Figuring out what to do was the easy part. We decided to go on a horse ride for the day. I know, it doesn't sound all that great. And, to tell you the truth, I agree, but Allie was so excited about it I didn't want to say anything. Her parents barely let her walk down the street, let alone let her leave the town. I had to ask her father, the governor, for his approval.

I was led to his study by the butler who had laughed at me that morning and was pushed inside. He was sitting at his desk in a huge chair that looked like a throne. He looked absolutely nothing like Allie. Except for one huge bald spot, his head was covered with thick brown hair. Above his lip, was an enormous mustache that looked like a ferret. And he wasn't the fittest person either. Rather, he was large and portly. He kind of reminded me of a banker, big and smoking a cigar. A greedy look was also constantly plastered onto his face. Although I couldn't tell for sure, it looked like Allie had inherited his brown eyes. They were trained on a book sitting on his desk. I read the upside-down title at the top of the page.

"The Odyssey" I said aloud. "Good book."

He looked up at me quizzically. "You know how to read?" It was more of a statement than a question but I nodded my head anyways. He continued. "What are you here for?" His voice was gruff and thickly accented.

"I wanted to know if Allie and I could take a trip."

"Why?"

"I have a friend in a nearby town that has said he'll give Allie private lessons," I said just as she and I had rehearsed.

"How much?"

"No charge. He owes me."

He considered it for a moment. "Which town? Silverdale or Longville?"

My mind raced. We had completely forgotten about that. Since I had never heard of either of them I picked one at random. "Silverdale."

"That's in the forest." I cursed under my breath. I had no doubt he wouldn't let us go now. The forest was packed with thieves and beggars.

"I'll arm myself." I had absolutely no clue what I was doing but I figured I would give it a shot. "With a sword and pistol." He raised his eyebrows. "I won't use them! It'll just be for show. Most bandits are too cowardice to dare attack anyone with weapons."

He thought for 5 long, hard minutes, and then spoke. "We'll try it for today. But…" he looked at me menacingly. "If there is a single scratch on Allie when you get back…" he trailed off. I nodded and he began reading again as if I had never been there. I was about to walk out when I had an idea.

"Sir?" With a sigh he turned his attention back to me. "Can we take a basket of food along with us?" I crossed my fingers tightly behind my back.

"Tell the chef I gave you my permission."

I thanked him and walked out, silently leaping for joy. Allie and I met at the bottom of the staircase and when I told her about my success she squealed in delight. When she finally calmed down she practically skipped to the kitchen. I followed her, rolling my eyes.

A couple long strips of dried beef, bananas, apples, and 2 cucumbers were packed tightly into a large basket and covered with a blanket. We carried it and the rest of our supplies to the stables. Allie immediately went to her horse, Rose. Rose was chocolate brown with white on her hooves. She was very energetic and loved to fool around. Allie was the only one who could keep her under control. I still don't know how she did it. She was grooming Rose and feeding her some sugar when she remembered me.

"Choose whoever you want. Oh, except Snow." She gestured to a pure white horse that looked like a unicorn without their horn. He stood tall and looked so high and mighty. I'm not sure I would have wanted to ride him even if I could.

My eyes wandered around the stable. Immediately, I was drawn to a pitch-black stallion that was whinnying and stomping his hooves on the dirt ground. Although he tried to hide it, his eyes were wide with fear from us unwanted intruders.

"Who's that?" I asked Allie.

"Midnight. But you might not want him. He's a bit skittish."

I ignored her and stepped towards Midnight with my hand outstretched. He let out a snort and backed into the far end of his stable. Lucky for me, he didn't decide to raise his hooves and maul me to death. I softly clicked my tongue and rubbed my thumb against my forefinger. My mother had done this a thousand times and it had always worked. Just as I expected, he ventured out and sniffed my hand. He stepped back again, like he thought I was going to hurt him. But then he came back. He prodded at my hand gently and I took his permission to pet him. As I stroked his long neck I slipped into his stable and put his saddle and reins on him. As I led him out, he nudged my in the back as if to thank me.

Allie was genuinely surprised to see me leading a calm Midnight. "How did you do that?" she asked incredulously.

"Family secret," I said with a half-smile. She mounted onto Rose and soon as she was secure I handed her the basket with our food in it.

"Why can't you carry this?" she asked in a whiny voice.

"I'm going to be carrying these." I lifted my dress a little and showed her the dagger hidden in one boot and the pistol in the other. Then I patted the sword on my side. "Plus," I continued. "Your horse can handle the extra weight." It was true. Rose was so big that Midnight looked like an ant next to her. It was like comparing a dog to a cat. Allie couldn't deny that so she grudgingly agreed to take the food with her.

I hopped onto Midnight and asked Allie which way to go. She pointed to a path leading into the forest and I took off on it. She had asked me if she could go in front, but I had refused, saying it would look suspicious if I was following her instead of the other way around. Although it was true, I mainly went in front because I preferred it that way. I'm not much of a follower; I like to lead.

