(Violet's Pov)
I woke up a bit to feel Clementine shivering a bit and I pulled more of the blanket over her as she moved a bit closer to me. I held her close to me as I tried to process what all had happened yesterday and I sighed a bit at the memories. I got up a bit and left the room as I looked around the halls and I saw two guards on my side and they nodded to me as I went and looked to see the King in his office and I knocked on the door. He looked up to see me and waved me in and I come into the room and bowed to him.
"So, you will be starting your vacation tomorrow?" He asked and I nodded a bit to this.
"Yes sir." I simply say and look at him.
"Violet… I think you should be taken out of the guard." He says and I look up at him with wide eyes.
"No, you… I." I tried to argue but he stopped me.
"You were drunk, I could smell the alcohol on you, you are to guard my daughter and now two more princesses at that." He says and I look at him. I don't speak on this because it is true.
"I'm sorry Violet, I can't have my best knight acting like that… maybe you can come back after a while but… you can't be apart of this kingdoms knights anymore after what I saw yesterday… maybe it's the stress of what happened, I know you were deemed dead and came back but… I'm just sorry." He says and I nod at this and I don't speak anymore. What else was there for me to say.
"Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?" he asked and I cleared my throat a bit and think.
"Am I taken out of the guard permanently?" I asked and he thinks on this for a bit but nods and I nod as well at this information. I just lost the one job I really wanted, that I dreamed of having for years on end, and because I was stupid, I lost it. I looked up to him and I stood tall a bit and he looked at me with some concern but instead I talk but a bit quietly but enough for him to hear me.
"Um… the note I left, um… I forgot to mention that the family didn't know of the prince's actions and that we should still be on alert… have some guards posted at the edge of the kingdom to be more active, and some extra guards near you… and the princess at all times." I tell him and he nods.
"I will be sure to put that into effect…. Again, I'm sorry Violet." He says and I nod as I leave the room and take a few breaths as I head to the Princesses. I opened the door to see them all getting up and I look at Clementine who was sitting up from her sleep and I look at her as she looked to me.
"Ehem, I need to talk with you… alone?" I asked and she nods.
"After I am dressed?" She asked and I nod and leave the room and wait outside for her. I didn't look at the other guards and I heard the door open and I see Sarah, Mariana and Clem come out the room and I take them to the dinning hall for their breakfast. I pulled Clem to the side before she entered the room and I looked to her.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" She asked and I looked at her.
"Princess Clementine, I am no longer going to be your Guard for the remainder of the time, your father the King has ordered me to…. To be taken out of the guard due to my actions yesterday…. So, after the vacation I will escort you here one last time." I tell her and she looked at me with wide eyes and I felt her try to move but I stopped her knowing what she was planning to do.
"I agreed with him on this manner, I was drunk and in your room with two other princesses, I reeked of Alcohol I… have proven myself unfit yesterday and I agreed with him." I tell her.
"NO! you always wanted this, and you aren't going to fight it?" She asked and I looked to her.
"I can't if he allowed me to get away with that, he'd have to do it for all the knights, it's not…. It's just what I did was wrong Clementine." I tell her.
"BULLSHIT!" She yelled and I looked to her. Shocked at this anger she had.
"Well… since you aren't going to be part of the knights… you have no job…. I'm hiring you as my own personal guard, I tell you what you do, not my father, not the other guards no one but me." She says.
"Clem-." I tried to stop her.
"No, you haven't been back home for so god damn long, so what you had a few drinks you never did me wrong, you never hurt me, you were stressed, you…. I want you as my personal guard Violet, and my father cannot do anything on it because you work just for me." She says and I look to her.
"I'm sorry… I can't." I tell her.
"And why not?" She asked.
"Because what if one day I do end up doing something wrong to you, what if one day I'm so far gone I end up hurting you in the worst way possible hu?" I say to her as I remembered what Minerva showed me. I'm scared, petrified at the thought of doing any harm to Clementine.
"I… You can't I want you to stay here, I want you to be with me, you can't go." She says and I look at her and I saw the look on her face.
"Don't plan anything stupid please Clementine." I tell her and she looked to me.
"I'm not planning anything." She says and I look at her.
"Yes, you are, you make that face when you are planning something." I tell her.
"So, what if I am? You won't accept my offer to be my personal guard, I have to think of something else, either that or I just run away." She muttered the last part and I looked at her.
"You are not running away…. Just… let it go Clem, we get to spend two weeks together, lets just… make it last ok?" I asked and she looked to me and nods a bit.
"What if I did run away?" She asked and I looked to her.
"Then I would return you back here." I tell her simply.
