After walking for nearly three days, the group was absolutely exhausted. Three days of being entirely surrounded by nothing but dark trees. Their clothes were riddled with dirt, covered in streaks of mud and clay from crawling over rocks and between trees.
They were already running low on supplies, the last of their food beginning to rot on the bottom of the bag carried by Roselyn. It all would have been fine, if had not been for all the added moisture in the air.
The air in the woods was muggy, the humidity adding another layer of sweat onto their already soaked skin. They were stopping for water nearly every hour to make up for the water they were losing, and they had to change their course slightly to stick closer to the few creeks that crickled by for a little while longer, nobody knowing when they were going to find another source of water.
But Kate had an idea. She knew they were getting close to the edge of Lockwood by the way the trees were thinning out slightly, more sunlight streaming through the canopy above, even by the smell. Somehow, she was put on point, the others following her as she made her way through the woods, trusting her judgment.
She had explored these woods so many times when she was a little girl. Her father would assign her a guard and she would go out into these woods, climbing trees only to fall out of them, sitting down by one the creeks watching the minnows that swam through the water only to stand up and realize that she had ruined yet another dress by sitting in mud.
As she had gotten older, she had complained that she didn't need a guard to come out with her, so she and her father had compromised; she could go out on her own, only if she didn't go beyond a certain point. The very next day, Jim had his servants nail up plaques onto trees, carved with their crest, painted stark white. Every year he had new, identical plaques put up in place of the old ones, up until she was about 20.
"Kate," she heard Rick say softly, bringing her out of her memories, "we should rest, take a break."
"We're almost there, Rick," she said, heaving herself over a fallen tree trunk and pulling herself over onto the other side, the others following.
He stumbled on after her, reaching out and grabbing her hand.
"You're exhausted," he said, trying to get through to her, "You need to relax. You're going to collapse."
"I'm fine, Rick."
"Well, I'm not," he said, pulling out his empty canteen and dangling it out to her, "I've been out of water for nearly an hour now. I'm parched."
Kate sighed, looking up at the darkening canopy. It was late afternoon and the sun would set in a few hours.
"We can't stop yet," Kate said, trying to tug her hand out of his, "It will be dark soon. We have to keep going…"
"And if we walk into tomorrow, that's alright," Rick said, not letting her remove her hand from his. "Even if we make it to the capital tomorrow, we'd still have to rest the night…" his voice lowered, trying to keep his words unheard, before he reached out and grabbed her own empty canteen that was dangling around her waist, "… I'm not the only one that's thirsty."
Kate looked back at the people following behind them, taking in their sweat-soaked clothes and weary expressions. Her own tongue suddenly felt heavy in her mouth, the reminder that she hadn't had anything to drink in what seemed like ages finally catching up with her.
"I don't know the next time we'll see a creek," she murmured pathetically.
"We passed one just a little while ago," Rick said, "Maybe 5, 10 minutes in the direction we just came in. I'll go back and fill up some canteens."
"You can't go alone," she objected. Everyone had at least one canteen, some had two. There's no way he could carry them all on his own.
"So I'll take Javier and Kevin with me. We'll take everyone's canteens and fill them up. Just sit down and rest."
She looked at him and then back at the people behind her, the people who had voluntarily come to help her fight to get her kingdom back.
"Alright, everyone," Kate said, getting everyone's attention, "We're going to take a short break. We passed a creek a little while ago, so Richard will go back and get water. Kevin, Javier. Go with Rick to fill up all the canteens. Everyone else, take a break."
She watched as everyone began unhooking their canteens from their belts and bags, handing them over to Kevin and Javier before moving to turn around. She felt fingers around her belt, looking down to see Rick unclasping her canteen with one hand, the other still wrapped around hers.
He used that hand to his advantage, leading her over to a large tree. He maneuvered her so her back was facing the trunk, urging her to sink down to the ground. She did, using the trunk of the tree as a backrest.
She sighed at the feeling of being off of her feet.
"Thank you," she murmured, closing her eyes as she leaned her head back against the tree bark.
He smiled at her, reaching down and gently swiping an errant strand of sweat soaked hair from her forehead, letting his hand trail across her hair until her reached nearly the end of her damp ponytail.
He tugged on it slightly, and she opened her eyes to look at him.
"Always."
