Ambrose Ashvale

I stood there standing in Amber’s room, skimming over the book from earlier as Amber slightly adjusted to the morning light peering into her room from the grimy windows.

With a struggle, she finally woke up and seated herself on the edge of her bed. However, her demeanour changed the minute she noticed me standing at her doorway as she frantically rushed to cover herself with her blanket.

“AIZAWA, WHAT THE HELL-

“Ambrose Ashvale,” I closed the book with a snap, “or should I say princess Ambrose Ashvale,”

Her eyebrows creased and her lips tightened as her eyes pierced into mine.

“You know, it took me a while to figure out, but wow,” I walked over to Amber, “it was right in front me; the reading, the books, the education.”

She turned her face away, looking at her feet dangling from the edge of her bed, “I’m not a princess,” she whispered.

“What?”

She sighed and then proceeded to throw her pillow towards me with all her might that I barely managed to avoid.

“I wasn’t in line to the throne of Ur,” she said, her voice low as if to avoid being overheard, “It was my cousin.”

“What? It says right here that the King of Ur,” I opened the book again, flicking through the pages, “was Regus Ashvale,”

Amber rubbed the grit from her eyes, and yawned a bit before looking around at further objects to throw at me.

“Look, what in heavens, are you doing entering a girl’s room like that?” she finally said, standing up and walking over to me.

“I’m going to count to five and if you’re not out of here by four, I’m going to scream.” she said, holding up a fist.

“Hey, now hold on just a second,”

“One,” she raised her finger on the fist she held up.

“Look, I couldn’t sleep all night and I just had to know-”

“Two,” she raised her middle finger.

“It’s not fair, I want to understand what happened and why you hid all of this from-”

“Three,”

I finally stomped my foot on the ground and turned around, opening the door behind me as I stormed out.

“AT LEAST CLOSE THE DOOR WHEN YOU BARGE INTO MY ROOM,” was the voice that cried out from behind me as I made my way to the stairwell.

“CLOSE IT YOURSELF,” I yelled, making my way downstairs to seat myself at the counter.

Otto greeted me with a smile so wide you could see whatever teeth he had left from underneath his gigantic beard, “back to normal, is she?”

“Can’t say for sure, but definitely better than she was last night,”

“What’ll it be?” he patted me on my arm.

“Just some bread and whatever dried meat you have, please,”

“Coming right up,” said Otto as he turned around and made his way over to a storage unit.

As I sat at the counter, the tavern, still empty on account of it being just a half hour past sunrise caught my attention.

“Otto?”

“Yes?” he replied, his back turned, shifting through what seemed to be different pieces of sourdough bread.

“What can you tell me about the 17 year war?”

His movements came to an almost sudden halt for a few seconds before proceeding to shift through again, finally picking one out and placing it in front of me.

“What can I tell ya,” he sighed, “lot’s of deaths,”

He slid over the sourdough bread across the counter, “best in the house,”

“The war ended nearly 20 years ago, didn’t it?”

Before Otto could respond to my interrogation, Amber made her way down the stairs, stretching her hands, before letting out a small scoff seeing me at the counter.

She sat down next to me, greeting Otto with a smile but turning her head and scoffing at me once again.

“What can I get ya, deary,” he laughed.

“Just some dried meat, thank you, Otto,” she smiled back.

Otto got the both of us some dried meat strips that were a bit too hard to chew, but at this point, had become second nature to me and left the two of us to mop down a few of the tables at the tavern.

“I was 5 at the time,” she finally spoke up, quietly as if trying her very best to avoid Otto from eavesdropping, who probably couldn’t hear a word besides his own horrible singing.

“My father,” she said, sinking her head low, staring at the food in front of her, “Arthur Ashvale, was the youngest son of Regus, and also the commander of the military force,”

“So, I was right, you were a princess-”

“Shhh!” she glanced over her shoulder at Otto, who still seemed to be occupied with his earlier task.

“Was a princess, yes,” she said, her face and ears red with embarrassment for a few seconds before she cleared her throat to speak again.

“However, my uncle, and now ruler of Ur, Alaric decided he’d be better off,” she clenched her fists together, and grit her teeth, “if he got rid of father and mother.”

She paused for a second and sighed, “to get rid of everyone to claim the throne for himself,”

“But mother caught wind of his scheme and fled the palace with me one night and traversed the mountain range…all by herself, too, you know,” a faint smile spread across her face.

“Until we got captured by the forces here, and then…” she fell into silence once more, her eyes on the verge of tears, “they took away mother and me, sending me to a slave market,”

“So your mother,”

“I don’t know. I’d like to think she’s out there somewhere, but I’d rather not,” she said, finally picking up the dried meat and giving it a tug with her teeth.

My heart felt heavy, and for the first time in my life, I seemed to be at a loss for words. I didn’t know how to respond, or how to console her but my body moved instinctively when I reached out and pulled her towards me, hugging her in an embrace, my arms wrapped tightly around her.

“I’m sorry,” I finally spoke.

“Stop being stupid…why would you be sorry-” were the words that she managed to get out before tears started streaming down her face.

“I’m sorry you had to go through all of it alone, Amber,” I said pulling away and wiping the tears from her face, “and I can understand how alone you must have felt. “

She looked up into my eyes as my hand wiped away the rest of the tears dripping down her face.

“And now you’ll leave to the capital,” she whimpered, “what about then?”

“No, don’t worry, I won’t go anywher-

“Ye folks need some beer or some wine to go down with that meat-,” said Otto barging in, his eyes widening before tip-toeing out of view again.

We both pulled away, and looked down at our unfinished plates. My face started to grow hot, and I adjusted my tie to no avail before looking at Ashley who seemed to have completely hidden her face behind her hands.

She took a deep breath and got up, fleeing up the stairs again, leaving most of her food untouched.