Karin's POV

"Karin-chan, it's morning! Wake up, sleepy head. We have to get moving."

I stirred in my sleep, hearing Jin's voice mixed in with the noises of birds singing their morning tunes. Turning on my side, I threw the covers over my head, curling up into a ball. I heard Jin sigh in annoyance outside the tent.

I felt like I'd only gotten 2 hours of sleep... and I probably had.

"Karin-chan! If you don't get up right now... I'll... poor a bucket of water over you."

This made me laugh.

"Nice try," I said in a mumbling voice, "I know you can't do that, because if you do, that will kill me."
Jin knew perfectly well that if I touched water outside the kingdom that wasn't already hot, I'd get terribly sick and may even die. It was like pouring freezing cold water over a flame, after all.

Jin got quiet, thinking over what might get me out of bed.

"I've got it!"

I opened my eyes from under neath the cover and glanced around as I heard shuffling. The tent walls that were made of fabric moved from side to side as someone crawled into the tent.

A second later, I felt a strong weight on top of my body and burst into laughter as the weight collapsed and crushed me a little.

"You're heavy! Get off!" I laughed.

"Nope. You have to promise you'll get out of bed." He mumbled into the cover, his voice almost muffled.

"G-Get off! Jin-chan!" I attempted to resist and tried rolling onto my other side, but it was no use. "Alright, alright, I'll get up!"

"Promise?"

The covers were pulled off of me as I cracked open an eye to look into Jin's golden eyes.

"Promise." I smiled softly as he helped me up.


My stomach begins to growl as we travel out of the forest to walk down the path that leads to the small town Prince Kazune and Himeka rested in. Jin cracks a few jokes along the way to keep me entertained, but I'm too deep in thought to have been listening.

I haven't seen any one searching for us yet... What's going to happen when they find us?

It sounded a bit crazy, but I was starting to miss my mother and our peaceful kingdom. I usually went to explore during the day and had made a bunch of friends there, so someone was bound to notice my absence sometime.

"Karin-chan? You okay?" Jin asked.

I snapped out of my thoughts, "Huh? Um... yes, I'm fine."

"The town's just ahead. They should be waiting for us near the inn."

My stomach growls again, and I clutch it, "And maybe we'll find breakfast on the way."


Kazune's POV

"I could have sworn I told them to meet us at sunrise!" I say under my breath, pulling my cloak over my head to hide my face as a pair of guards walk by. I wasn't able to tell the difference between their armor and the knight armor in my kingdom, but I wasn't taking any chances.

My mother had most likely noticed I hadn't been in the castle and had sent people out to search for me, so we needed to get out of this area as soon as possible. I glanced around quickly for Himeka.

She'd disappeared almost immediately after we'd left the inn.

Apparently, there were guards on patrol, because the two from earlier walked back, stopping to eye me.

"Hey, you. " One said.

"Take off your hood." the other said suspiciously.

I glared at them and hesitated to do as I was told. If I pulled off the cloak, surely my identity would be revealed.

"We've been searching for thieves around here."

"Yeah, and you look quite suspicious. If you don't take off your hood, we'll have to just throw you in prison anyway."
I clenched my fists at my sides, staying silent.

Well, I couldn't go to jail now, of course. It was either jail or be taken home.

I pulled off my hood and stared at them as their eyes widened.

Damn. Looks like I'm going back home after all.

"Hey... "

"Are you..."

I closed my eyes, and prepared to be recognized immediately after that, but to my surprise..

"Nope."

"Don't know you."
My jaw dropped as I stared at them in disbelief, "What do you two mean you don't know me?"

I'm beyond famous! I'm a Prince from a kingdom not that far from here! Are these townspeople not well educated on the royalty in the area?!

"Huh?"
"Should we know you, or something?"

They gave me those suspicious looks again. My words caught in my throat.

"There you are, honey!"

I whirled around as a soft voice of a woman rang out next to me and an arm slid into mine. Himeka stood next to me, holding a bag in her arm - food, by the scent it gave off.

I blinked at her as she awkwardly held my arm between her chest, trying to avoid us from touching too much.

"Come on, let's go, or we'll be late!" Himeka grabbed my wrist that was covered by the long sleeves of my cloak and pulled me down the busy sidewalk.

When we turned the corner, I pulled my arm away.

"I didn't need your help." I muttered.

"That would have gotten ugly if I hadn't stepped in. They might have taken you back to the kingdom."

"I doubt it."

"I brought breakfast."

She held up the bag in her hand as I caught the scent of dozens of different types of my favorite foods mixed together. My mouth watered instantly and I practically snatched the bag from her.

