Princesses Don't Perspire - Ch. 14, So Close. So far.

Jeccabelle: Rosie is awwwdorable, she can't help it.

CammieSarah51: *air hug back to you*

McKenzie Vallir: Thank you for such a great review! I'm sure Nathan and Rosie don't mind you joining their "nickname club". I must admit to having a read a few of those myself, but tell anyone and I'll never update again. But seriously thanks again for the review it was very nice to read.

Be Rose: I'm glad you enjoyed it, thanks for the review and pm!

RandomAngel123: Thank you, I thought it was pretty cute too.

Jessmarie48: Thank you for a review on each chapter! The chapters did start kind of short, but I'm getting better at longer length chapters. Thanks for checking out my other story as well :)

Thank you to Maggie odonoghue, Elizabeth Grimm, Akora17 and jessmarie48 for the favorites/alerts to this story! :D

Enjoy - Jenn

Rosalyn POV:

We wake up and begin to trudge through the cave again. Our surroundings are still dark and damp. The arrow's directions continue to lead us. We talk a little, not about anything specific, but it's still pleasant. An hour of walking leaves us still curving through the cavern. Our surroundings begin growing lighter. The arrow is easier to discern, I can see Nathan's face and everything doesn't appear as gloomy and black. The cave walls glint and widen slightly. Light filters into the cave moderately.

"We must be near the exit! Look at all the light!" Nathan grins and we start treading faster in anticipation. My heart jumps at the thought of finally leaving this dark, dismal cave. Maybe we will get home soon. I miss home; the warmth, the safety, my caring father, and even my demanding mother, a little. I feel bouyant as I half skip, half sprint down the continuously brightening cave path. I glance toward the arrow every so often as to check the direction we should be heading. There are few turns and choices to decide between, the cave is now mostly one way.

We turn a corner and in front of us is a large opening. A long and skinny sandy beach stretches ahead, waves crash on the shore, the water reaches for the cave and us. A light salty breeze dances around, lifting my hair to join it. The smell is of home, the water is peaceful and calm. No more forest, no more cave. A grin overtakes my face. It is perfect.

Nathan glances over at me and grins, I beam back. His hand is in mine as I scamper out of the cave and onto the sand. I pull him behind me and twirl around in bliss. I let out a loud, relieved laugh as a wave washes over my shoes. I know the ocean, I'd lived by it my whole life. I know that my home has to be nearby, how could it not be? The safety and contentedness wash over me like the pretty glistening water does over my shoes.

I hear a yell of my name carry over the waves and wind. The name is said with complete surprise and disbelief. I spin around, expecting the worst. I pray it's not Anthony, I pray it's anyone but that evil wizard. My good mood is dissipating until I realize, my prayers are answered.

"Mary?" My lady-in-waiting is standing on a risen sand dune. Her brown, regal dress is the shade of the sand, her blue eyes look as watery as the ocean and her dark brown hair has fallen out of her bun and pieces trail along her face. The girl gasps and calls my name again.

"Rosalyn? Oh! We have all been looking for you, we were so worried." She sprints at me and entraps me in a warm hug. I hold her back just as tightly.

"Mary, I'm fine. How is everyone else?" I pull back and look straight into her eyes. She smiles and brushes one of my many untamed, blonde curls out of my face.

"Fine. Just worried for you." The relief returns to me. Mary has always been a good friend, I had talked to her many times when I'd been upset or angry in the past. She is crying now, tears of happiness. Her smile is as large as mine and she continues speaking. "I was taking a walk and then I heard laughter and... oh it's you!"

After squealing and hugging from both of us, I remember Nathan standing and viewing this scene from behind us. I straighten up and glance back at him. A smile graces my face when his eyes meet mine.

"Mary, you remember Nathan?" I inquire and gesture at him. Mary surveys him in slight surprise, she glances between him and me a couple of times.

"Nathan?" She intones lightly, almost teasingly. I roll my eyes at her raised eyebrows. Mary is with me for five seconds and she already notices there is something between Nathan and I. At least I think there might be something between us. Nathan has been warming up to me, allowing me to know him and there is this whole nickname thing. I hope that Nathan and I will stay friends even after all of this is taken care of.

"Rosie, we should get back to the palace. We still aren't safe." He reminds me, interrupting my thoughts and I realize he's right. Even if I've found Mary and I'm almost home, Anthony is still after us. None of this will be over until Anthony is taken care of. I nod in agreement.

"Can you lead us back to the palace Mary?" Mary is obviously confused, but leads us back home anyways. She has an endless amount of questions, each one soaked with worry and intrigue.

"Who is Anthony? Why were you gone for so long? Where are the other two missing princes?" I am forced to ignore half of the interrogation and remind Mary that we are in a hurry. At each reminder Mary nods and quickens her pace, more questions still pouring from her lips. I sigh and try to answer the simpler inquiries.

"Well now what do we have here?" The cold voice of Anthony interrupts one of Mary's questions. Horror explodes inside of me. He's found us. I angle myself slowly in front of Mary, there is no need for her to be a part of this. Mary lets out a small shriek at the sight of Anthony and I hope he won't notice her. His eyes are filled with rage, more than last time. This time he won't be letting us get away, this time he has come to conquer. I wonder how he found us.

