Complete summary: Princess Naoko knows her father is a horrible ruler, but no one suspected his selfish ways would end in her being kidnapped. Now traveling through her Kingdom Aralon, across wilderness into the enemy country Honrako, Naoko and her servant friend Suki soon learn that their kidnappers, the four bandits of Quentia, might not be so bad after all.
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A/N: Actually, this is a fast update, considering the usual time gaps between my chapter postings. It helps that I've got it already written, but actually, I'm going over things and rewriting little parts here and there…that's what happens when you improve your writing over a two-year span I guess.
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Arigatou
Chapter Two
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"Are you sure dear sister?"
"Come now, don't you see that this is the best thing for me?"
"Yes, after your little outburst with father, I understand why you would want to leave. But we will miss you here."
"Hiromi, I know you can't bare being in this palace at present anymore then I can, so why don't you come with us?"
The Prince of Aralon Kingdom regarded his younger sister and sighed deeply. "No, though I know father wants me to go. He believes it's his only way to be rid of my opposition, since I refuse to join in battle, but I won't let him off that easy. I intend to remain by his side till he listens to sense and reason."
"Then I leave you with my sentiments, and hope that you can change his mind, Hiromi." Naoko doubted his success but smiled for her brother all the same.
"Thank you. It looks like your attendants are getting restless in the carriage. It's time for you to leave." Hiromi hugged his sister, and helped her into the royal carriage.
"Good-bye brother." Naoko waved to him as the carriage took off.
"Have a nice time Naoko. Bye Suki, bye Akiko, bye Kana." Prince Hiromi waved to them all and then retired back inside the palace walls.
"You should have accompanied her." Hiromi heard a hoarse voice say as he entered back into the grand hall.
"Father, I wish to stay by your side instead." Hiromi answered, bowing his head to the King.
"Both you and Naoko need time off from this palace and its troubles. The rest and relaxation would have been good for you. It would have cleared your mind, and maybe when you came back, you would have considered joining in the war."
By the defiant look on his son's face, the King realized he was better off saying nothing of it. "Sir, you know my mind is quite made up about that. It would be an honour to fight along the sides of the great knights and warrior's of this kingdom, as I have trained enough with them to do so. But I can not fight in a war for an unworthy cause."
"What is unworthy in your eyes is all worthy in another's. This war is the most important thing for this kingdom at present, and since you refuse to help defend your homeland in battle, then you are of no use here. Further more," the King continued, straining to sound calm, "you are too young Hiromi to consult with me and my advisers of plans, and so you would of done better to join your sister."
"But I have inherited your impatience father, and I could not relax miles away from here, knowing my kingdom is falling to pieces because of this war business. And I know you may think it is not, but it soon will show signs of ruin. Please excuse me sir, I am needed elsewhere at present." Hiromi bowed with gritted teeth once again with and left his father's side.
- - -
"Dear Princess, what are you wearing?" Kana said a most disproving voice.
"The journey to Renalia is two days long, you do not expect me to wear a dress do you?"
"You are a well bred princess. You should be donned in fancy gowns flowing to the ground."
"Kana stop being such a governess. What she is wearing is acceptable enough." Suki defended her.
"You are only a year or two older then the Princess and hardly knowledgeable of proper attire for her majesty. You are not aware that for one fact, a princess always wears gowns covering her from shoulder down. She does not wear little outfits that cut off by her thighs, with footwear extending above the knees. It is a disgraceful thing, exposing oneself so."
"But think of all the men she can attract that way." Akiko giggled. "Princess outfits are all fine and good for noble gentlemen, but real men like to see a girl flaunt it a little."
"Akiko, do you ever think of anything else besides men?" Suki sighed.
"Kana please, I am not dressing this way to be disgraceful. I went through my outfits this morning and realized that all my traveling outfits have gone missing; none of them see to be there. One of my clothing maids may have taken them for wash. Besides that, all I had was dining gowns, ball gowns, and evening gowns, and morning gowns. Then I remembered great-grandmother Queen Aya."
"Ah, yes, the sorcerer Queen." Suki noted.
"Yes, she was a sorcerer before meeting her husband, King Jun, and had left one of her outfits from back in her magical days, to her daughter, my late grandmother. So the outfit was past down to my mother, and now I have it, but it's been kept in my chamber chest all this time. So I went to get it, and realized it was the most comfortable thing I had to wear. You see, it isn't disgraceful; it's just the fashion of a sorcerer. They wore short garments with knee-boots."
"But once we get to the palace, I expect you to change into something more appropriate."
