Chapter 21
Snuggly

It wasn't the best place, but they could manage.
Brown, wooden...
That's all they could see.
Until they saw something familiar.

"Varian!" "Cassie!"
They both took notice to each other.

Varian couldn't believe his eyes; He had found Cassandra!
Cassandra was surprised to see Varian; then again, he had probably went the same way as her.

Cassandra got out of her seat and ran over. Varian tried to hug her, but Cassandra grabbed his arms and began looking for any wounds on him. "Are you okay? Hurt? I didn't have time to check, I'm sorry about the other day." She apologized profusely. "Yeah, I'm okay..." Varian shyly blushed.

"Are you? The blade...it shattered back there..." He whimpered at her.
"Don't worry, it's just a few scrapes, I'll be fine." Cassandra laughed. "Besides, you would have gotten a lot worse wounds if I hadn't saved your butt." She elbowed him playfully.

"Uh, of course?" Varian nervously laughed at the thought of the guillotine.
Varian then managed to sneak his arms around Cassandra for a hug.

"Aw hey, you missed me, didn't you..." Cassandra stroked his hair.
"I want to talk, by the way. Once barbarian guy over there finishes the guest room up."

Varian nodded, "You want to talk?"
"Why?" He worried about this a bit.

"I just do." Cassandra replied and walked back to her table.

"Why didn't you tell me you were a thief before it was too late?" Cassandra asked him, before jumping onto the bed and sitting down. Varian nervously wrung his wrists, "I'm...sorry about that, really... I just didn't want you to get angry, or for me to get arrested and not be able to see you again." He looked away from her. Cassandra patted the bed, insinuating she wanted him to sit down with her, so he walked over and did so. Cassandra wrapped her arm around him...

Cassandra sighed a bit before speaking again,
"Varian. I'm going to be honest with you." She started; "You have a heart that's in a good place, okay? You're not like those other thieves; namely... Lady Caine, that wicked, sorry excuse for a lady." Cassandra rolled her eyes. Varian leaned over and put his head on Cassandra's shoulder.

He was so tired, he was almost to doze off here soon.

"Thank you, Cassie..." He yawned, "Why are you here, anyway?" He asked, briefly opening his eyes to look at her. "...My dad sent me to a convent after what I did, he's going to make me work as a nun. Little does he know, I'm taking a nice, long detour. If you know, you know." She smirked.

It took Varian a moment, but then he realized that Cassandra wasn't going to the convent, and she was just going to travel away from the Kingdom of Corona. "Ahhhhh, I know." Varian closed his eyes again and stayed quiet afterwards. Ruddiger curled up next to Owl, holding his beloved security pine-cone. Cassandra noticed that Varian was extremely tired, so she figured not to bother him with conversation anymore. She gently wedged herself out from beneath Varian, while having her hands tucked beneath his head and back to prevent him from falling over.

She gently laid Varian down and wrapped him up with the patched blanket. She glanced at his backpack and noticed a blanket hanging out of that, so she went over and put that on Ruddiger and Owl. Cassandra looked in the mirror that was on the wall and frowned.

She couldn't believe that her chances of becoming a royal guard had probably withered and decayed. But she had to face this fact, and she was finally ready to face it. So, she looked to her bag, opened it up and pulled out the spare copy of the Royal Guard's handbook that she had snuck away from her dad's office when she was little, then walked downstairs briefly (since it was empty at this time, other than a few drunkards asleep with their heads on the table; or sometimes even on the table.) and threw the book in the fire and watched it burn.

The flames reflected in her glassy eyes.
But no, she faced the fact.
She was ready, and she was tired of waiting.
She wasn't going to wait any longer.

Besides, she felt she could do so much more than be a Royal Guard, she could be a heroine, a powerful, strong woman that protected places, even other than the Kingdom of Corona; from criminals that actually deserved to be in the dungeons, rather than those trying to survive with a good heart, kind of like Varian, or the Silent Strikers. (Cassandra didn't know much about the Silent Strikers, but the fact Lady Caine snitched the two, and they were only children, she figured that this was probably another case of just trying to survive on their own; sadly.)

Cassandra quietly walked back to the guest room, walked back to the bed, laid down beside Varian and then wrapped up with another blanket. She sighed; this wasn't the castle, but...

"Hey alchemyhead, it's time to go." Cassandra was already out of bed by the time Varian stopped sleeping. "Huh?" He batted his eyes open, his arm halfway off the side of the bed, "Is it morning time already?" He mumbled, drool rolling out of his mouth slightly.

Cassandra laughed, "Yeah. Also your hair's a wreck, fix it before we go downstairs. Not that it matters, these brutes have more messier hair than you do." She jokingly said.

Varian sat up, wiped away the drool with his sleeve and then tried running his fingers through his hair to fix it. "Ruddiger, get out of bed you lazy raccoon." He poked Ruddiger.

Ruddiger wasn't pleased, but he got out of bed anyway.

Varian got out of bed and then stretched, "Wow, I want to tell you something, Cassie. That is the best night's sleep I've EVER gotten. I've never really slept on an actual bed before." He awkwardly said. "The one's at the castle were a lot better, shame you couldn't have slept on one of those." Cassandra muttered while she put her sword in her sheath and put it around her.

Varian, Ruddiger and Owl then followed Cassandra downstairs, for a new day, away from the Kingdom of Corona, where they weren't really wanted anymore... And that?

That was okay.
They didn't mind.