"So, Princess, where you from?" Duncan asks, his back leaning against the wall on one side of the window seat. Courtney was sitting across from him, leaning against the other wall. Duncan's room was on one side of her, and the long drop to the marketplace was on the other side.

"What does it matter?" Courtney replies, looking at the view from the high window. The peasants in the marketplace below looked to be only an inch tall. They didn't quite look like ants (Duncan's room wasn't that high off the ground), but the people were definitely smaller. "I ran away from home, and I'm not going back."

"Well why'd you run away?" Duncan asks. He swiftly picks up a banana peel from the floor and tosses it out the window. The strong winds of the kingdom make the sunny yellow peels flutter in the wind before spiraling down and plopping on the dusty alley floor.

"Let's just say I didn't like the way I was being pushed around."

"So you just left? Ooh, you rebel," Duncan teases. Courtney gives him a half-smile, and suddenly trumpets start blaring from the center of the marketplace. A man on a horse rides through the thick crowd, and the crowd parts ahead of him. He carried a fat, creamy-white scroll under his armpit and he took it out. The man took his time unrolling it, and he cleared his throat so loud that she could hear it from high in Duncan's room.

She finally realized what the town crier was probably going to say.

Courtney leapt off the window seat and fell to her knees. She scrambled to her feet and began murmuring, "Oh, God… Oh, God… Oh, God." She paced back and forth while Duncan looked at her with curiosity. Once the town crier started to speak, however, he turned his attention from her to the man with the scroll.

"Princess Courtney has been kidnapped from the palace!" the town crier announced, emphasizing nearly every other word, "She went missing yesterday, but no ransom note has been sent to the palace! If anybody knows of her whereabouts, they will be rewarded with a large sum of compensation!"

Duncan's head slowly turned to Courtney, and she bit her lip nervously while he just stared at her. He stands up and crosses the room while Courtney just stands there. He takes her scarf in his hands and gently unties the knot, pushing her scarf off her head.

Courtney's brown locks of hair cascade around her face, brushing against her freckled cheeks. Duncan immediately jumps away from her. "Aw, shit!" he exclaims. He runs his hands through his hair and begins pacing across the room, just like Courtney had been doing before. She lets her silky scarf flutter to the floor and land in a pile. She tries combing her fingers through her hair since it had been tied up for a whole day.

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Duncan hisses, whirling on Courtney. She flinches. He was barely inches away from her. Courtney barely shook her head, so small of a movement that Duncan didn't even see it. "Well?!" he demands.

"Why would I tell you?" Courtney asks logically. She and Duncan stare each other down for a long time under Duncan breaks the trance. He turns away and sits on the window seat with a heavy sigh. He glances out the window before whipping the curtain shut, thrusting the room into darkness.

"Good point," Duncan murmurs. Courtney stands still while her eyes take a while getting used to the sudden darkness. She could barely make out Duncan's silhouette against the curtain. "You know, I have half a mind to bring you to the palace for that compensation."

"No!" Courtney exclaims. She rushes over to the window seat and sits next to Duncan. "Please. It's terrible living at the palace."

Duncan scoffs and sticks a finger through a rip of the curtain. He pulls on a thread until it snaps off and wraps it around his finger. He watches his finger turn a dark red-purple color before he lets go. The thread flutters to the ground. "You have servants, slaves, people will jump off a cliff at your command. You have food, a fucking huge house, and power. You're the princess of the whole entire kingdom!" Duncan practically shouts. Then his voice lowers to a low mumble, "How can you say you hate the palace when some people have nothing?"

This time, it was Courtney's turn to scoff. "Nothing? Duncan, to me, you have everything! You can come and go as you please. Your life is, like, never boring. You're constantly jumping out of random windows, stealing from the stalls in the bazaar, and running away from guards. You're room is actually cozy, for one. My room is like a prison cell to me," Courtney admits.

Duncan lifts an eyebrow. "Are you serious? God, if only you and me could switch lives somehow. I bet we'd be the happiest people on earth," he tells her.

Courtney nods. "I'd give anything to become a peasant. No rules, no having to be polite, no being a princess, no nothing!"

Duncan smirks at her and says, "You wouldn't be able to last two weeks as a peasant."

Courtney rolls her eyes and replies, "Alright. If you can teach me to be a peasant and you can keep me away from palace officials for two weeks, I'll bring you to the palace. In fact, I'll even tell Father that you saved my life so he should double the compensation. But only if I'm a sad excuse of a peasant. If I can thrive as a peasant, however, you get no compensation and I will be out of your hair."

"Is that a challenge?" Duncan asks with a smirk.

"You bet it is," Courtney answers. They stare at each other for a long time while Duncan makes up his mind.

Finally, he says, "Deal." He spits in his palm and holds it out towards Courtney. She looks at it in disgust, lip curled up. "It's part of being a peasant," Duncan provokes her, "You have to do it, unless you just want to give me that compensation now."

Courtney spits in her palm and shakes Duncan's hand with a triumphant grin on her face. He grins back and her and stands up from the window seat. "I'll start packing our stuff. We need to get out of here soon, and as far away from the palace as possible," he tells her.

Duncan leans down into the dresser and riffles through the drawers, tossing random articles of clothing in a burlap sack. With his back to her, Courtney secretly wipes his saliva off her palm on the cushion of the window seat.


(Author's Note: I know this chapter was short, and I'm sorry. It's mainly a filler chapter to build up the mood for when they run away from the marketplace.

OMG!!! Everybody! I am giving you all an assignment, okay?? Go to and vote for Duncan, like, a million times! Because maybe… okay, I know this sounds like a really shallow thing for Courtney to do, but she might start liking Duncan again if he, you know, has money… Okay, I seriously have no idea. But still! Go vote for him! )