Rule #6: When faced with the difficult task of fighting an army, it's best not to insult said army's leader.

It was late in the afternoon three days later when Blink and Mush arrived at a small bridge. Standing in front of them, arms folded across his chest, was the smallest soldier either boy had ever seen.

At first, they attempted to squeeze past him with grunted hellos, but the soldier would have none of it. "It's gonna cost you to cross this here bridge," he announced.

"Oh, really?" said Blink, stepping forward. "Who's going to stop us? Certainly not you."

"Keep talkin' tough guy. I have an army ready and waiting to fight anyone who refuses to obey our laws."

"Your laws? The king makes the laws, my friend."

"The king is a hundred miles from here. He has no idea what kind of laws we need here. And what's more," he reached up and thumped Blink hard on the shoulder. "I don't think he cares."

"Of course he cares." Blink looked mad, Mush noted, an emotion he was used to seeing on the faces of his stepbrothers, and mom, but never on his new friend. Of course, he'd only known Blink for little more than a week, so, he convinced himself, it would be a while before he would know what all of Blink's emotions looked like.

"Blink, it's okay, really. We can cross further down."

"Stand back, Mush." Blink pushed Mush backward gently and then turned back to the guard. "Do you know who I am?"

"Should I?"

"You'll regret ever having messed with…" he trailed off and then turned back to look at Mush. Mush realized he was leaning forward, hanging on Blink's unfinished sentence.

Blink gulped and then took the few steps that stood between he and Mush and grabbed Mush by the arm. "We'll cross further down," he said.

Further down, Mush decided that he was too curious to let Blink just trail off like he had. "What were you going to say?"

Blink stared at him and then shrugged. "I wasn't going to say anything."

"Back there, with that guy. You were about to tell him—."

"Nothing. I wasn't going to say anything."

"Yes you were. You said—"

"Mush. Drop it."

Mush had never heard Blink sound so stern before. "Alright."

They traveled on in silence and down the road a ways, discovered a section of the river where it was thin enough that they could hop over. Once safely across, they continued, still in silence.

After an hour or so, they found shelter in another cheap lodge in another small village, and Mush claimed he was too tired to venture out. They napped.

Mush was the first to wake up. He glance over at Blink, snoring soundly in the cot across the room and decided, given Blink's earlier grumpiness, that it would be best to let his companion sleep. He closed the door quietly behind him.

The tavern beneath their room was silent, unlike the taverns they'd encountered previously. Mush ventured outside. The village was quiet, but there were lots of people, which didn't really make sense to him.

He decided not to care as he approached a woman standing behind a fruit cart. She didn't say anything, just stared at him, waiting.

Mush pulled the horse from his pocket and held it out to her. She looked at it, curiously. "Sorry to bother you," he said. "I'm looking for—"

He was cut off suddenly when loud trumpets sounded from somewhere behind them. Both he and the woman watched as a parade of horses approached, most of them draped with the king's banners, and upon which rode men dressed in the garb of the royal guard. Mush had never seen them, but he'd heard all about them.

He watched in awe as the horses came to an abrupt halt in front of him. Curious passers by gathered around as the man on the lead horse dismounted. Several men behind him blew their trumpets once more.

Blink was missing out. For a moment, Mush considered running back to wake his friend, but then the man started speaking.

"Hear ye, citizens of Balderling. His royal Highness Prince Henry has disappeared from the castle grounds, upon the suspicion of kidnapping!"

Mush gasped, as did the people around him. A few women let out startled squeals of "kidnapped!"

"It is the request of his Majesty, King John the seventeenth, that the Prince be returned with haste. Failure to comply will result in immediate death, and anyone who has information of the Prince's whereabouts will be properly compensated." Another murmur spread through the crowd and Mush was about to turn away, excited to tell Blink about the news, but the man wasn't finished.

"Upon the return of his Royal Highness, the King has prepared a celebration ball to which you all are invited." There was a cheer following this remark and Mush left then to tell Blink the news.

He wondered if this was the ball that the Prince would be forced to choose a bride at, and then chuckled at the thought of them trying to fool the Prince into marrying one of them.

Blink was awake when Mush arrived, and was stuffing a blanket from the bed into his sack. He glanced up at Mush and then blushed. "They won't miss it, really."

Mush grinned, too excited to care about his friend's pilfering habits. Blink, realizing he was in the clear, finished packing the blanket into the sack. "Any luck?" Blink asked, motioning with his eye to the wooden horse still in Mush's hand.

