Ambush Aftermath

Having run over to us after the dust had settled, Zoe took Father Albert off my hands. “Grab Mira and get to the wagon,” she said. Though Zoe was usually the calm and collected type, the cadence in her voice was frantic as she turned her gaze towards the former battlefield.

Chris and Luke were carrying Caleb over their shoulders as they sprinted towards the undamaged wagon; Sir Nathan followed behind them with Mabel in his arms, a deep gash running down the left side of her face.

“Noel, get a move on,” Alice cried from the wagon, snapping me back into action.

I grabbed Mira, mustering all of the strength in my legs to lift her. Luckily for me, despite appearances when it came to height, Mira was incredibly light, picking her up was like lifting a newborn.

After we poured all of the injured in, we set off on the road. Zoe drove the carriage, pushing the two steeds to their limit. Sir Nathan and Chris followed behind us on the horses that no longer had a wagon to pull.

Sir Nathan had originally planned to trot behind us at a significantly slower pace as he would have had to deal with the both of the wagon-less horses on his own. That was when Chris, having learned to ride horses from a young age thanks to his family owning a ranch back in Mexico, volunteered to ride alongside him one of the two horses. Having solved the issue of transport, we moved on to face an even graver issue.

Father Albert was still breathing but had been unresponsive to Alice’ and her healing. According to Alice, he needed a higher level healer to diagnose and treat him, a healer that would only be found in a decently sized city. This meant we’d have to make a slight detour on our journey.

As for the others, they mostly had minor wounds and ailments plagueing them. Caleb had thankfully woken up and was currently using Remeura on himself, slowly but steadily his chest wound was closing itself up. Mira had exhausted herself to the point of unconsciousness, but was soundly sleeping it off, Luke kept a close eye on her just in case.

No, there was only one other person in serious condition. Mabel. She had taken a similar strike to the one Caleb had been hit with, but she hadn’t been as lucky as him. While Caleb’s injury was just constrained to the chest, Mabel’s wound stretched from the left side of her face all the way down to her right thigh.

Seeing as there was nothing that could be done for Father Albert besides keeping an eye on him, Alice had turned all of her healing and attention onto Mabel. The swordswoman had lost a high amount of blood, her face began to slowly drain its color.

I could do nothing more than watch as they both suffered as death closed in on them.

It was as feelings of uselessness flooded in that I felt tiny hands grab my sleeve. Kat tugged at me with a hung head, worry painted all over her face.

“Will Mabel be okay?” Her voice was tiny, but I managed to hear her question. I turned away from Kat, watching as Alice poured everything she had into closing Mabel’s wound.

The look on Alice’s face wasn’t of sadness, or worry, or even fear. The only word fit to describe her as a whole, as she rolled her sleeves up and tied her hair back with a ribbon, was determination. As long as she was able to keep producing magic and sustain her healing spell, she wouldn’t let Mabel die, that was what the look in her eyes told me.

“Mabel will be fine, she's one of the strongest knights I’ve ever met.” I patted Kat while slightly ruffling her hair, her incredibly tiny head fitting in the palm of my hand. She looked up at me with hopeful eyes to which I greeted with a smile. “And she’s got the best healer that one could ever hope to have in these woods.”

She nodded, leaning her head on my arm while watching her sister with admiration as Alice finished closing Mabel’s wounds.

Alice collapsed back onto her seat, all of her exhaustion visibly washing over her.

“Thank you,” Caleb said, giving Alice a nod of respect.

Alice shook her head. “Please, it's the least I could do. I can’t have people in my care suffering while I do nothing.”

“Still,” I said, “you did good, so good work.”

A resigned smile appeared on Alice’s face. “Thanks.”

Though Zoe had us at full speed, the ride was oddly smooth, smooth enough that the little rocking of the wagon that we felt had rocked Kat to sleep. She held onto my arm as she gently snored into my chest.

“Looks like someone didn’t get enough sleep last night,” Luke whispered.

Alice softly chuckled, “she was waiting for me the entire time I was out of the tent.”

“I’m sorry for keeping you late then,” I said.

Alice’s cheeks turned red, she shook her head after pulling the ribbon out of her hair. “I’m not.”