"Way to go man," Javier said, juggling his share of canteens, trying to get a firm grip on them, "Do you know how heavy these'll be when they're full?"
"Not to mention much more…," Kevin chimed in, nearly dropping one of his, "… slippery."
Rick was managing just fine, having tied the empty canteens to his belt so he had full access of his hands if the need arose.
"It's all for the greater good, gentlemen," Rick answered, "The Princess is tired."
"We could've stopped at the next creek," Kevin said, almost petulantly, "We didn't have to go backwards."
"Yeah, or you could've just carried her or something."
"Ah," Rick commented, "but I'm sorry to admit you're mistaken." Rick pushed back some brush and came face to face with their source of water. He hopped over the small stream of water and knelt down in the mud.
"For one," Rick continued, pulling the cap off of one of the canteens, placing a piece of ripped burlap over the opening to keep out plants and small fish, and putting it in the water, filling it up, "who knows when we would have hit another creek. We could've been walking until sunset to find out, and then we would have been tired and thirsty."
The boys knelt down beside him and started filling their own canteens.
"And anyway, Kate would never let me carry her anywhere."
Javier raised an eyebrow at him, "Kate? You go from calling her 'the Princess' to calling her 'Kate'?"
Rick shook his head, "To me, she's Kate. To her, I'm Rick…" he shrugged, "… it's just something we decided on when we first met."
Rick capped one of his canteens, tying it back onto his belt and repeating the process with another empty canteen.
"So, what did you say to Kate," Kevin emphasized, "that made her willing to stop?"
"Yeah, Rick, we saw you two getting cozy up there. Holding hands, not letting her pull away, nothin' but eye contact. Did you whisper sweet nothings in her ear? Make her promises of what you would do if she just let you stop for a moment?"
He raised his eyes to look at them, finding the teasing smiles on their faces, but still not willing to let them joke about them like that.
He glared at them before lowering his gaze back down to the creek.
"There's nothing going on between the two of us. We're friends. That's all."
Before Kevin and Javier could interrupt, he continued.
"I simply told her I was thirsty and then pointed out that others were too. She cares, she may try to hide it behind that tough façade but she's genuinely cares about people. And she's tired," Rick said, "when Kate puts her mind to something, she doesn't back down. So sometimes she gets so focused that she forgets to drink, and eat, and sleep. I've made it my mission to make sure she does."
The boys looked impressed.
"You really care about her, don't you?" Javier said.
Rick nodded. What good would it be to try and hide it? He knew they would be able to see his lie as if it was painted across his forehead.
"I do," he said quietly.
A moment of quiet passed between the two men as they continued to fill up their canteens.
Rick capped off the last of his canteens and tied it to his waist, seeing Kevin and Javier do the same. Rick leaned down and cupped his hand in the water, bringing it up and wiping the water over the face. He sighed as the cool liquid streamed down his cheeks and off of his chin. He did it again, wiping his wet hand through his hair as he pushed himself off of the ground onto slightly sturdier legs.
"Now, gentlemen," Rick said, watching the two men stand up after tying their canteens on their belts like Rick had, "I do believe we have some thirsty people to get back to."
Kate couldn't remember the last time she had felt this calm. When she was little, she used to bring one of her father's books out here and do exactly what she was doing now - curl up at the base of a tree and lose herself in the pages and the sounds of the woods, the trees in a canopy rustling with the wings of birds and the feet of squirrels and raccoons scampering up above her. She would sit in the woods until she couldn't see the ink on the pages anymore.
She also couldn't remember the last time she had ever felt so exhausted. The adrenaline had worn off, the excitement at having a plan and something to go on and hope finally leaving her chest as she sat down at the base of the tree. Did she really think they could do this? What was she thinking about dragging all of these kind people into this kind of situation? It was her fight, and yes, they had a reason to be angry and want revenge, but to run head first at this monster? It was selfish.
But she wanted this. Oh, she wanted it so badly. She needed to avenge her father, seek justice for the man who had given her everything and had been taken all because of someone's lust for power.
"So, the Princess and the Troubadour," she heard someone say, "how did that happen?"
She opened her eyes, watched as Jordan sank to the ground in front of her, leaning against an exposed root.
"Excuse me?" Kate said, her mind still coming out of her own thoughts.
"You and Richard," the woman said, "how long have you two been together?"
Kate felt her cheeks heat up, but that could just be the lack of breeze getting to her.
