Chapter Three

Amalia stomped through the forest, still fuming. Twigs and pine cones crunched underfoot with satisfying percussion as she slowly outpaced her doll. Her mind wandered to various subjects sporadically and she barely noticed the cold was settling in.

She was trying to be optimistic; at least she could be sure that the proper firewood would be used tonight. Any time someone burned a freshly cut log, it gave an unpleasant scream that only a Sadida could hear. It was also incredibly difficult to light. If she was the one gathering, that wouldn't be a problem.

So she had that going for her, which was nice.

She missed the days when Evangeline was technically a subordinate to her. A bodyguard couldn't pull this kind of nonsense on royalty. But no, now she had to be a national hero and wife to a god. Former god. Sorry. Did that technically outrank royalty? Her subconscious supplied a powerful 'probably' to her heart's wracking frustration.

After Evangeline tricked everyone into believing she had won the bet, as Evangelines are wont to do, Amalia gave in. It was too much to argue at that point. So she took it out on Ruel by demanding that he install more seats in that shoddy excuse for a transport.

He agreed. For a price. Per seat. She could still picture his overtly punch-able grin as he rubbed his hands together in glee.

Amalia bent down to pick up another piece of usable deadwood and handed it to her doll. There was a lot of kindling material in this forest. More than there should be. It was strange that it was spread out so far from the trees, too. Perhaps something happened years ago that spread debris accordingly. Although it wasn't covered in dirt after so long, as was typical of felled branches...

She kept her mind on the possibilities of scattered foliage and how it came to be, hoping it would drown out her annoyance. It worked well enough. She lost track of time altogether.

Whoops. Amalia looked at her doll, who was somehow still standing with what looked like a hundred kilos of wood in its tiny arms. It was time to head back.

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Percedal watched his kids with a welcome warmth in his heart. He was so proud. Evangeline was having the twins spar, to predictable results. Elely wasn't all too on-board with this whole 'holding back' thing, and Flopin was not a hand-to-hand fighter in the first place.

"—and that's final, young lady!"

"I'm not a young lady! I'm a warrior!"

"Ladies can be warriors, too..." Flopin mumbled, nursing his bruised rib.

Elely huffed. "You'd know. Lady..."

Flopin shot a glare and opened his mouth to retort.

"That's enough, you two!" Evangeline said. Perhaps they weren't quite ready to show that type of discipline. "Let's be done with sparring for the night. We can try again tomorrow."

The twins groaned in unison, but didn't argue.

Percedal chuckled to himself. He couldn't muster up the frustration with their antics like Evangeline could. Although, that was probably because she was the only mediator. She had been keen on reminding him of that as many times as she could over the past five years.

"I'm hungry!" Elely declared. Evangeline grimaced.

"Yeah, me too!" said Percedal, receiving a look from his wife. "What?"

The twins each took a seat next to their father on a felled tree trunk. Elely bonked her head against his shoulder. "What's taking Yugo so long, papa?"

Percedal shrugged. "Dunno, I'm not good at fishing."

"Well why doesn't he just make a portal in the water and the fish would fall through it?"

Percedal shrugged again.

"You dummy! Then the water would fall too! Then there wouldn't be any water! And then there wouldn't be any fish!" Flopin said.

Evangeline eyed her husband, who was whittling the end of a stick to a point with Rubilax. It was becoming more and more common to see that of them. The shushu didn't get to fight all that much anymore, so their relationship of knight and sword became that of craftsman and knife. Or hand-blade, rather. Funny how he still considered himself a blade when he could easily be anything else. At least he got to cut into something on a regular basis.

It was becoming dark, the sun had almost fully fallen, painting the sky in a stark gradation of red to blue. No clouds to be seen and a heavy breeze picked up, carrying the nighttime coolness with it. They could really use a fire right about now. Where was Amalia?

"I'm cold!"

"Elely, none of that. Have some patience." Cra knows her mother ran out of any to share in the last hour.

"But why are they taking forever?"

Evangeline mulled over plenty of replies she could give before settling on a half truth. Couldn't go for the full truth because she'd have to explain her motives, and that would mean a million other conversations she really didn't want to have at the moment.

