A/N: Jeez, sorry for the long wait, people. But I never said I was going to update fast on this thing, did I?

Well, anyway, here's a little note. I've been thinking on making a sequel to this. And I'm not writing this for reviews. Reviews are good, but still, I write because I feel like writing. That, and I need a LOT of practice if I'm going to be a writer. No flames, but constructive criticism is accepted.

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Chapter 2

Fiona grabbed a black cape from her closet and slipped it over her delicate figure. She let her hair run loose and pulled it up in a high ponytail, then tossed her princess gowns in favor for a simple brown, cotton dress.

"Hmm . . ." she said while looking at her reflection in the mirror. "No . . . This won't do any good. No Clavat would ever dress like this! I'll be found out in no time!"

She pulled her hair ribbon out of her hair and let her hair flow down to her back. The way she saw things, getting away from the castle would be harder than usual. Her father had ordered more guards around the castle than usual. Was it to keep her in or to keep any unwelcome visitors out? She wasn't sure. But she continued to quiz herself on her getaway plans. No Clavat at her age would have hair like hers. Granted, she had seen a young, Clavat caravanner who had blond hair like hers, but the Clavat had been a boy and she knew that it was very rare for Clavats to have blond hair. She had received this hair color, due to the blond streaks that Lilties had, and due to the fact that her mother had blond hair like hers. Curse her difficult heritage! How easy things would've been if her mother had been a Selkie . . .

Suddenly, Fiona's glance suddenly snapped back to the mirror. A Selkie! That was it! Blond hair was also rare in Clavats, but she had seen enough of them to know that they weren't all that rare. One particular Selkie girl she had seen had blond hair. She wasn't allowed to talk to her or even see her up close, but when the Selkie was talking to the guards, she saw that she had short blond hair that was braided back. Oh, she had found the solution to her problem!

Emilia had been in her room earlier, carving a doll from a block of wood. She had accidentally left her knife in the room. Fiona snatched up the knife and cut her hair until it only came to the middle of her neck. Then, she set her fingers in motion, braiding the back of her hair like the Selkie's. But what to do about her clothes?

Once again, she ran to her closet. She found an old dress that had the skirt coming off. She tore the skirt off and put the top part of the dress on. It looked exactly like the top that the Selkie girl had been wearing. A further investigation of her closet brought up a blue, cotton skirt that was similar to the ones that Selkie females wore and the one that the blond Selkie had been wearing. Emilia had once worn that during a party, just to goof on some Selkie-haters, then let Fiona have it when she asked for it.

The princess put the skirt on around her waist and admired herself in the mirror. She looked like a true Selkie! No wonder she had been found easily the last time she had left the castle! That teal skirt and glittery, white top were definite no-no's. And her gauntlets and metal, Liltian boots? Who was she kidding? She had definitely overlooked those facts!

Only one last thing remained. She had to put all her clothes away. That way, no one would suspect that she had run away again. It took her a long time to get everything put away, but she kept her black cape. It would help her get away from the castle.

"Well, it's now or never," Fiona muttered to herself as she draped the black cape around her shoulders. "I have to get out of here now!"

She opened the door to her room quietly, glancing both ways before stepping out in the hallway. No one was there. Quietly, she shut the door behind her and headed straight for the exit. She had taken her iron boots and gauntlets off before leaving. They would make too much noise. But she had never noticed how hard and cold the floor was! Fiona wished that she had a pair of soft moccasins like the ones that Selkies wore.

"What are you doing?"

The raspy voice surprised Fiona. Making sure to hold the cape around her figure and keeping her head bent down, she turned to look at the speaker. Drat, it was Jamie Lin, one of the other guards of the castle. He wasn't as bad as the other guards. He treated her almost as an equal, as a child. He got yelled at the other guards for it, but it was one thing that helped Fiona respect him.

"I said, what are you doing?" Jamie Lin repeated.

"U-um . . ." Fiona struggled for an excuse.

"You know you're not supposed to be here!" Jamie Lin continued, throwing Fiona off a bit. "Lord Knocfelna told you that this is where the princess sleeps! You are not allowed to be here!"

Jamie Lin didn't know that she was the princess. Fiona let out a silent sigh of relief. She had suddenly remembered that a young Clavat girl had come to the castle for shelter, just for the night. She had a black cape just like the one Fiona was wearing. Jamie Lin thought that she was the Clavat girl.

"I'm terribly sorry, Sir Knight," Fiona said, putting on her best acting skills. "I was searching for the . . . uh . . ."

"Well, whatever you want, it's not here!" Jamie Lin interrupted hotly. "Now get back to your room downstairs!"

"Yes, Sir Knight, my apologies." Man, why had she not noticed how arrogant and annoying that Jamie Lin was before this moment?

Fiona went down the hallway, undisturbed after that. She only had a few run-ins with the citizens of Alfitaria, and none of them knew who she was. A Clavat mother who had seen her scoffed when she saw the princess' bare feet and blue skirt, which was peeking out from her cape, and called her a worthless Selkie. The local blacksmith also thought that she was a Selkie and asked why she was in Alfitaria. A young Lilty teenager didn't know what Fiona was, but she demanded to know who she was and what race she was. The Yuke teenager who she had seen studying near the castle offered her his home to stay for the night, but Fiona declined his offer politely.

She hadn't even realized that she had been holding her breath. The minute she stepped out of Alfitaria was the happiest minute of the night. Fiona had just realized that she had been worried about being discovered.

"This Selkie disguise sure beats all!" she thought happily. "Almost everyone thinks that I'm a Selkie!"