Despite there being two openings on the sides allowing the cool morning breeze to blow through, I started to feel warm under my collar. It didn’t help that Luke was now staring at me with an intense gaze. Luckily, Caleb was there to change the atmosphere.

“Hmh? I suppose you two did take your time, I almost went looking for you but I realized you were just probably having to, well, relieve your rears and just didn’t want to tell me.”

“I did no such thing,” Alice protested. Caleb and Alice had a long back and forth while Luke and I laughed along, our brief time of respite lasted until we made it to a city’s gates.

Zoe pulled the wagon to the side as one of the city’s guards ordered her to do. Sir Nathan rode forward to speak with the guard.

“You people merchants or something?” the guard asked with a lazy voice, not even bothering to check the inside of the wagon.

“I am Nathan Marshall, we wish to enter your city under the authority of the Holy Knights.”

“Holy Knights? I thought you knights were supposed to wear knight’s armor or something.”

Sir Nathan sighed with exasperation. “Were attacked at dawn, my armor along with most of my supplies were destroyed.”

“Likely story.”

“I am telling you the truth sir.”

“Sure you are, and I bet you got a Duke’s daughter in your wagon.”

“That is beside the poi-”

“Listen pal, without identification we can’t let you in, them's the rules. Besides, for all I know you could be an Imperial spy.”

Zoe, fed up with the conversation, stood up and shouted at the man, “Listen here, we have two of Duke Uriel’s daughters in here, injured holy knights, an unconscious priest, and the heroes of legend resting inside of this wagon.” Zoe hopped off the wagon’s driver’s seat. She stuck an accusatory finger at the guard. “Besides, no Imperial spy would bother infiltrating this town if it's just full of idiot individuals, such as yourself.”

“Watch your tongue girl, I could have you thrown into the dungeons if you mouth off any more than you’ve already have.”

“Watch my tongue? You should be the one watching their tongue for you are currently speaking to the most capable maid under Wallace family’s banner.”

“Right, looks like you need to be taught a lesson.”

Sir Nathan tried his best to quickly dismount but he was too late, the guard swung his leather gloved hand, sending Zoe down to the ground. Anger flashed in Alice’s face, she swiped at the gemstone in her hand, causing it to glow a familiar golden brown.

A huge boulder with legs flew from atop his horse and rammed against the guard, slamming him against the city’s gates.

“Is this how you treat your fellow citizens?,” Chris roared with a beastly tongue. “Hitting a fellow citizen and refusing to aid these kingdom nobles.? Maybe you’re the Imperial spy.” Chris’ turned his stone head to me, “What was it that Duke fella said back then?” He turned back to the guard, letting him go with one hand and raising it to his face as a sharp spike formed at the end of his arm. “Treason is punishable by execution.” Chris pulled his arm back as he readied to pierce the guard’s head when our young maid jumped onto Chris’ arm and held on.

“Wait, you can beat him up for all I care, but please Chris, don’t bloody your hands just for my sake” she pleaded as she stared at Chris’ golden eyes with her own copper eyes.

Chris let the guard go, causing him to land on his ass, hard. He gently lowered his striking arm until Zoe’s feet managed to touch and land softly on the ground. Even after she was lowered, Zoe still held onto him. “I’m sorry,” Chris said as his beastly voice warbbled down into his softer, happy-go-lucky voice. “My punches won’t hurt enough and my enhanced ones will put a hole through him.”

The guard rose to his feet while muttering, “thank the gods,” under his breath. The sudden bounce I felt from the wagon, however, was going to prove to the guard that the gods weren’t in his favor today.

“I’ll do it then,” Luke said as jumped out of the wagon. He ran towards the guard and landed an uppercut to the guard’s chin. The guard once again fell on his ass but did not get back up. “Lights out for this guy, maybe once he wakes he’ll reflect on his shit attitude.”

Sir Nathan let out a sigh as he rummaged through the guard’s things before finding the key to the gate. “I really need Caleb and Mabel back in action to deal with these kids,” he muttered as he unlocked the gate.

Chris, having seen Father Albert do it plenty of times graciously conjured a stone chair and plopped the sleeping guard on it. Sir Nathan tossed the key on the guards lap and we all headed inside, making sure to close the gate behind us.