Nathan steps to block both Mary and me. It's brave of him and I find myself wishing to hug him in thanks.

"You again." Nathan says it in a bored voice. He sounds unimpressed, which causes a small smile to pull at my lips. I hear Mary whimper as Anthony begins shouting angrily.

"I'll kill you boy! You are one large annoyance." I pat Mary's hand on my arm in reassurance as I step forwards.

"Oh no you don't." I say bravely, my voice doesn't show the slight fear I have. Mary is whispering prayers behind me. My name is mentioned a couple times. "You want me and if you expect any kind of cooperation from me you won't dare to touch my friends." I hold my head high and stare straight into the wizard's furious glowing orbs. He growls at me and raises one of his hands. Mary's mutterings grow slightly louder.

"I'll do what I want! You are going to be mine." He yells back. I notice then that Prince Andrew is nowhere to be found. This distracts me. I never cared much for the conceited Prince, but I don't want him dead or harmed.

"Where is Prince Andrew." I glance around. The flat brownish-gold sand shows only Anthony's footprints leading out of the Enchanted Forest and the few trees dispersed on the beach are not nearly wide enough for a full grown man to hide behind. The Enchanted Forest is many feet behind Anthony and I can't make out anything inside of it but the thick growth of trees. Andrew must not be around at all. Anthony scowls further at Andrew's name.

"That annoying boy ran off the second your castle was in view. I'll take care of him later." Andrew's cowardice doesn't surprise me, I hope that perhaps he'd run to get us help, at the same time I doubt that very much. Nathan steps beside me.

"Let's just get this over with, shall we?" He withdraws his large sword from his side. I glance back at Mary as Nathan advances towards Anthony. Anthony moves backward a few steps before raising his hands to cast spells.

"Get help." I mouth at Mary, she nods and eagerly slips away from the group. No one notices Mary's absence, it seems that Nathan, Anthony and I are in this alone. The castle isn't far from where we stand, close enough for me to just make out the gates. However, it is far enough that it could take awhile for help to find us, after all running in sand is a rather difficult feat.

Anthony throws spell after spell at Nathan, who dodges and blocks them with his sword. Every blocked spell bounces sideways. I glance around quickly, searching for anything to help. Nathan couldn't block spells and fight Anthony at the same time. It is nearly impossible. Every time Nathan leaps closer to the wizard, Anthony steps back and casts another quick spell. My eyes fall back to the Enchanted Forest. An idea is barely forming when I let out a shout to call attention to myself.

"Want me wizard?" I spit, "Come get me." I race to the forest, footfalls behind me. Both men are following me, good. I'm weaving in and out of trees as I realize I don't have much past this as a plan. This is an excellent stalling strategy and the trees will produce more protection for Nathan from spells, but besides that I have nothing else. I feel desperate. Keep Anthony distracted.

More than anything else at this moment I need a way to defeat Anthony.

The trees open up into a clearing, something common in forests, but I stop suddenly. I sense something different about this clearing. I'm not sure what and almost in habit I glance at my necklace. The arrow is pointing at the small lake to the left of me. I dart closer for a better look.

The necklace points straight into the water. Why?

I hear his running footsteps, the labored breath. I peer in the water further, something shimmers back at me. My own face, pink cheeks, sweaty forehead and crazy curls. My strange distorted reflection is inside of a frame. The clear water isn't reflecting myself upon it. I plunge my hand through the cold water just as I hear Anthony's cackle behind me. From the lake I draw out a mirror... A dumb mirror with a pretty golden frame. I sigh in frustration, I'd thought...

"A mirror? Ha. Very scary Princess. I expected something more imaginative from you." Anthony cackles. My eyes meet Nathan's as he enters the clearing too. Nathan is panting, obviously out of breath and tiring down. That is not good. All I have is a mirror and Nathan can't hold Anthony off for much longer. Maybe I can smash the mirror over Anthony's head? I doubt that will do much good.

"Don't touch her." Nathan's voice echoes, strong and confident.

Anthony rotates to face him and the two of them are back at it again. Colorful spells dancing around, Nathan dodging them, jumping and twirling. Then there is me, standing helplessly, witnessing it all. I refuse to let myself be useless, I am not a damsel in distress.

Princesses don't fight Rosalyn. They wait to be rescued.

Not this Princess, mother. I stare at the useless mirror and I'm about to chuck it to the ground, but a realization hits me. The necklace had told me the mirror was in the lake, it had brought me to it. Why? I had wanted something to stop Anthony, anything. The necklace leads you to what you most want to find.

As spells fly around me, I know what to do.

Neither man is paying me attention, so I sneak around, coming closer to Nathan. I pause. I wait for the perfect opportunity. The question is will it ever come?

I apologize for how long this took me to update! If you like this story please check out my other ones. At the moment I'm also writing one called "The Thief Of Words".

Two Fridays a go I went to the Taylor Swift concert (her Red Tour) and it was awesome! Then the friend who came with me crashed at my house for a few days bc her family was still on vacation. I was going to try and update on the Thursday before but another friend actually slept over because she needed to be closer for an interview and her dad's house was in the wrong town. Then I kind of just was busy and forgot to update. So I am very sorry for the delay in updating!

Thanks for the reviews, please leave more!

(Also I've already written the next chapter, I just have to edit it.)

PeaceLoveTaylorSwift
Jenn