Breaking a tale

Dawn - Jumping into a river wasn't on my to do list today

Acerola was the most unorganised city I had ever visited. Biron and I found ourselves riding around in circles, desperately trying to avoid the swarms of people. We realised that it would definitely be easier to travel around the city on foot so we found a small stable and paid for the horses to stay there for a while. We then went out to explore the city. It was completely terrifying. There were people rushing around everywhere, pushing and shoving through the crowds. We were both slightly shocked. After riding through the wilderness and not seeing anybody for several days, being around so many people, so many sounds was overwhelming.

Even though Biron had lived in the palace for several weeks he hadn't been allowed out into the city, so he was as lost as I was. We decided that the first thing we needed to do was find a room for us to rent that we could use as a base camp. Then I planned to go shopping for some new clothes, I had been wearing the same outfit for over a week now and Biron only had two outfits, we really hadn't packed properly when we left Hemlock. Luckily Biron had plenty of money left over so that definitely wasn't a problem.

While we were talking a man approached us, he was wearing a smart uniform and had a small dagger attached to his belt, I assumed he must have been a security guard on his lunch break. He approached us with a large smile and greeted us.

"Biron! What are doing back here!" he whispered, "Everyone in the kingdom is looking for you!"

I stared at him in confusion, Biron hadn't been allowed out of the palace so the chances of somebody recognising him were very slim, especially somebody knowing his real name as on the royal tours Biron was only introduced as "the prince".

Biron looked as shocked as I was. "What do you mean everyone is looking for us?"

We came to the same realisation, we had both been missing for over a week now so of course, people were looking for him, news had also probably spread quickly, we were lucky we hadn't been spotted before now really. Biron and the man continued speaking, he must have been good friends with him while he lived in the palace, while they chatted I waited silently next to them, waiting for them to notice that they had forgotten about me. After a while, Biron finally remembered I existed.

"Oh yeah, this is Dawn," he said, turning towards me to introduce me to his friend, "Dawn this is Clive, he works as one of the palace guards."

I gave a polite smile. I was pleased with being finally included but slightly alarmed at Clive's job, he had the potential to ruin everything for us and meeting with him could have put us in more danger. My face must have been more readable than I thought as he spoke kindly, reassuring me that he wouldn't cause any problems.

"Don't worry princess, I'm not going to blow your cover. It's completely reasonable for you guys to want to get to know each other alone before your relationship is launched into the public spotlight." Clive smiled as he said this "What have you to been up to, on your rendezvous?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows cheekily.

I felt myself blush and looked over to see Biron blushing in embarrassment as well. Even though I liked the idea of pretending to have a relationship with Biron and that I was the princess I knew it wasn't right and Biron would never forgive me so I decided to tell Clive the truth. While telling him everything that had happened so far and that I wasn't actually the princess his expression changed dramatically, he went from being cheerful and smiling to looking incredibly worried. He didn't look angry as such, just scared for our safety.

"And you see I'm not actually the princess, my sister Luna is and we need to find her!" I said, finishing my story. Even though I had left out several parts such as anything to do with dragons, Clive still looked appalled.