It was quite the bustling place, stalls lined the open street with vendors offering various foods, items, and materials. Men, women, and children walking in and out of shops with satisfied looks on their faces. The whole place itself was rather clean and well maintained, not a single rundown structure in sight.

“With a place this peaceful, no wonder the guard was able to laze about without a care in the world,” Zoe told her Lady.

“It's just like the market place back home,” Alice said as Kat nodded in agreement. Though she had barely woken from her sleep, Kat watched on in awe at all the food stalls selling rather scrumptious smelling foods..

“Well, first things first,” Sir Nathan said. “We have to get our injured treated. Zoe, Sir Chris, follow me if you will.” He led the charge forward. The people on the street turned to us, watching us as if we were an odd little parade put up by a struggling group of performers.

Sir Nathan, the knight without armor, Zoe, a maid with dirt stains all over her ruffled outfit, and Chris who, although was wearing a academy uniform like me, was riding his horse like he was an outlaw in some old spaghetti western you might catch on a channel full of old movie reruns. He even tipped his imaginary hat at a mother accompanied by her three small children, the mother gave a wry smile as her children all began mimicking Chris’ riding pose.

Billy the Kid? More like Chris, the child at heart.

Sir Nathan had us stop in front of a huge building with a sign proudly advertising their services. After a dull pang of pain, the characters slowly morphed into the words “Nature’s Clinic.”

Even without reading the name, one could tell it was a place of healing considering it had an abundance of medicinal looking plants plastered on the windows that gave off the feeling of medicine and home remedies. The place also had a giant logo of a brown haired man holding up a glass container full of purple liquid while giving a thumbs up. 

Sir Nathan led us inside where two people in robes greeted us before rushing over and taking Father Albert and Mabel off our hands, placing the two of them on makeshift cots.

Meanwhile Luke and I sat Caleb on a chair while Chris sat Mira on a chair across from us.. Caleb thanked us while Mira gave a loud snore. “Guess she’s thanking us in her dreams,” Chris loudly joked.

“She can thank us by buying us all triple patty burgers when we get back home,” Luke said to himself with a beaming smile.

“When? So, you’re confident we’ll actually find some answers at the Sanctum,” I whispered.

“Of course.” Luke turned to glance at Chris and Mira before turning to face me. “But even if we don’t, as long as we stick together, nothing will stop us from finding a way back ourselves.”

A pair of broad arms wrapped around me and Luke as Chris joined our little circle. “Damn right we will, especially now that Mira can kick some butt with us now.”

Luke laughed, shoving Chris off him. “And I’m sure yours will kick in soon too Noel.”

“...I hope so.”

Sir Nathan and Alice decided it would be best if we split off into groups, some would stay while the others went out and got food for all of us. Considering our breakfast had ended before it even started, the mention of food brought forth loud growls from the pits of Luke’s, Chris’,and Zoe’s stomachs and a soft growl from Kat’s tummy.

As for me, the strong coffee Father Albert had offered me had kept me fueled for quite a while, though it would be a lie if I said I wasn’t even a tiny bit peckish myself. Thus it was decided that us youth, with the exception of Alice and Mira, would head out and leave behind the older members of our group to care for the incapacitative. And so, Chris, Luke, Zoe, Kat, and myself hit the streets for our next meal. But, before we even hit the first food stall, a slight problem arose.

“Do any of you have money?” I asked, having remembered that Mira and Alice were the ones left in charge with the coin during our market shopping back at the castle.

Luke and Chris shook their heads no while Zoe gave a shrug. “I don’t keep my coins on me, I just leave them in my room. Usually I get Lady Alice to pay for my snacks.”

As we were all ready to turn back with our tails between our legs, Kat raised a rather large pouch to our faces. “Well, I have some.” She handed the bag to Zoe who then opened it revealing dozens of gold coins inside. “Its not much, just this month's allowance.”

Chris whispered into Zoe’s ear. “Psst, how much is that worth.” Zoe turned to Chris with wide eyes, this trip had caused Zoe to showcase a myriad of emotions to us.

“This is more than I make in a year.”