"What if I want to stay with you? We could just live together, not be bothered by anyone?" She asked and I thought a bit at this, that would be a dream come true, to just live with Clementine, to have a family with her. I sighed a bit at this and looked to her.
"I know… I know you want to stay with me, or well me stay with you it's just… if you knew what I knew then you wouldn't look at me the same way again." I tell her and she just looked to me. We go in and have breakfast and after we are done, we go and grab our bags and I take them to the carriage. I looked at Clementine as she got in the carriage with the other princesses. I sighed a bit as I closed the door of the carriage and I saw the others coming up to the stables with their horses and carriage of their own. I set out the path but didn't talk to anyone for a long time, not until we got to the neighboring kingdom where Clem just got out of the carriage and I went to stop her but the door opened and out came a young man, looked like he was the same age as me or maybe younger. He got his horse and bag and I placed it on the top of the carriage and we began our long trip to the hot springs. It was a day before we made a stop into the one town and I set the horses at the stables as everyone got up and out to stretch. I hopped down and paid the stableman and went over to everyone as they finished up on their stretches.
"Ok so I propose we go out and have some fun." Louis says and I look to him.
"Or we can just grab what we need and head out?" I asked.
"That's no fun, besides listen, we are in the town of music, poetry, romance." He says as he places his arm around my shoulder and I look at him as I listen to the music a bit and I sigh.
"Ok, ok, we can have some fun, we just need to be back here before the sun goes down." I say to them and they all agree. Mariana and Sarah decided to go with Duck, then Brody, Marlon, and Louis went together, Omar, Mitch and Aasim along with Ruby decided to go together, the only ones left were Clementine and I and I felt her grab my hand and I look to her as we walk into the town. I listened to the music a bit and saw the small musicians in the center of the town as people danced and laughed and celebrated, but for what I don't know. I looked down at Clem as we walked and I think about her offer and I shake my head a bit getting it out of my head.
"This is nice, just us relaxing." She says and I nod as I look around then I look at the ring on her finger. I start to wonder if people think we are together.
"Welcome to the town of Wellington, not to be confused with the castle Wellington." I hear as a woman come up to us and places some flower crown on our head and I move back a bit at this.
"Oh, sorry if I scared you, we just love visitors." She says and I nod a bit at this as I look away and rubbed my neck a bit at this.
"Thank you." Clem says and I nod at this as well. I looked wound a bit as we kept walking through the town, people would welcome us here and I would keep quiet as Clementine would thank them, we stopped at one shop that had these sweets and I buy some for me and Clem to eat as we kept walking around.
"This is good." I muttered a bit.
"That's great, see you can have some fun." She says and I nod a bit at this as I looked around more. It wasn't long till we finished walking around the bigger part of the town and I see some blacksmiths working on a sword. I feel myself being dragged to them and I looked at Clem as she looked at the daggers and I shrugged a bit at this. I'm here to have fun, so might as well do so.
"Ah I see you like this dagger." I hear a man speak and looked up to see him. He looked oddly familiar, so I walked up to Clementine as she nods to the man and I look at the dagger as well. It was a fine piece of workmanship if I have to be honest, the handle was made of gold with a emerald at the far end of said handle, the blade itself looked really sharp and I looked to Clem as she looked around. I hear a clatter and look up to the man as he stared at me but I don't know why he looked so familiar.
"Violet?" He asked and I squinted a bit at this and nod a bit.
"Dear god you've grown." He says.
"Pardon me but do I know you?" I asked and he nods a bit to the question and I just look at him as he tried to speak a bit.
"I am… well I am your father." He says and I see in the corner of my eye Clem looking up quickly as I looked to the man and I chuckled.
"I am sorry but my father lives in the kingdom of Macon last I checked." I inform him.
"Well, we did, your mother and I moved from Macon to Wellington to try and start a new life." He says and I look at him more.
"I… uh well that's good, you seem to be doing well." I tell him.
"Thank you, I see you are doing well yourself, what brings you here?" He asked.
"I am on vacation." I tell him.
"Oh, vacation?" He asked and I nodded.
"Yes, I have some free time, but I am with the Princess and her friends." I tell him.
"Oh, so you did make it as a knight, that's good, I remember when you were little you would run around the home with your grandpa and grandma saying how you were the brave knight to keep them safe." He says and I frown at this a bit. I don't remember much of my childhood mostly because the only images that would come up were me and Clementine.
"I uh, I was a knight… I am no longer one." I tell him.
"What caused that to happen?" He asked and I feel that he is actually concerned.
"I got drunk, and the king didn't like that especially when I have to guard his daughter, but I know I deserved to lose that position." I tell him and he looked a bit sadden at this.