"Good. I was just getting hungry."

Himeka glared at me as I slid a slice of toast into my mouth and dug my hand into the bag to grab a few grapes. Her tiny hands darted out to snatch the bag back and hold it out of my reach.

"Hey! You can't eat all of the food, you need to let Princess Karin and Jin-san eat first!"

"I'm not going to eat all of it, I'm just eating before them!"
"Prince Kazune, that's not fair! Where are your manners?! You need to wait until everyone is here so you can eat!"
"Did you forget already?" I smirked at her, "I'm no longer a prince outside of the kingdom."

Himeka rolled her eyes and decided to break into a run, so I had to chase after her.


Karin's POV

"I think I see them!" Jin called out, pointing ahead.

I squinted to see passed the busy townspeople and glanced ahead to see if I could spot Himeka and Prince Kazune.

After a short moment, I was able to see the white haired prince chasing his silver haired female knight.

Himeka held a bag away from Prince Kazune while he reached for it, the both of them grinning.

I wonder if they're both best friends like Jin and I. Since she seems to be his personal knight, they may be really close to each other... I still can't seem to figure out how in the world she can put up with that attitude of his, though...


"Where to next?" Jin asked Himeka as they both walked ahead of us with the map.

Kazune and I stayed behind to argue. I was steaming mad when we'd met back up this morning. I hadn't even gotten a "good morning," he just started yelling at us about how we needed to be on time when meeting up with him.

"We were circling around the whole town looking for you two!"

"Oh, well you two seemed to be looking REALLY hard when we found you!"

"Yeah, we weren't looking for you when you found US, we'd just given UP looking for YOU!"

"We left at the right time, but you get mad us because YOU wanted to frolic around and stray away from the place you told us to meet you?!"

"I clearly said to meet us at the train tracks that led us out of town!"

"Yeah, but were you there when we found you?! Nooooooo!"

"The train left early!"

"Yeah, right! Did you even check the time?! You didn't even tell us we were going to take the train from here!"

"Maybe you two weren't LISTENING!"

"GOD! I really want to slap you right now you obnoxious jerk!"

"How dare you? When you're the one that's late!"

"FOR THE LAST TIME! WE WEREN'T LATE!"

I clenched my fists at my sides and felt the fire spread around them. If I punched him now, I would burn him. That'd be nice. Kazune looked down at my flaming fists and looked back up at me, narrowing his ice blue eyes.

"You wouldn't."
"Oh, yes, I would!"

As I raised my hand, another carefully grasped my sleeve covered wrist to stop me.

"Please don't hit Prince Kazune." Himeka stared at me seriously, a warning flashing in her eyes.

"I'd actually like to see that, since I missed it last time." Jin winked at me and I felt the flames in my palms disappear.

Kazune rolled his eyes and snatched the map from Himeka's hands.

"It says we're at the edge of this forest... and just ahead is a village we could trade some jewels to get a carriage from. North of that village is a witch forest, so if we hurry up and get through both before dark, we could avoid some trouble."

"Sounds like a good plan." Jin nodded and came to an abrupt stop ahead of us, nearly falling off the hill that went steep as it fell down to level with the flat ground the village ahead was built on.

"Damn!" Kazune frowned, "How are we supposed to get down there from up this high...?" He cautiously looked down to see how far the hill went.

Jin and I gave each other knowing looks.

"There is one way..."

I jumped up and down in excitement and laughed at Himeka and Kazune's confused expressions.

"We can slide down!" I explained.

"That sounds fun." Himeka smiled softly.

"Slide... isn't that dangerous..?" Kazune asked.
"Not if you're careful!"

I took the card board bag Himeka had kept our breakfast in and ripped it into 4 big pieces. I handed one to each of my companions and rest my card board piece on top of the hill.

Jin went down first, yelling as he slid down the hill and spun a little as he reached the flat ground. Himeka went down next, screaming in delight.

When it was just Kazune and I sitting on our cardboard pieces on the hill, I turned to raise an eyebrow at him.

"Aren't you going to go?"

A drop of sweat ran down his forehead. "Y-Yeah, of course."

"You're not scared, are you?" I laughed.

"No, are YOU scared?"
"Ugh! No, I am not!"

"Then why don't YOU go?!"

"Because I-"

"Hey, you two! Come on!" Jin and Himeka waved to us from way down below.

"You want me to hold your hand?" I smirked at Kazune.

Kazune rolled his eyes, "No, because if you die on your way down, you'll drag me with you."
I clenched my teeth as we took off down the hill at the same time.


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