Chris immediately knelt on one knee, picking Kat up and sitting her over his shoulders. “Lady Katherine, you are our queen and we are nothing but your lowly subjects. Speak what you desire for our meal and we shall make it so.”

Kat laughed at Chris' charades, but took his words to heart as she started scanning the stalls with some very serious intent behind her eyes. She ended up pointing at a stall selling sweet bread and so Chris trotted both of them over to it. Kat began choosing some, picking out eleven pieces of bread, explaining her thought process to us, each piece was based on what she thought would match our tastes. When we returned to the apothecary-like clinic, Alice sighed as she saw nothing but treats instead of actual food. Sir Nathan laughed it off as he bit into the doughnut Kat handed him.

“I thought I told you all to get food, what is this?”

“But you also failed to send us off with any funds,” Zoe said blankly.

“And thus, Lady Katherine came to the rescue,” Chris said as if he was the class valedictorian giving some closing remarks at the end of a graduation ceremony.

“And I became the Queen of the Heroes," Kat giggled as Chris nodded smugly.

Alice sighed, though I wasn’t quite sure which ones of three had managed to break her final straw.

“If you can’t beat them, join them, here,” I said as I handed her an Eclair-looking treat. She stared at it for a bit but reluctantly accepted it, taking a small bite and chewing it slowly as she savored it. It seemed she hadn’t been fully convinced but her true thoughts escaped her mind and exited through her stomach as it rumbled even louder than ours had earlier.

Rather than be consumed by embarrassment, Alice did the consuming as she finished off her treat in mere seconds. After swallowing the last bite she smiled at me. “Thank you Noel. I suppose a little indulgence in sweets every now and then isn’t so bad.”

“Sis, you got to thank me too, I told Noel which one to get for you..”

“Is that so?” Alice reached out and gave Kat’s small foot a slight tug as it was dangling over Chris’ shoulder. Her sister giggled as she continued biting into the cookie that Chris had passed up to her. “Thank you too Kat.”

“You welcome sis.” After those of us able to eat finished our treats, Sir Nathan got around to explaining the current conditions of our injured.

Mabel had finally opened her eyes, she had tried to get up in a panic but Sir Nathan had managed to settle her down. Apparently seeing Sir Nathan, Caleb, and Alice safe and sound had caused her to immediately relax. Apparently, she then immediately drifted back to sleep.

“She was just glad to see we were okay, she must have thought it meant that everyone else was fine. As for Albert, the healers are not sure what's wrong with him, only that even if he wakes, he will not be in any condition to go anywhere for at least a few days, probably more.”

That was a rather somber explanation, just last night he had offered to teach me magic and now I’ve lost any opportunity of chatting with him any more.

“What now Captain?”

“I’m not sure myself. We can’t go back, they might be waiting to ambush us again. The city guards also likely won’t be much help even if we convince them to join us, especially after Sir Luke…”

“Knocked out one of their own barehanded in a single blow?”

“I fear your fists are as dangerous as the guard’s spear, but yes, that was what I was getting at.”

“What about adventurers?” Mira asked sleepily, waking up and yawning as she made herself more comfortable in her chair.

Kat quickly scurried off Chris’ back, like a squirrel that had spotted an acorn on the ground below, and ran over to Mira to give her a big hug.

“Mira, you’re awake.”

Mira smiled at her, hugging Kat back with just one arm. “Yup, although… ,” she said as she turned to look at us but then focused on Chris, who still had some crumbs on the sides of his mouth. “It seems like the whole class had a doughnut party without me. I feel a little left out here guys,” she said while looking at us expectantly.

“Yeah, yeah, here you go princess,” Luke said while handing her a giant chocolate chip cookie.

Kat turned to Luke and then back at Mira, her eyes beaming and her mouth opened wide. “That would make Mira my daughter.” Kat squeezed Mira even tighter.

“Huh?” Mira let out a confused grunt.

Ignoring the antics of his niece and the look of confusion on Mira’s face, Sir Nathan answered the earlier question. “Though adventures are cheap to hire, most aren’t willing to truly lay down their lives for those they are hired to protect. Mercenaries maybe, but there aren’t any local groups nearby.”

“Remeber kids, oaths are infinitely better than payments and contracts,” Caleb joked.