"Drinking in our family is never a good thing, that's why your mother set you in the orphanage, I was an angry drunk and she just didn't want me to hurt you." He says and I nod at this.
"Nothing to do with Grandma?" I asked him and he sighs.
"I should have never said those words to you, you had no idea what had happened and I don't blame you, the shock of it happening… I drank more and more I wasn't a good father I will admit to that." He tells me and I nod to this, at least he is willing to admit he was wrong.
"Hey, since you aren't a knight, maybe you could live on the farm with your mother and I we… she would really want to see you again." He tells me and I shake my head at this.
"I have a home in Macon, lots of land too, um… but I can come and visit." I tell him and he nods.
"I do want to tell you that… you have a younger sister, she's only a year old, you should meet her if you want that is." He tells me and I am a bit shocked at this fact and I nod just a bit.
"I would like to, maybe on my way back from the Hot Springs, what is her name?" I asked.
"Irises… her name is Irises." He tells me and I nod at this.
"Thank you for telling me… um… may I get this dagger please?" I asked as I pointed to the one Clem was looking at. He grabbed it and a small leather holder for it. I was about to grab my coin pouch but he stopped me.
"It's on the house, please, after what I've done." He says and I look to him and I nod.
"Thank you." I tell him and he nods. I then take my leave and Clementine follows me as we leave the area and I take a few breaths.
"How could you talk to him so easily?" She asked and I looked to her.
"Pardon?" I asked.
"You talked to him, even though he treated you wrong." She says and we keep walking.
"He seems to be trying to turn his life around… besides I don't want the old man to die thinking his eldest daughter hated him…. I don't really hate him, he was a drunk, and did try to hurt me many times… besides if they never gave me up, I wouldn't have met you." I tell her as I hand her the gift and she looked to me.
"But how could you talk to him like that, shouldn't you be mad?" She asked and I looked to her sadly and sighed.
"I am... I am mad that they didn't write to me telling me they moved, or that I had a little sister, though I didn't try and look for them either so I am no better." I explained as we walked some more.
"You're not acting like you usually do." She says as she put the holder around her waist and I just looked to her.
"Might as well try to make the best of the worst situation… besides, I have a little sister, so I have to be nice if I want to meet her at least once that it." I say and look forward.
"Vi." She says and I look to her.
"Hm?" I hummed out a bit and she looked down a bit then to me.
"Nothing, it's not important." She says as she walked ahead of me and I rubbed my neck as I followed her. Hours were passing us by and I looked to the church a bit and think.
"Need to send a prayer?" Clem asked and I looked to her and shook my head.
"No… no I don't just thinking is all." I tell her and she nods a bit as I still looked to the church and I sighed a bit.
"Actually, I should go talk to the priest a bit." I say and she nods as we head to the church where a man was lighting the candles and I go up to him as Clem sat in the pews and grabbed the bible.
"Hello, you seem like you have something to say My Child." He says and I nod a bit.
"I have a confession." I tell him and he nods as he leads me to the confession booths and I take my seat as I think.
"Tell me what is on your mind child." He says and I think.
"Father, should I forgive my parents for giving me up… they have a new life and a new daughter, but never came to see me." I say.
"I know we say to honor thy mother and father, but how long have they not been in your life?" He asked and I think.
"Since I was Eleven so ten years, almost eleven." I say to him.
"Oh, but have you done well in your life without them?" He asked.
"I don't know father, I just lost my job as a knight for one stupid mistake, I am honestly no longer useful I can't keep a promise that I had no part in knowing in." I tell him.
"Stress can cause you to think this way, but what you can do is change it, yes your parents gave you up but you say you were a knight, would you think you would have been one had you stayed with them?" He asked and I think.
"I don't know… maybe not." I say.
"The lord is watching over you child, he has made your path the way it is for a reason, but you won't know till you have passed on." He says and I take a breath.
"Father I have another confession." I say.
"And what is that?" He asked and I think before I speak.
"Father is it really a sin to love another woman?" I asked and he kept quiet on this.
"My child, it is not my place to speak but the bible says to love the sinner not the sin, if you believe it to be a sin that is what you think besides, this is the town of Romance, women marry women and men marry men, it is not my place to send judgment onto those who love the way they do. If you love this woman then keep her close, do not push her away." He says and I think on this a bit.
"I don't think it is wrong or a sin, but others might." I say.
"Then they will not reach heaven for it was said that they have no right to judge, they are not the Lord, and the Lord has yet to do anything bad to these lands even with the people of the same gender marrying each other…. do you think this woman doesn't have the same feelings?" He asked and I nod.