"Well, they're probably still annoyed about losing our bet. They're taking longer to make us wait." Evangeline sat down and leaned back into a more comfortable position next to Percedal. Amalia was pretty stubborn, even after growing up.

"Then why did you make a bet if it was gonna make her mad?" Flopin asked.

Rubilax laughed. "That's what friends are for, little Cra."

"Hey! Don't teach him anything weird, Rubi. Friends are supposed to be nice to each other," Percedal said. "They just sometimes tease each other is all."

"Like I teased you when i took over your—"

"Well, no... But you're special."

"Hmph. I don't want to hear that from a man who still has to count on his fingers."

Percedal looked at his hands and raised an eyebrow. "I can't count on my fingers, what are you talking about?"

Evangeline rolled her eyes and turned to her kids. "Here, you two, Think of it this way; Remember when Elely put glue in your shoes, Flopin?"

Flopin nodded, a sidelong grimace lining his face as Elely snickered.

"Well, even though you're mad about that, you two are still family. Right?"

The twins looked at each other and back to their mother, nodding with fixed eyes.

"Friends are just like family in that way. Amalia made me mad as well, and I'm still her friend." Evangeline lowered her voice. "Even if she can be a snooty little brat sometimes..."

The twins nodded. "What does snooty mean?"

"... It means she's stuck up. But that's pretty typical of royalty." She noticed the confused stares the twins gave her and clarified; "Kings, queens, princes, and princesses."

"Mom? Does that mean Yugo is snooty, too?"

Evangeline tried not to laugh at her daughter's innocent question. Honestly, she thought Yugo was quite snooty indeed, but not really in a way that could be used as an example to define the word. He was pretentious, even though he could do a lot to prove himself. He clearly thought of himself rather highly, even if it was in a strange, tragic way. He wasn't directly condescending, so there was probably a better word for it than 'snooty'. "Sort of. It's a little different."

"How?" Flopin asked.

Evangeline shrugged. How could she explain the human psyche to a child? Her son was smart, but that was pushing it. "It will make more sense if you figure it out without me telling you."

Elely's eyes sparked in realization. "Oh! Oh! I get it! Thanks, mom!"

Flopin sent an indignant glare toward his sister. How did that make sense? Now he just had more questions. Like what did 'stuck up' mean, and why did royalty have to be snooty? What did his sister understand? She was an idiot! He grumbled to himself. Asking her to explain would blemish his pride, so he didn't.

Evangeline looked on at her son, watching gears in his head turn and she almost saw smoke coming out of his ears. He really did take after her. She sometimes worried about that.

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Amalia arrived back at camp just as the sky's red faded. The moon was going to be bright this cloudless night. Her doll carried noticeably less wood than she gathered, most of it fell as it walked behind her with an awkward gait on the way back to the campsite.

As soon as she saw the gathered company of her friends she smiled. For all the trouble they gave her, it was great to be back outside castle walls.

"Amalia! You're back!" Elely bounced over and took an armful of wood from the doll. "I'll help!"

Amalia smiled. "Thank you, Elely. Do you know how to start a campfire?"

Elely shook her head. "Flopin does. Also, I have a question."

Evangeline heard those words in slow-motion and froze. The little Iop was going to be the death of her.

"Mommy said you and Yugo were stuck up because you were royally. But she also said it was weirder than that but wouldn't tell us how... Could maybe you tell me what makes it so weird?"

Amalia kept a smile on her face throughout the exchange. She would later praise herself for her quick judgment, because she had just hatched a marvelous plan. She patted Elely's head. "I think you mean royalty. And yes, I suppose I am." She looked over at Evangeline, who was avoiding eye contact altogether, and smiled an evil smile so vile she would have impressed Qilby.

Percedal laughed and nudged his wife with an elbow.

"In fact, if Eva want's to to tell you kids about how stuck-up us royalty can be, I'll just have to give my best example." With that, she stalked off back into the forest with an ever-present grin on her face.

If Evangeline wanted stuck-up, then by-golly she was going to get it. What were friends for?

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