“So, do we press on, uncle?” Alice glanced at Kat, she turned to Sir Nathan with a look of worry.

“I’m afraid that might be the only option. If we can get to the Sanctum we’ll be able to enlist more Holy Knights on our return trip.”

“But what about Kat,” Alice whispered.

“We’ll sleep on that issue tonight, for now, I’d say we get as much food in our stomachs, supplies in our wagon, and rest in our bodies before tomorrow morning.” With that, Sir Nathan enlisted the help of Zoe as they headed off to find an inn that could accommodate all of us who wouldn’t be staying overnight at the clinic.

Those of us remaining split off into groups once more, Alice and Kat kept the still sleepy Mira company, Luke and Caleb watched over Mabel as she slept soundly, and Chris hung out with me as I watched over Father Albert.

The healers had removed all of the items Father Albert had on him, placing them on a tray on top of a nights stand next to his cot. Inside the tray was the old map the priest had used as he nagged directions in Sir Nathan’s ear on the way here, the crystal necklace that counteracted the effects of the absorption crystals, and lastly there was the tear-drop necklace he had shown me last night. I picked it up, slowly inspecting all the ways the glossy coating reflected the sunlight peering in from outside.

“The man was pretty funny for a priest.”

I laughed. “Not like the ones we knew back home.”

“I mean, they weren’t bad people or something.”

“I hope not, it's kind of their thing to live virtues lives.”

“Yeah, but the ones back in Catechism were, well… kind of mean.”

I shook my head. “Thats because you weren’t taking their lessons as seriously as you should have, leaning all the way back in your chair while resting your head back against your crossed hands. It was Catechism, not the beach man.”

“Yeah well, it certainly felt like the beaches back home, oddly cold and full of people.”

“I won’t deny that.” I gently placed the necklace back on the tray when an arm grabbed me. Father Albert had his hand stretched out against my arm, his eyes stayed closed but his lips cracked open.

“Noel… take it… with you…,” he croaked out. As quickly as he grabbed me, he fell unconscious just as fast. The healer on standby rushed over to see if he could keep Father Albert awake but it was to no avail.

“Did he say anything?” the healer asked.

“Nothing, just told me to hold onto his necklace.”

“The symbol of Flumen, the water god.” The healer turned to Father Albert, clasping his hands together as he offered a small prayer. “May the god of healing lend their hand to save this man.” After his small prayer, the healer casted Remeura once again on Father Albert before heading back towards the front counter.

Despite being shocked by Father Albert’s sudden burst of life, Chris and I quietly resumed our earlier conversation as I put on the necklace Father Albert had given me.

“Guess it's pretty cool that even through this, Albert is still maintaining his faith,” Chris said.

I nodded, holding the tear-drop stone up to my face. “Why’d you think he wanted me to have it?”

“Too spread his faith? Nah, if I’m being honest, maybe he just wanted to offer you something to protect you, like spiritually.”

“You think so?”

“Doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is that he offered his symbol of faith to you. By extension, he’s saying he is placing his faith in you. But, we’ll just ask the man himself when he gets better.

I wasn’t completely sold on Chris' explanation, but it was better than anything I could come up with. I let go of the stone and tucked it under my shirt.

“You can get pretty philosophical when you want to.”

"I have my moments. But speaking of moments…” Chris wrapped his arm around my head so that we were next to each other’s ears. “I heard from Luke that you had a moment with Alice back in the wagon.” I knew where this conversation was going, it had happened to Luke back at the gazebo as well as in the wagon yesterday, now I was on the other side of it. Luke was inadvertently getting revenge.

“Caleb also told me something interesting, you and her disappeared for a while in the cover of night. Two teens, up at night, going somewhere alone?” Chris’ face had contorted so much with smugness, I honestly felt the only remedy was my fist giving his face a good talking to.

“Yeah, I ran into her and we decided to skip rocks, we were trying to beat your high score.”

Chris faked a gasp, pretending to be offended. “Training behind my back? How could you do that to me and my score?”

“Got to catch you slipping up somehow.” Chris gave me a loud slap on the back of my head. “Ow!” Though it slightly hurt, if you asked him he’d probably say it was a light one.