This thought suddenly sparked another thought. She knew that most Selkies, particularly the ones from Leuda, hated members of the other tribes, but almost all Selkies hated Clavats for one reason or another. Would they mistake her for a Selkie? There was a possibility that they would see through her disguise. After all wouldn't they know if someone was really of their tribe or trying to impersonate one of them?

Then again, if they believed that she was a Selkie, then she would have more of a chance in getting that one particular Selkie's attention. Princess or not, she was still just a Clavat and a Lilty. He had been kind to her, but it could've been feelings of pity or politeness. Either way, just because he had been respectable, it didn't mean that he was interested in her. Besides, what if he had a girlfriend? Or he would've preferred to stay with someone in his own tribe?

The very thought made her cringe.

He couldn't have a girlfriend! He just couldn't!

"Can't you drive this thing any faster!" Prince Zethar shouted to his driver. "I wanna to go home!"

"M-my apologizes, Your Highness!" the terrified driver answered. "B-but I'm afraid that this is as fast as the papaopamuses go!"

"Patience, my son," Zethar's father, the king of Rilana, said in an exasperated voice. "How do you expect to be a good ruler when you cannot have even patience for the simplest things?"

Zethar groaned to himself and sank down in his seat.

"Sit up!" the King ordered. "A prince does not slouch!"

The prince of Rilana bolted up as fast as he could and sat up as straight as possible. He waited until his father looked away, then slouched again. He hated being the prince. Why did his people say that he and his father had a good life? It was good for his father, but not for him! No freedom, no nothing. In addition to that, he always had to be polite around other royalty, along with being courteous. He hated that! And why did he have to get married now? He was only nineteen! And he didn't want to marry out of his race! Besides, he felt no attraction towards Fiona. He remembered what he had said to his father upon arriving to Alfitaria: "But I don't wanna to marry! Let that other prince, what's-his-name, have her!"

His father had scolded him for calling another prince "what's-his-name", for using the word, "wanna", and told him that he would do his best to make the princess choose him to be her husband. His father always asked every princess he talked with about his behavior. So he learned to act regal and formal.

A sudden movement caught his eye. There was a girl dressed in a black cape and barefoot running out of Alfitaria. Who was she? Zethar had a sudden impulse to follow her. He stuck his sword in the caravan's back wheel, causing it to go out of control and ride off the road. In the process, Zethar was flung from the caravan and he landed in some bushes. Perfect. No one would think that he ran away, especially since he was flung away from the caravan. Now, he just had to retrieve his sword and follow the girl. Oh, and he needed a piece of crystal, too. Stupid miasma.

"Man, that was a really stupid meeting," Prince Korireh muttered to himself, throwing the last bit of his formal clothes on the ground. "I can't believe that people want me to get married! Married, ick!"

"Well, you have to be the King—" Korireh gave Istimul, his Yuke friend, a nasty glare. "I-I mean, elder, one day," Istimul corrected himself hurriedly. "A-and the law says that you have to be married to be a ruler, even though it's stupid."

Korireh rolled his eyes a bit. He really hated being the prince. Things weren't as bad as it had been five years ago, though. He had somehow gotten it through the Shellan citizens' heads that he was part Selkie and didn't take kindly to being confined to a tiny town at all times. So he was allowed to leave town by his will alone, which was a type of freedom that no other royalty had. But still he really, really hated the fact that he had to marry and rule Shella someday.

He had taken the time to lose some of the more formal parts of his outfit, namely the belt and necklace, and redid his headband so that it fit around his head more to his liking. He still wore his robe, but it now hung loosely and suggested a different image of him.

A sudden movement in the street caught his attention. He saw a young girl wearing a loose, black cape a blue skirt hurrying down the street and turning to bow and apologize to a bystander that she had run into. Korireh thought for a second. Where had he seen her before.

"Hey, Istimul," Korireh said, grabbing his things, "I'm going to take a little vacation. Make sure that things in Shella don't go downhill for me, okay?"

Istimul was confused, but he agreed. Whenever Korireh ran out on his duty, he asked Istimul to take care of his duties for him. Many Yukes who were still bitter about their elder choosing a Selkic wife suggested that he make Istimul their future elder instead of Korireh. Even the Selkie-Yuke prince agreed to it, but his father wouldn't go through with it.

Fiona sneezed. Who would've known that it would start raining? Well, there was no stopping now. She had to get to the Jegon River! She forced herself to go on. She grasped her crystal in her hand.

She was at the miasma stream. It was a truly disgusting place. Luckily, for those who carried portable crystals, the tiny crystals carried no element of their own and allowed their carrier to pass through the stream safely. Still, she hated this area. Fiona took a deep breath and forced herself to go through the miasma stream.

Somehow, she had gotten through. Why was it so hard? She had gone through that horrid place before and she hadn't had so much problem then! Why now?

Whatever the case was, now was not the time to be thinking of it .Fiona pushed herself off the ground and walked downwards. Her legs wouldn't support her, though. Maybe she should stop in Marr's Pass? None of the Lilties there knew much about her, the Clavat-Liltian princess, and wouldn't suspect a thing. Perhaps she could stay at the inn there!

She paced herself in a matter of minutes, she was able to get to Marr's Pass. After paying the Lilty in charge of the inn for a room to spend the night, she decided to explore the town a bit. She had a feeling that she would be stopping in Marr's Pass constantly. Especially if she ever ran away from home again.

About an hour passed until Fiona decided that she was tired. As she lay down in her bed, she thought to herself, "I can't wait until I get to Leuda."

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A/N: Short as heck, huh? Sorry, my creative side of the brain has fizzled out. I hate my school.