The road we were traveling on was paved flat from constant use. A couple people were on it as well as us but luckily nobody tried anything. They must have figured we didn't have anything worth stealing.

We moved along at a quick pace for about an hour or two. My horse began to slow down.

"Midnight is getting tired." I turned around to tell Allie.

"Rose too." Her horse was looking slightly droopy and I could swear she was panting.

Midnight stopped abruptly, looked around and then veered off to the left onto a less beaten road. I twisted in my seat again and saw that Rose was following Midnight. Shrugging, Allie let go of her reins and let her horse do the leading for once.

We walked for another 10 minutes and came out on a large field the size of a town. In the middle was a lake about the size of two of Allie's houses. A.k.a., it was big. And the water was crystal clear. Rocks were at the bottom. Best of all, it was completely deserted.

Allie and I slid off of our horses and let them have a well-deserved break. Dipping their long necks to the ground they sniffed the water precariously before taking a couple of sips. Deciding it was safe; they began to take long gulps of water to quench their thirst. By the time they had finished Allie and I came to the agreement that we would stay there for the rest of the day. Since neither of us was hungry, we tied the horses to a large willow tree and decided to go swimming. We stripped down to our undergarments (the plain white dress we wore under our other clothes) and dove into the water from a rock that jutted out over the lake.

When I came up, I felt refreshed and cooled off. I was floating on my back for about half a second when Allie came up from below me and poked my sides. I jumped and when I landed I inhaled some of the water. Allie was laughing so hard she accidentally got water up her nose as well. We treaded water for a while, coughing and spitting, trying to get the water out and the stinging in our noses to go away. When we looked at each other's red eyes and slightly bluish faces we fell into fits of laughter, which resulted in more water up our noses. Somehow we managed to drag ourselves onto the shore and lay there, giggling and hiccupping.

"I haven't laughed like that…" I began in a shaky voice as I clutched my stomach, "since… since…" I fell short. My mind flashed back to what had happened on the day that I had laughed this hard. Don't think about it. I told myself.

"Since…?" prodded Allie. The happy carefree felling from before was gone. Her shoulders would still lurch every once in a while from a hiccup, but the smile on her face was gone.

"Never mind." I mumbled. I heard Allie groan and say something under her breath. I wasn't sure exactly what she said, but it sounded something like "She never tells me anything, the insufferable know-it-all." She obviously had a short temper and so did I. She infuriated me.

"Since the day my mom died!" I turned away from her. Don't think about. "There! You happy?"

It was several minutes before Allie spoke and when she hid, her voice was quiet and it shook like an earthquake. "My mom died too." I sat up and looked at her. She was lying on her back looking up into the cloudless blue sky. As I watched, her eyes filled up and tears poured out of the sides. They ran down until they reached her wet hair and blended with the water. I instantly felt a wave of guilt wash over me. "I loved her." Her body shook as she began to sob.

Like before, I wasn't sure what to do. I settled on reaching out and stroking her hair. She gave another sob and sat up to hug me. I held her for a long time, knowing how she felt, how she needed comforting. Her shaking began to cease and eventually stopped. Except for the occasional sniff she was silent. Her head remained on my shoulder. She finally released me and when I looked at her, she looked surprisingly calm, almost happy. She may have meltdowns, I thought, but she recovers from them quickly.

A grin spread across her face. "Race you." Before I knew it, I was on my feet, sprinting towards the water. With a huge splash we cannonballed into the water at almost the same time.

After a couple more hours of swimming around in the water, we retired to the grassy field. Since we were both starving, I spread out our blanket and we munched on our food.

"How did your mom die?" Allie asked. I stared at her, but she just looked curious, not sad.

"She… she was killed by an officer."

She nodded sadly. "Mine died just a year or two ago. Giving birth to my brother."

"You have a brother?"

"Had a brother. He died with my mom." Her voice cracked a little and her eyes filled but she drew a long shuddering breath that seemed to calm her.

The rest of the day was spent just playing around. Since I had grown up around water, I showed Allie how to swim correctly and how to do flips underwater. In return, she showed me how to do a flip above harder. She thought it was easy, but it took me a long time before I could do it without hurting myself. I also tried to teach her some sword handling, but it was hopeless. She didn't get it at all.

The sun began to sink lower into the sky. Reluctantly, we dragged ourselves home. We were sent to the governor's study as soon as we arrived. We told him a long tale about how we went to Jack Smith's house and he did an evaluation on Allie the whole time to figure out what to teach her. He expected us to return the next day. Allie's dad took a very long time to think about what to do. Finally, he said that we would go back tomorrow.

So we did. We returned every day (except Sunday) for the next 2 years. Because of how happy Allie was and how smart and good mannered she was becoming, I received a great amount of money despite my small job. I was hoping I could keep it forever. Then, of course, everything changed.