I promised one chapter per review and now im finally getting caught up! thanks fr the reviews, hope you like this chapter, the next one if my favorite!

The boy who marched next to me was named James, and the second we stepped out of Drylliad, he began whispering to me. We made small talk, Roden yelled at us to be quiet, and then continued talking anyways. James was a good person, I liked talking to him because he seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say about what it was like to grow up in an orphanage.

James was also good at making me interested in what he had to say too. He was the oldest of ten children, and wanted to set a good example for his nine younger sisters. I thought he was doing a really good job at doing so. Anybody with an older brother like James would've had at least a decent childhood. He also liked to crack jokes whenever we marched past ugly trees.

As we marched, we passed villages and forests. It was a battle between late winter and early spring. I shivered as we marched a long, and then remembered the cloak in the satchel we'd been given just before leaving Drylliad. I put it on and felt instantly better.

The king's betrothed carriage was attacked halfway to her mother's estates in a town called Goulding. The king had given her a home there rather than keep her in Tithio. Goulding was a few days away from Drylliad and had recently experienced an early spring snow that would probably melt by the next afternoon and force us to march through mud.

I glanced back and waved at Ari, who was sitting at the head of a wagon guiding a large horse. She held up her reins proudly and I smiled.

"My friend back there was really nervous, I'm glad that Captain Harlowe let her ride with us," I said, nudging James.

He ran his hands through his black hair, "Captain Harlowe is a good friend, we fought in the war with Avenia together."

I whistled lowly, "How old were you?"

"I was fifteen, a little bit younger than the captain. I'm seventeen now, and I'm glad that I fought for my country."

"I was fourteen then," I snort. "But I look like I'm twelve, don't I?"

"You could always use that to your advantage, Fiona."

I cracked a small smile, I'd definitely used my appearances to get out of problems before. As I neared seventeen though, I started to look more like my age, and it got a lot harder to play the misguided child card. I missed my friends.

"I can see my breath," James said as we passed the last village before Goulding. "We should be getting to the king's camp soon."

"I wonder if they'll have a nice warm fire waiting for us," I joked.

"Maybe, we are doing a big favor to the king by searching for his betrothed. I hope she's alright, there has been no sign of any survivors. According to captain Harlowe, if anybody made it out alive, they're extremely lucky. I hope Imogen is safe."

"Who's Imogen?"

"...The king's betrothed?"

I nodded my head in understanding, I now knew her name. I wondered how she'd met Jaron, I doubted it was anything like the way I had met Jaron. He was going by the name Sage back then. I wondered if he'd remember me. I suddenly felt my mouth go dry at the thought of him recognizing me. We'd both changed so much. He'd gone on to become king and I'd… stayed in the same orphanage and did the same things.

My cheeks grew warm. What was I doing here? Was it too late to turn back around and go back to Drylliad?

I looked back at Ari, who waved at me. If she could do it, so could I.

That night, we set up camp between some trees. I made sure to sleep with my sword ready, and agreed to keep vigil in the early morning. I definitely complained when James came and woke me up from my sleep. However, it was so cold outside that all I could do was shiver.

And to my surprise, captain Harlowe was also on vigil duty. Great, just my luck. I rolled my eyes when he looked at me, and wrapped my cloak even tighter around myself. We didn't talk for several minutes.

"I'm glad you're here, I guess," Roden said. "It's good that you're putting your sword to good use instead of being a thief."

I scoffed, "Thanks I think. You're still stupid."

"I thought I told you how much that hurts my feelings, you're a bully Fiona," Roden said.

This time, I smirked, "Good, I'm glad somebody like me is brave enough to stand up to you."

"Good for you, Fiona."

And then we didn't speak again, but I did feel a little bit better. Maybe he didn't hate me so much after all.

When my turn for vigil was over, I was so excited to go back to sleep. When we all woke up that morning, we had a really quick breakfast and started marching again. I was still tired despite having slept, and didn't really talk much to James. I waved at Ari and I also waved at Roden, who was once again at the front of the group. Unfortunately, he didn't wave back, and he only ended up glaring at me. I guess our heart to heart from the night before hadn't worked, but it hadn't been long at all so it didn't really bother me.

In the distance, more smoke rose up. The king's camp! It had to be the king's camp! The group picked up a little more speed at the idea of being able to take another break at the king's camp, I was a little surprised that nobody broke out into a dead run.

The king's camp was both grand and modest. The royal tent was in the middle and everything was surrounded by a hasilty put up fence. There were other smaller tents for some other important officials, and lots of tents for the soldiers had been put up outside the fence.

I saw prince Jaron only briefly as he walked into his tent, and I hid his face so he couldn't see me.

I would leave as soon as I could, I just couldn't bear the thought of Jaron marrying somebody else after all we had been through. I remained quiet the rest of the day, and was thankfully assigned to a tent with Ari. I didn't speak then either, all I could think about…

Was my past...