“Don’t be an idiot, you think I would fall for that weak excuse? You clearly did more than skip rocks with her.”

I rubbed the back of my head, it still stung from the smack I received. “What makes you say I’m lying?”

“Simple, if all you truly did was skip rocks,” he said as he gestured behind us with a slight nod of the head, “then how come she keeps stealing glances at you every time you ain’t looking.”

“No she's not-”

As I turned to deny Chris’ delusions, I saw a pair of green eyes shift away from my direction quickly as I managed to catch her blushing face turn away.

“I’m just telling you how I see it. That girl has a crush on someone over here and it ain’t Albert or me. Well, it might be me? I’d say it's five percent me and ninety-five percent you.”

I pulled Chris back into our earlier huddle. “What do I do?”

“What do you mean, what do you do?”

“I can’t date her, she’s the daughter of a Duke and I’m just the brother of a meat clerk at a deli station.”

“Yeah, but it's a deli station at a popular supermarket,” Chris chuckled. He seemed to be laughing at me a bit too much today. “Who said anything about dating? You don’t have to do anything like that, just keep hanging out with her while having the good time you’ve already been having together. Life’s too short to doubt yourself or start worrying about labels, especially this life here, considering we still have our lives back home waiting for us.”

“Is that the end of your sage advice?”

“Yeah, any more than that is going to cost you a Benjamin.”

“In your dreams.” Chris laughed at my remark before shifting his face into a serious one with a ponderful look in his eyes.

“What about helping me out with Zoe?”

“The Christian Carlos is asking, little old me to be his wingman? I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Just leave the flying to me, all I need is for you to help me land.”

“I don’t even think you know where the tarmac is.”

“What's a tarmac?”

Looks like our plane analogy has… flown its course… 

We broke up our little huddle amicably as if we were just two business men wrapping up their business deal, ending said deal with a shake of each others’ hand.

Zoe and Sir Nathan returned with our accommodations finalized. They ended up getting three bedrooms, two bedrooms with two beds and one bedroom with two bunk beds. Divvying up the rooms was the next issue we faced as a group.

Sir Nathan’s plan had been for the four girls to sleep in the bunks while the rest of the guys shared the two other rooms. Sir Nathan himself had planned on staying in the clinic, watching over Mabel and Father Albert. He wanted to split Luke and Chris to share a room with either Caleb or I, that way each room would have an awakened hero.

“Can Alice and Noel switch rooms,” Kat asked her uncle with a pleading look.”

“Erm, Kat, I’m a guy,” I said awkwardly.

“So?” she asked without hesitation.

“Guys shouldn’t be sleeping in the same room as girls.”

“And why are you kicking me out?” asked Alice.

Kat nodded slightly, when she suddenly twisted her head in confusion. “But I fell asleep on the wagon next to you.”

“That’s different, vehicles are different from bedrooms.”

“But mom sleeps in the same room as dad.”

“That is also different, your parents are grown-ups.”

Kat scratched her head as she slightly pouted. “But Liam, Alice, and I used to sleep in the same bed whenever there were thunderstorms.”

“Don’t say unnecessary things Kat,” Alice said as she averted her eyes from all us teens staring at her.

“They’re your siblings, that’s normal.”

“In that case,” Mira said, “I’ve always thought of you as a brother from another mother.

“Quiet, you’re not making things easier here.” As I continued to argue with a little girl, Chris pulled me to the side.

“Wait, this is our chance.”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

An all knowing grin flashed across his face. “Simple, you take Zoe’s place and Zoe ends up rooming with me.”

“That is such a stupid plan, it won’t work.”

***

“It worked,” Kat cheered as she leapt from the bottom bunk to the top bunk. Alice scolded her to get down, holding her hand as Kat climbed down the side ladder.

“You sure you don’t want the top bunk Noel?” Mira asked from atop our bunk bed.

Why the hell did Sir Nathan agree to this?

“No, I’m good right here,” I said as I smiled uncomfortably at Mira. “Thanks though.”

“Relax Noel, it's not like this is the first time we’ve bunked together before.”

Alice let go of Kat, allowing Kat to once again bounce up onto the top bunk while Alice turned to us in an almost wildly mechanical way. “You two have shared accommodations before?” Though the question was aimed at both of us, Alice’s frozen tundra of a gaze was squarely on me.