"She does, she wants to get married but with her status she has to have an heir." I tell him.
"Give a child a home than." He says and I looked to the side where the priest sat.
"Pardon?"
"You said your parents gave you up, do the same for a child and take them in, show them love and kindness, show them that people care for them and love them." He says and I nod a bit at this.
"Thank you, father." I say to him.
"Anytime my child, now please have some fun while you are here, do not worry." He says and I nod as we leave the booths and I go up to Clementine who sat the book back in it's spot and she looked up to me.
"Feeling better?" She asked and I nodded.
"A bit yes." I tell her as we walked out of the church and I see Louis and Marlon and wave to them.
"Hey we were about to head back to the carriages." Marlon says and I look to the sky to see it was getting late.
"Right, we should leave." I say and begin walking to the carriages.
"You doing ok?" I hear and look to Louis as he walked next to me and I nod.
"Yea… just saw m father, found out I have a sister, in the same day I was basically fired from my job." I say and he looked to me.
"Wait you have a sister?" He asked.
"yep…. And she's a year old." I tell him.
"Well still a sister, you should go see her." He says.
"I can see her on the way back from the Hot Springs, right now I just want to relax a bit, I mean I am on vacation." I tell him and looked to him a bit.
"Well, I have never seen this side of you before… are you sure you're ok?" He says and I nod.
"Yea, just trying to relax into this new thing… it's going to go well I hope." I say as we get to the carriage and I see the others. We all get ready to leave and I start out on the path to the Hot Springs. It was another two days before we finally reached the Hot Springs and I finally get to take a break. We set the horses in the stables and I go to the small Inn and get us a few rooms and anything else we would need for the next week and few days.
"The Host Springs are open all hours of the day and all hours of the night so if you need to use them now it's fine, we have indoor ones and outdoor springs as well, also make sure to be careful, it's going to snow soon and being outside in the springs can make you a bit dizzy." She says and I nod at this.
"Um, is there anything else here for uh… couples?" I asked and she looked to me.
"I have friends that are a couple and just wanted to know for them is all." I sort of lied at this and she nods a bit.
"Oh yes, we have some private springs for couples, there's a trail that leads up int the meadow, best time to go there is in the afternoon and stay to look at the stars so be sure to have a tent it's not safe to come back down at night." She explained and I nodded at this.
"There's also a girl here that didn't have such a great birthday and I want to make it up, is there anything for that?" I asked and she thinks and nods.
"We can make a cake for her if you'd like, and set up the one private dinner areas just in case we get more company during your stay." She says and I nod as I pay extra for two cakes and the private dinner for all of us to go to. After this she handed me the keys. I walked out to the others and handed them their keys and I looked to Clementine who was trying to grab her bag but I grabbed it instead and looked to her. As I showed her the key to our room.
"The other princesses should be fine." I say to her and she looked to me and then she looked to Mariana who was messing around with Duck and Mitch and Sarah was just looking at Mariana as she did this. Clem looked back to me and nodded a bit at this and we all headed to the rooms and I decided that I would go to the hot springs.
"I'm going to head to the springs." I say.
"Oh wait I want to join." I hear Clem say as she went and grabbed a towel and I nod as I grabbed mine and we went outside and took our clothes off, we got into the spring and I sighed a bit at the heat and relaxed a bit.
"This is quite nice." I say.
"Hmm, yea." I hear and I feel Clem sit closer to me.
"Hey room for a few more?" I heard and looked up to see Brody, Sarah, Mariana, and Ruby. I nod a bit at this and they all got in and I covered my eyes a bit to not look at them and I hear a giggle.
"Oh, come on Violet we're all girls here" Mariana says and I shake my head.
"So, I'm still respectful." I muttered and I heard the others laugh including Clementine.
"Really, last time I checked-." But before Clementine could finished, I covered her mouth with my eyes closed.
"Ok, I get it." I say and sighed a bit as I opened my eyes and only looked to Clementine. Who was smiling a bit and she leaned up to whisper in my ear.
"It's kind of cute that you only want to look at me." She says and I turn red and lower myself into the water more covering the bottom half of my face as the girls laughed at this and I sighed a bit to myself.
"So since we are here, what else is there to do?" I hear Ruby asked and I sat up a bit to speak.
"Hmm, we could go into the town for a bit you know, also there are some activities for couples here, so Brody and Marlon can go make out in the woods." I joked and felt water get splashed onto my face and I chuckled.
"Hey, it's true though." I laughed a bit.
"Yea well you can go make-out with a tree." She says and I chuckled.
"Bet you I will, maybe if I'm drunk enough I will." I say and Clem hits my shoulder.
