The Princess, Her Wolf, and The Stray Mutt

“Let me get this straight… You grew up together with a princess… on the street?”, asked Violet still wrestling with that idea.

“Well, no… Hina and I lived on the streets… Lena just… ran away from the castle a lot and stayed with us…”, explained Caleb.

“I was a bit of a troublemaker.”, interjected Lena and chuckled.

“A bit?”, asked Caleb incredulously.

“Was?”, came simultaneously from Hina.

“Hey!... hm… I can’t really argue against it…”, said Lena pensively.

They all started laughing. Only about an hour had passed since Alex, Caleb, Violet and Cera helped fight Hina off a bandit attack. They decided to camp together for the day a bit further down the road. Now they sat around a campfire nibbling on their simple dinner consisting of hard bread, a bit of smoked bacon and cheese.

“But a princess! Isn’t a princess supposed to do… you know… princess things?”, said Violet.

“And what, pray tell my dear, are those … princess things… you speak of?”, asked Lena looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Well you know… having tea parties, learning to dance, eating with way too many different kinds of knifes and forks, spreading the latest castle gossip… you know! Princess stuff…”

“Oh, you mean like learning boring stuff in order to impress some old fart you eventually get shipped off to marry for political gain?”

“Yeah! Exactly that!”, exclaimed Violet excited

“Oh yeah… they tried doing that…”

“And failed miserably…”, added Hina.

“Hey! I do know how to eat with way too many forks and knives! You go from the outside to the inside… I think… or is it the opposite?... Ah, whatever… when in doubt, just use your fingers… I prefer to grab meat with my bare hands anyway…”, said Lena while shrugging.

“Lena! That’s no way for a princess to talk!”, commented Caleb.

“What? I didn’t say… what kind... of meat!”, countered Lena with a big innocent smile.

Caleb didn’t say anything back.

“I see that even years apart from each other does not change a thing between you two…”, said Hina while shaking her head.

“Ok… so you ran away often and played with those two…”, summarized Violet.

“Yeah! Played, stole, got chased through narrow passageways, got beaten up, beat others up… the full street kid package.”

“Well… most of the time I got beaten up…”, said Caleb, sighing.

“And I did most of the beating up.”, said Hina, laughing.

“Then one day I decided to take those two with me into the castle. I always was the odd one in the royal family… and since I was just the fourth princess, nobody really cared what I did anyway, so no body batted an eye when I brought in a proud street wolf and a flea-ridden stray mutt.”, recounted Lena.

Hina laughed and Caleb pouted a bit.

“So, you lived in a castle?”, asked Violet astonished.

“Yeah… for part of my life.”, answered Caleb.

“What did you do there?”

“Hm… studied a bit and did some training…”

“And two-thirds of the maids…”, added Lena casually.

“And some of the noble women…”, added Hina grinning.

“I… uhm… well... yeah…”, admitted Caleb and went a bit red.

“And then one day, you were just suddenly gone… no goodbye… at least not to me…”, said Lena and looked at Caleb.

He dodged her gaze.

“I had … my reasons…”, he said quietly.

“Did you? You know… I never found out with whose wife you had an affair and whose wrath you had to flee… Hina would not tell me…”, said Lena with a slight accusatory undertone.

“What affair?”, asked Caleb perplexed.

“What else could it have been?”

“You may not believe it, but there were… other reasons…”

“You’re right… I don’t believe it… at least not with you.”

Lena stared directly into Calebs eyes. He averted his gaze first.

“Well, whatever… you came back… at least… And with new companions! It’s a pleasure to meet you all. I hope he did not cause you too much trouble.”, she continued and looked at Cera, Violet and Alex.

“No, no… not much...”, said Violet.

Lena’s gaze stayed a bit longer on her than the others. The face had a friendly smile, but the blue eyes had this intense energy. Violet felt like sitting across a mountain lion getting ready to pounce. She averted her gaze. Lena stood up still smiling.

“All right… I’m sorry to leave you so soon for the night, but I think that was enough action for me today, and we have a long way ahead of us starting tomorrow. We will travel together, right? Since we have the same destination after all? I would love to get to know you all a lot better”, she asked into the round, her eyes again lingering a bit longer on Violet.

“Yeah sure!”, said Alex surprisingly fast.

Lena nodded.

“Good. Then I wish you a good night! Ladies, gentlemen… and Caleb…”, she said and went to the Carriage.

Hina followed and they both vanished into it. Caleb and Cera went to the cart and grabbed their sleeping rolls.

Alex quickly turned towards Violet.

“You never told me!”, he said trying to stay quiet.

“What?”, said Violet confused.

“That there are people… like her!”

“Princesses?”

“Not that one! The other one!”

“Beastfolk?”

“YES!”

“So what? You knew about elves and dwarves, so I thought you would know about other races too?”

“NO!... Well yes, but… not every fantasy world has ca-…uhm… Beastfolk people in them! I did not know this was one of them!”

“So? What does it matter?”

“Well… it matters to me!”

“Why?”

“Why? Well… hmm… It just does, okay? Just… forget it… I’ll go to sleep.”

With that Alex stood up and got his sleeping roll as well. Violet watched him very confused but then went to sleep too.

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.

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Alex woke up, still thinking about what happened yesterday. To clear his mind, he decided to do some morning practice. A bit away Alex found a nice spot and started with some swings. He swung wider, turned his body and felt resistant. The typical clang of steel-on-steel rang through the silence of the morning.

“Up early and training? I like that…”, said Hina holding her sword sideways and blocking Alex’s axe.

He jumped back in surprise.

“I… uhm… yeah…”, Alex mumbled.

“Why do you keep staring at me? I know that we Beastfolk are rare, but we are not that special…”

Hina tilted her head a bit and looked at Alex. Her ears pointed at him and her tail slowly moving from side to side.

“I… uhm… sorry…. I didn’t want to… I just… have never seen someone… like you…”

“You mean muscle brained and with scars all over her body? With no cutesy feminine charm whatsoever?”

“No… very cute… and alluring…”

“What the…? Dude, did you get hit on the head yesterday? Cute? Me? Do your eyes even work?”

“Well… I mean cute in a sexy, I’m gonna crush you with my thighs, Wolf mommy, kind of way…”

Hina’s brows went up and her tail stopped moving.

“Look at that… the pup, tries to be flirty…”, She said tilting her head a bit more and moving her tail a bit faster.

Hina swirled her sword around and pointed it at Alex.

“But it takes more than flirty words, to get these thighs, pup.”, she said while having a wolfish grin on her face.

Alex twirled his axe around and met her sword.

“I would hope so.”, he said with a sheepish grin on his face.