"Oh, we're not together. Not like… that."
"Please," Jordan said with a smile, "you two aren't fooling anyone. Bickering like a married couple, and then holding hands and whispering to each other like two young lovers."
Kate frowned, "Honestly, we're just friends."
"Friends?" Jordan asked. Kate nodded. Jordan scoffed. "I wish I had friends who looked at me like that."
"It's not that easy…" Kate sighed.
"I know, I know… it's 'complicated'," Jordan said, "but Katherine?" she waited until Kate looked at her to continue, "It's really not."
Kate opened her mouth to protest but Jordan cut her off.
"You never know what's going to happen. Fighting the inevitable only hurts everyone in the meantime."
There was a rustling of branches and grass and Kate and Jordan both looked over at the space, their hands unconsciously drifting towards their swords.
A moment later, Rick, Javier, and Kevin all walked through the space and the women instantly relaxed. Kevin and Javier immediately began handing out the canteens to their respective owners. Rick searched the area for something, his eyes lighting up as soon as he saw her. She smiled at him and he began to make his way over.
"He cares about you, Katherine," Jordan said, heaving herself up off the ground to meet him halfway, "You may not be willing to do something about it yet, but I can tell you do, too."
Jordan approached Rick and he held out her canteen to her, saying something quietly that made the woman laugh. Jordan nodded in acknowledgment before walking back towards the main group.
Rick continued to walk to Kate. He bowed as he got to her, reaching out and handing her one of the canteens around his waist.
"Your water, my lady," Rick said pompously.
Kate rolled her eyes, but smiled all the same.
"Thank you," she murmured, taking it from him gently, her fingers brushing against his.
He sat down beside her as she took a swig from the container, sighing as the cool water hit the back of her throat.
They didn't talk, simply sitting in silence as they sipped at the water in their canteens, each lost in their own thoughts.
A couple of minutes later, Kate noticed the people in the main group beginning to rise and stretch, and she knew it was time to get moving again.
She stood and leaned back, her hand on her hips as she arched her back before stepping around Rick. She turned around and started to hold out a hand to him, but as she looked back at the tree she was just under, her breath caught in her throat.
There was something on the tree. It was small and square and covered in ivy and clematis but she could tell it wasn't natural. And she knew that shape. She knew exactly what it was.
She nearly jumped over Rick sitting on the ground, who was looking at her curiously, climbing up onto the roots as high as she could go, standing on her toes as she reached up and began tearing the vines from the shape. She ignored the scratches against her fingers, the ache in her fingernails, the questions that were falling off of Rick's tongue and into the air because the hope had returned. She ripped at it for a moment longer before losing her balance, tearing off the remaining foliage, and she would've fallen over if Rick hadn't been there to immediately catch her. She looked up from his arms and laughed, truly laughed, for the first time in what felt like years.
She pointed up to the square, the white paint gone in most places, peeling off of it in the places in remained. It was no longer smooth, rot and insects eating away at in in places, burrowing holes into the comparably much softer surface than the bark of the tree underneath it. But there, right there in the middle, etched as clearly as the first day her father had shown it to her so she knew what to look for, the familiar shield with the tiger wrapped around a sun, the Latin phrase that she had been raised upon scratched into the wood on a banner beneath the shield: aut viam inveniam aut faciam.
"That's my crest, Rick," Kate said, still laughing, "My father put these up when I was little so I'd never go past them," she spun around in his arms and through her own around his neck, hugging him tight to her without thinking.
He didn't even have a chance to respond before she was pulling away from him, removing herself from his arms.
"Come on!" she called out to the rest of their party, the people who had stopped what they were doing to watch the display, "We're close. Really, really close!"
She didn't bother to wait to see if they were following her before running off in the direction she knew the castle had to be.
Kate could not contain her excitement. This is what they'd been working towards for the last four days.
The castle. Her home.
She knew from memory that the woods backed up to the western wall of the castle. The servant's entrance was on the east. They'd have to get around the open field to get to the entrance and actually get inside.
The trees started to thin out, more light shining in front of her and she forced herself to go faster, to not stop no matter how much her legs were screaming at her to do so. She pushed her way through the last of the brush, staying hidden within the last vestiges of the forest but still having a solid view of the castle.
Kate's heart sank in her chest.
There were guards everywhere.