"No drinking." She says.
"Come on it's a vacation, I can have a few here and there." I say to her and she looked at me and basically told me we would talk on this later.
"Well what else is there?" Mariana asked.
"Well, we are going to have dinner here, we get a private room though I paid extra for Mariana's party." I say to her.
"Oh a party, well we need to get some gifts." Ruby says.
"Oh no, you don't have to this is enough." Marian says to her.
"Don't be so modest, we haven't had a party in years, when was the last one we had?" Brody asked.
"For me it was before I left to training for the Knights, Clem wanted to throw me a huge party but we settled for a small one." I tell them as I kept my eyes on Clem who held my hand under the water.
"Mine was before Marlon Left for the battle three years ago." Brody says.
"Aasim made us go to the festivals, if we want to count that as his return party." Ruby say and we all kept silent.
"So, Sarah how is it like in your kingdom?" Brody asked.
"Oh, it's quiet, my dad doesn't really let me out the castle grounds for long, I was lucky to be able to go to Mariana's kingdom but now that we are here my father might be worried." She sas.
"Clem's father should have sent a letter to him explaining the situation though, he should understand until he can send his knights out to get you, or we can escort-." But I stopped remembering I wasn't a knight anymore.
"I mean, Clem's Knights could escort you." I say and looked down a bit.
"Did something happen?" Ruby asked and I shook my head.
"No, I just remembered I have something to do when I get back so if they needed me to take Sarah home, I would be to busy." I explained to them.
"Oh, that's odd though, aren't you supposed to be in charge of that stuff?" Brody asked.
"Yea but I need to get other things done is all… uh I got to meet my father again." I say.
"Woah wait what when?" Ruby asked as I felt the water shift a bit as they moved in closer and I looked down a bit.
"A few days ago, when we were at Wellington, my dad seems to be doing fine." I say.
"Fine? Wasn't he a drunk?" Brody asked.
"I mean… yea but him and my mom seem to be doing better tough, I have to be happy for them." I tried to explain.
"But they gave you up, did they even tell you they left Macon?" Ruby asked.
"No but I mean I didn't keep in contact with them I could have…. Oh, uh I also have a sister now, she's a year old." I tell them.
"Really?" I hear Mariana ask and I nod.
"Yea, I'm going to meet her after this trip when we pass Wellington again, so we can make a stop there, I'd like to meet her at least." I say in all honesty.
"That's kind of you." Ruby says.
"Hey I can be nice." I argued back.
"No, I mean… most people wouldn't want to see their siblings especially after they were given up by their parents." She says and I nod a bit at this.
"Yea but it wasn't her fault, she was just born into that life." I tell them.
"I mean you are right; it would be a bit cruel." Sarah says and I nod in agreement. It was about an hour before we all decided to head to bed. When I got my night clothes on I looked to the bed and I laid on it face first as I pulled the pillow to me and I looked to see Clem looking at me from the other side of the bed. I lifted my head up a bit as she sat on the bed and I looked to her a bit.
"Don't drink while you are here." She says and I looked to her as she looked back to me.
"You were scared a few days ago about drinking but now you're ok with it?" She asked and I looked to her a bit confused and I sighed a bit.
"I… I would like to have a few drinks while I am here, I won't get drunk… unless you want me to." I tried to make it a joke but it was in poor tasted and I chuckled awkwardly and put my head in the pillow a bit.
"I… don't want you to drink is all." She says and I look at her.
"I know… I know you don't want me to and I promise I won't drink a lot just one or two in a day." I tell her.
"Just one to two?" She asked and I nod.
"Make a promise." She tells me and I sit up in the bed a bit and I look at her.
"I Violet Aldon, of Macon promises to not drink more than two drinks in one day during this vacation." I tell her and she nods at this and lays next to me and I pulled her closer to me. I kissed her head gently and stayed there a bit.
"You know… if you leave, I'll miss you." She says and I nod a bit.
"I know… I mean I'll still be in Macon… you could visit but no running away." I tell her and she sighed.
"Come on, you promised we could live together." She says and I look at her as I moved a bit.
"That was before your dad lost trust in me." I tell her.
"I haven't lost my trust in you so it shouldn't matter." She says and I sighed a bit.
"Let's just get some sleep tonight." I tell her and she looked to me and grabbed my hand and placed it on her stomach a bit and I looked to her a bit as I felt her skin more than her nightgown and I swallowed a bit as I turned red. I closed my eyes a bit and put my face in her hair as I kept my hand in that spot but I moved my thumb a bit on her stomach as I tried to relax a bit. It was a while before I finally went to sleep.