Mush looked down and then shook his head quickly, stuffing the horse back into his pocket. "No…but, that's not why I came back. Blink! The Prince! He's missing! And the Kin sent his horses out to look for him, only they can't find him and now they're offering money to whoever finds him and—"

Mush stopped when Blink's hand covered his mouth suddenly. "Who did you hear this from?"

"The guys in the market. They're royal guards, they have to be! I've never seen them before but—"

Blink cut him off again.

"Here? Now?"

Mush nodded, unable to speak with Blink's hand still over his mouth.

"Show me."

The look in Blink's eyes after that, startled Mush. Blink released him and Mush could feel his presence lingering close behind him as he trudged back out of the inn and into the courtyard.

Blink pulled his cloak hood up over his head when they approached the team of horses. "I can't believe they came all this way…" Blink mumbled.

"What?" Mush was confused. More confused than he'd ever been. "Blink. What's going on?"

"I'll explain later, Mush. But we have to leave."

"We can't, Blink. I haven't even searched for—"

"We'll search someplace else, Mush. Come on."

And then Mush was being dragged from the city, Blink muttering under his breath the entire way.

When they were a safe distance from the city Mush refused to go any further. "Tell me what's going on, or I won't take another step."

Blink sighed and then dropped his hood. "Look I…there's not really an easy way for me to say this…I'm…"

"You're a thief aren't you?"

"What?"

"That's why you're running from them. I should've known. That first day we met, remember…down by the river? You said you were running from the law…"

"Well…I…"

"Look, Blink. You're my friend. My only friend. I'm not going to turn you in, but I want to know the truth."

"Mush it's…do you hear that?"

Mush started to protest but found himself silenced once again by Blink's firm hand. He starined his ears and finally in the distance, heard the sound that had made Blink pause.

"Is that…horses?"

Blink nodded, pulled his hood up and then pushed Mush into the trees. They can't find me, Mush. They can't."

"Alright." Mush yanked himself away from Blink and crouched behind a different tree than his friend. He didn't know why he was so bitter, just that he was. He glanced at Blink who looked hurt, but Mush told himself he didn't really care. Blink was a liar and a thief, the very kind of people Blink had warned him about.

They listened to the hooves approach and then disappear. Blink let out a sigh of relief and sank down to the forest floor. "That was close."

Mush started to walk away.

"Wait. Mush."

Mush kept walking and quickened his pace when he heard Blink right behind him.

"Come on, Mush. Look, if it helps at all, I'm sorry."

Mush wanted to stop. He really wanted to, but in his book, Blink was just like his stepbrothers. All he cared about was himself. What if those guards had caught Blink? There was a good chance they would have thrown Mush in the dungeon as well. They had been traveling together, and Mush had been a witness to at least two of Blink's thefts. Who knew how many more he had committed when Mush was asleep or away?

Mush started to run.

He thought he was safe until a warm body tackled him from behind and pinned him to the ground. Mush yelled when Blink pulled his arms behind his back and leaned forward to talk into his ear. "Mush. You have to understand me."

Blink underestimated Mush's strength and suddenly, he was the one pinned beneath Mush. "I understand, Blink."

"Oh you do?"

"Your freedom means more to you than I do. That's obvious."

"Is that what you think?"

"That's what I know, Blink. You used me. Used me to help you get away from the guards. What if they had found you, Blink?"

"Mush You don't—"

"Don't tell me I don't get it. Because I do get it, Blink!" Mush punched him then. In his face.

Blink shouted as Mush scrambled off of him and started to run.

"Mush! Get back here!"

Mush kept running. And running. Until he couldn't hear Blink's prodding feet behind him anymore.

Then he realized for the time how alone he really was. He was in the middle of the forest, with no idea where he should go or how far it was to the next town.

But then he told himself, he would mush rather be alone and lost than traveling with someone who he didn't trust. Well, didn't trust anymore.

He looked at the road before him and sighed.

It was going to be a long journey.

A/N: Li'l Mushie's journey seems to have taken a turn for the worse eh? Well, you know what they say, it will only get worse before it gets better.

Thank you: antiIrony, wisecracker88, Sprints 100, madmbutterfly, mushs-grl13, and Kid Blink's Dreamer.

Just so you know, this story (though not my favorite) has more reviews than any of my other stories! Y'all rock!