“Back when we were in primary school, all of the classes in our grade had a week-long field trip to a bunch of cabins and lodges in the forest, they called it science camp.”

Alice’s face had gone from shocked to intrigued. “And they allowed you to share mixed cabins?”

Mira laughed. “Nope, but that didn’t stop us from doing so. Though Noel doesn’t remember much of it.”

“Thats because I went to bed early that day and I was deep sleeper back then.”

Mira laughed as if she remembered something hilarious from that day. “Alice, you should have seen the look on his face when he woke up in the morning, he was so shocked when he opened his eyes and saw me asleep next to him.”

“That wasn’t funny, that was scary. I thought I woke up next to a ghost. Why did you even get in my bed?”

Mira shrugged. “Luke and Chris dared me to do it. By the time the dare was up, all of the beds in that cabin were taken and I was already comfortable.”

“You really were shameless back then.”

“Shameless? Well, if you say so. Though if my only options are either being shameless or sleeping on the floor without a blanket, I’ll be making the same choice every time.”

“Seriously?”

“Besides, I’m not going to take being called shameless by the guy who ended up bunking with three beautiful girls,” Mira said as she covered her entire fully dressed body with her arms.

“Please, no one wants to see that.”

Mira grabbed the pillow from her top bunk and began going ham with it on me.

A laugh from an unexpected source made Mira stop her attacks and turn around.

“Sorry, it's just nice seeing you two get along so well,” Kat chuckled.

“You call this getting along?” I asked her.

Kat nodded and laughed. “Alice and Liam used to have pillow fights all the time when we were younger. Hey sis, do you think we can have another pillow fight with Liam once we go home?”

Alice paused before answering, “Once Liam’s schedule opens up, I’m sure he’d love nothing more than facing us in pillow warfare.”

“No way, I want to be on Liam’s team. I want to win after all.”

“Hey.” Alice began chasing Kat around the room with a pillow of her own while Mira decided to get a few more hits in against me.

All of Kat’s running and Mira’s swinging left the two dead tired. Both of them went out with the light as we blew out the candles. Sadly, unlike those two, I found myself once again struggling to fall asleep. A faint rustling made me turn towards the bunk across my own.

It seemed Alice was having a hard time sleeping as well, she was repeatedly flipping her pillow over. I assumed it was all in a vain effort to keep having her head rest on the cool side.

“Can’t sleep?” I whispered. Alice stopped turning the pillow, opting to instead lay it under her stomach as she turned to face me.

“Sort of, did I wake you?”

“Nah, think we’re in the same boat.”

“Is that so?”

I nodded, sitting up on my bed. “Honestly, I haven’t been able to sleep properly since we came here.”

“To the city?”

“No, to this-”

“This world, yes, I know,” Alice said, a mischievous smile on her face.

“Well look at you, I didn’t know nobles could make jokes.”

“What can I say? I plan on being the Duchess of comedy.”

“Why are you aiming so low? Don’t you want to be the Queen of comedy?”

“I would, but apparently there is already a queen sleeping above me.” Alice traced the corners of the room with her finger, stopping once she was pointing directly above her. “This kingdom is far too small to house two queens.”

I laughed at her dumb joke.

Was it a dumb joke because the subject matter was dumb or was it a dumb joke because my dumbass laughed at it? 

Truly profound thoughts were being created in this very room.

I laid back down, still keeping my head turned towards a smiling Alice. “We should probably sleep soon.”

“Already? And here I thought you were starting to find my routine funny.”

“I don’t know about funny, but you're certainly fun to hang out with.”

Uh oh, I didn’t skip a stone but I still blurted out what was on my mind. Chris’ words echoing in my head as I waited for a response.

“I… I think you’re pretty fun to be around with too…”

Though our exchange was followed by silence, I don’t think either one of us minded laying in bed while we thought about what the other said.

“Goodnight Noel,” Alice said cheerfully.

“Goodnight to you too, Alice.”

As the final silence was guiding us to the realm of dreams, a small voice pulled me back.

“Good night sis, night Noel.” The embarrassment I now felt…

I’m definitely not getting a single second of sleep tonight.