Vara

Chapter 9

Her 'joyride,' if it could be called that, was over fairly quickly. He dropped her off his shoulders like she was dead weight - which she was at that point. She was so tired she had given up struggling very quickly. "You smell like shit." He groaned. Vara didn't move from her spot on the floor and pouted. "I just ran through the forest all day, keeping your baby sister from danger to the best of my abilities, and all you can say is that I smell like shit? Wow." She was definitely not in a good mood.... but he had tile flooring. It was so cold against her skin; she just wanted to lay there and relax.

Prince Jorik had been pacing around his room while she.... laid there like a rag doll. Unmoving, except for her chest that rose and fell slowly, letting him know she was, in fact, still alive. "You know, you're right." Jorik turned and gave her a small smirk. "Normally, when a servant does something like this, we give them a small piece of land and money. I suppose I should upgrade your status as well," he spoke, moving to sit on the edge of his bed and watched as the muscles in her stomach clenched, the girl sitting up just enough to lean back on her elbows from her spot on the floor.

"That isn't very funny, your highness." Vara gave him a deadpanned expression. He stared at her for a few moments - her skin was flecked with mud and dirt. She had small scratches along her arms and even had some twigs in her hair. "I wasn't trying to be funny. Technically, my sister had given you a promotion of sorts - you went from my gopher to a lady-in-waiting. Who am I to-"

"You better not." Vara interrupted quickly. "I'm not going back into that market. I'm not wearing those awful, uncomfortable panels of fabric your sister calls 'clothes'." She was very quick to show her disdain. But the smirk on the prince's face gave away his response before he could even speak. "Actually, you are. Don't worry, you won't be going to the market - that place is too crowded for my liking." he gave her a wink, which confused her. Snapping his fingers, Portia and Nazalia burst into the room, giggling loudly, bowing to the prince before grabbing Vara by the arm each. 

The look of sheer horror on Vara's face made the man laugh as she was dragged into his bathroom, shouting, "No! You'll get rid of my protective layer!"

Normally, Jorik would at least consider her 'request' of not dressing up, but after what had happened earlier that day.... he was wary. Despite how he came off, he did care about Elira and would be keeping a closer eye on her... and as a reward, a closer eye on Vara. Vara risked her life to keep his baby sister safe; Now, it was his turn to keep both of them safe.

The prince tried not to listen to the splashing water and girls giggling in the washroom connected to his bedroom. Nazali and Portia were following his orders - cleaning Vara up and forcing her into a dress. Nothing fancy like his sister had or even what the ladies in waiting would wear when following the princess around. He tried to ignore it. The sound. It wasn't a terrible noise, but he isn't used to people in his personal space aside from himself and sometimes Vara when she decided to annoy him.

A rather loud splash made Jorik look over to the door and rolled his eyes when one of the girls started scolding Vara for pulling her in. "Well, maybe if you didn't drag me in here, you wouldn't be soaking wet right about now!"

Letting out a sigh, he decided to be useful and walked out of his room. Sometimes he had to remind himself that Vara was a slave - even though he let Vara say and do a lot of things that would normally get someone like her in trouble. It took years to build that trust with her - four years of work. At first, she spoke hardly a word to him, cowering in his presence. But slowly, she started opening up. Hell, he was still working on getting her to open up to him. It isn't as if he wanted a friend; he was a prince - he had many friends. 

But she was getting closer and closer to being a true friend. She knew her place and knew there was no way to use him to ever rise above her station - yet, she could speak freely with him and not have to worry about whether or not she would be punished for telling him he was stupid. And for that, he would reward her with treats... and making her do something insanely stupid. He had sent her out for Alpyte - but that was out of revenge. While cleaning, she had knocked over a stack of paperwork and tried putting everything back... and instead of admitting that she was the one who knocked over the papers, she lied and said it must have been someone else.