"Yes Kana." Naoko fought the urge to roll her eyes and instead grinned.
"It is not something to brag about," Kana went on, refusing to drop the subject, "when your three ladies-in-waiting are better dressed then you."
"Kana, you are dressed in old worn out wool, hardly attractive. That is not better then Naoko." Akiko pointed out with a yawn, peering out of the carriage window at the passing scenery.
"And you dear Akiko, are wearing a half ripped servants dress. I am surprised; usually you like to wear your best, why are you dressed so poorly?" Kana asked, noticing.
"Seeing how it's a two-day journey, I didn't think we'd be seeing anyone important, or any men anyway, so I've decided to save all my good clothes for Renalia." Akiko answered as it was most natural for her to think so.
"I should of thought of that." Suki half laughed. "I just put on one of my silk dresses for today, but I guess it's not smart to wear a nice dress on a two-day journey. Though I have a feeling if we were the servants of any other Princesses, then we wouldn't get silk dresses in the first place."
"It is because you three are just so close to me, I could not have you dresses like mere commoners." Naoko looked at them with warm and sincere eyes. "Besides, you are my ladies-in-waiting, so you should dress in silk and satin and jewels. It always makes a good impression on other royals when even one's servants look grand."
"It is not wise though. You will notice I hardly ever wear one of the dresses you present to me your highness. It is not wise for servants to dress so striking. One might even one day mistake Suki or Akiko for a princess as well." Kana tsked.
"Oh, do you really think it could happen? Like at a grand ball or something?" Akiko's voice was eager and excited.
"Give up the sweet dream Akiko, or Kana will be irritated for the rest of the journey." Suki laughed aloud at the thought.
"So…how long have we been traveling so far anyway?" Akiko asked a moment later.
"It has only been over three hours." Kana patiently answered.
"Only three hours! But didn't we just spend about five hours of the journey in silence, and then finally we started talking, and have been for the past two? No, you must be wrong, I am sure we've been on the road for seven."
"If we were on the road for seven hours, it would be afternoon by now and the sun would be more west. But look, it is still early, the sun is more east, meaning Kana is right and we've been out for three or four hours at the most. Besides, Kana is always accurate with time, Akiko." The Princess explained, looking out her window and up at the sky.
"But don't worry Akiko, in between the palace and Renalia, is twenty hours away, and since we've done about three, you only have to spend another seven hours in here, and the new stop for the night." Suki smiled.
"Suki, you know that peace of news doesn't make me feel any better. Seven hours till rest, and then after that, back in this carriage for another day of traveling to Renalia. The things I do for you Princess." Akiko sighed.
"I'll buy you another silk dress to make up for it, promise." Naoko laughed.
- - -
"Is that the carriage?"
"Yes, the one coming this way down the road as we speak. Now, we're got about ten minutes before they pass us, so let's all get down from the trees and prepare ourselves."
"Alright commander, I'm standing by ready to set their wheel a blazing."
"Good, and Mikitao, Shinji? Are you two ready?"
"Ryo, I've spotted four ladies in the carriage, how will we be able to tell which is the princess?"
"We will capture all four of them and continue from there. But four is more then I hoped for. Mikitao, can we count on you to take two of them? Shinji and I will take the other two."
"Right." Mikitao nodded.
"And Yukio, after setting the wheel on fire, put a charm on the drivers. Something to stop both the men from trying to stop us from taking our loot."
"Got it commander." Yukio took out a bag of silver dust.
"Good, now everyone in place. Let's go get our horses and be ready for attack."
- - -
End of ch.o2
A/N: Okay, yay, so I got a review! I know the Fairy Tales section isn't as popular as the Harry Potter one, and I don't expect much of anything really, so I'm excited I got something!
If you guys think I'm lacking in description, I apologize because I wrote this a long time ago and was just getting into writing at the time (which is why I'm now changing things around a bit).
And the whole Japanese name thing…well, back when I was fourteen, I was really obsessed with Japanese things, and I actually got all the names from the movie credits at the end of the second Card Captor Sakura movie, haha, yes. But besides the names, don't expect too much Jap influence because it really is more a medieval theme, and you can sort of tell by the way they're talking that it isn't going to be Japanese really (or is it? Hmm…).
The reason I'm posting something I've already written is because I've always wanted to have people read and comment on it. I'm actually too embarrassed to have people I know see it, so even though I wrote this two years ago, I'm trying to fix it up, and I hope to get feedback, whether its positive or negative, from anyone willing to give it.
Whoa, that was one long Author Note. (I bet most people didn't even bother to read it ;) )
-rayko.