The Crown Prince Thinks I'm a Guy

The Test of Waning: The Cave

I've teleported before, thanks to Regina and the Order, but it still left me feeling queasy. The moment our whole bodies turned from something liquid to something more solid, I could hear the muffled groans of the others in our team.

I managed to land on my feet, albeit a little unsteadily. Charles kept a tight grip on my hand, and he too kept his balance. In fact, he didn't look all too bothered by our mode of travel.

'He must've travelled a lot through teleportation, being a prince and all,' I thought. I also remembered how my brothers would use teleportation to go to and fro in the continent, but that would be years from now. Maybe Charles was a little different, being the crown prince of the Empire itself...

"You alright?" he asked, still not taking his hand away from mine.

"Yeah," I replied honestly.

He frowned. "You don't need to lie. The first time I teleported alone I had to stay in bed for half a day."

Laughing, I said, "Well, at least you didn't puke."

He looked at me strangely. "... Have you teleported before?"

I blinked innocently up at him. "How could I? I only heard rumors about it."

"Huh..." he said, although his brown eyes kept looking down at me with suspicion. I only replied with a wide smile.

Our little bubble soon got broken by the sounds of someone vomiting. I groaned as I made to approach the dark haired prince, breaking away from Charles' hold.

"Albert? Are you alright?" I asked in worry, feeling the others come towards us as well.

"Ho... Even I'm feelin' like that time my Ma fed me that awful cooking from another continent-" Joren mumbled, and then crouched down beside me. I looked down at him in pity.

"Don't worry," I said. "The nausea will be gone in a few minutes. It's just your physical body and your notes gradually coming back together."

"And I suppose you heard that from rumors as well?" Charles asked with a knowing smile.

I laughed. "Rumors get really detailed these days."

"Sure," Charles replied with a shrug.

With that, I looked around at our group. Charles and I were perfectly fine. Joren was still crouching down with his head against his knees, and Albert was still emptying up his rather big breakfast. Turning to look around, I saw that we were in some sort of cave, although it wasn't as dark as it should be. I couldn't even see the exits.

I went around after patting Charles' shoulder, looking for the other two members. It didn't take long for me to find them. They were huddled up together on the ground, looking like they were well asleep. With their dark clothes, it was no wonder we didn't immediately see them.

Kneeling down, I prodded at the boy's frail-looking shoulders. "Jordan?"

With a slight delay, he started to rouse. He blinked up at me for a short moment, his mind probably still not understanding the situation.

"Feeling okay?" I asked. This time, his eyes began to clear up, but in turn, his face paled even more.

"Ugh!" he let out a groan, and began to sit up. For a moment, he only stared at the ground of the cave, taking slow and long breaths. After a while, he started to mutter, "Damn. I never thought teleportation would be this bad."

I chuckled, and deemed him on the right path of recovery. So, I edged towards the other dozing creature. Placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, I mumbled, "Kendra? Wake up."