone floor.

I yawned widely and rubbed at my eyes, frowning when I watched Forrest playing with the crown left on the side of my bed. A black and gold crown, very unlike the silver and emerald one I usually wore which was sitting by the dresser.