Chapter 25

I didn't want to go to breakfast. I was soo tired, yet so awake. I had hardly slept a wink that night, but how could I when so many things had been running through my mind. The little bit of sleep I did get was marked with strange dreams of Minerva's story, and demons. I didn't want to face her and see the pain in her face. She was probably dreading seeing me. Heck, I would be if I were her.

Eventually, when one of the girls wandered in to see if I was alive, I got out of my hay stack. I dragged my feet after Bob's daughter, wondering how in the world I would be able to travel with Minerva with the fact she loved me in my head.

"Have you seen Minnie?" asked the girl as we approached the farm house. "Mama said she didn't come in while she was up, and Mama stays up for a long time."

I furrowed my eyes in confusion and worry, while my mind sighed in relief. "No, I haven't seen her this morning."

The girl shrugged and looked around, then smirked and said, "She probably ditched you."

If I had been feeling normal I would have thought 'Whatever. How dare you say such a thing? I'm the Prince and no one would ever ditch me, you twerp. We're cool friends.' But the way I was feeling and thinking I realized this might be very true.

Bob's daughter saw this in my eyes and became just as glum as me.

Oh, great, here I am spreading my bad mood on the family who was really nice to me.

Rose hopped out of the cottage, chattering as usual. "Finest morning I've seen outside the swamp. Truly, truly it is. Hey, Lance, where's Minnie? I thought she'd be with you. Cute little mouse is hiding away, eh? Wonder why. Hurry up, Nan's got a big breakfast waiting for you. I've already eaten." She burped to prove it.

My appetite was gone, but I ate a couple plates to please Nan. I had learned that cooks outside the castle are very touchy. If you don't eat a lot of their food and with lots of relish, they'll hate you forever. I suppose that's why husbands are so fat. I'm glad my wife won't have to cook.

Minerva didn't show up while I was eating with pretend gusto. She didn't show up later when I started to get ready to leave. I noticed her horse was still in the stable, so I supposed she would come, soon. She didn't. Even when we were waving goodbye to Bob and his household, there was no sign of her.

Rose ranted and raved at me, demanding why we were leaving without Minnie. I tried to explain to her that I couldn't stay at the farm house all day, not when Conrad was so near, but frog's brains are shallow. So are girls'. Well, I don't think Minerva's is, much.

"I think you really miss that pretty girl, don't you, Lance," said Rose in a taunting accusing voice.

I glared at her. "No, not really. I've been in a bad mood all day. I guess there were bugs in the hay stack, that's all."

"Ah, and you've been use to feather silken beds, haven't you?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

Rose thankfully took this to mean, 'Shut yer yap I'm not in the mood for talking.'

I asked directions for the town and tollerated the weird and curious looks I received when the early birds saw a frog riding proudly on a horse next to a huge stallion. Rose nodded and made comments to everyone we past, and never ceased to talk to herself. Her chattering was actually becoming tolerable, and I was getting use to it.

(To the wobbling old sage) "Hey, mister where can I find one of those gnarly looking canes? (aside to herself) If I had one of those I'd look wise. But also old. ugh. (outloud) Never mind I've decided I like my smooth green skin."

(To the gruff hairy guy) "Ooh, I bet there are no barbers in town, eh, man, you would have scared him out of business. Oh, you are the barber, well...then you must have a booming business, no time to cut your own hair, heh, heh."

(To the sour milkmaid) "Quit puckering your lips you'll make the milk rotten, and cows need more credit than that. "

Somehow we made it half way to town without anyone stopping to tie Rose's lips up with...something, anything. I'm sure a lot of people wanted to do it.

At this point we came upon a strange sight. On the side of the road stood three girls standing around arguing with each other. I hesistated to just look, curiously. One of the girls noticed us and we were suddenly bombarded with the running approach of three of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen. I stopped immediately to stare and to calm Ares down.

By their dress I guessed they were shepherdesses. But they were a curious sight. One was dressed in purple and had the straightest, glossiest, black hair I had ever seen. Another had a pretty light blue dress on that matched her eyes and her wavy golden hair. And last but certainly not least was a red head and naturally wore red, her hair was a mass of tiny little curls that fell all over the place. They all looked to be about sixteen.

Very strange indeed.

In chorus and full of smiles the three girls, red, purple, and blue, sang out, "Good morning, young sir."

They didn't even see Rose and I knew that would irk the transformed princess.

It did. Greatly. More than I thought.

"It would have been a better morning if it hadn't been broken with your bickering and the fact that you four wenches had assailed us."

The girls appeared shocked to hear these words coming from an angry frog. They quickly regained their composure and ignored her question. They turned back to me and the one in red said, "We would like to invite you to lunch, not far from here."

I was about to say no, due to the fact that I didn't have time, since I was trying to catch Conrad and I opened my mouth to speak.

"Don't try to say no," laughed the blonde cheerily. She smiled sweetly at me and the red- head explained, "We can not be denied,you see, so come, come eat with us."

My stomach answered them at the same time I said, "Ok, We'll come. " and when Rose said, "We most certainly will not!"

Again the girls ignored her and the purple and red each took a bridle. I was surprised that Ares didn't start when the purple bounced up to him. He didn't even flinch. Had he grown soft? Or had these strange girls thrown an enchantment over him, and me?

The blue blonde led us off the road and in between a break of willow trees and there, out of the blue, lay a field/valley full of green, goats, and sheep. It was very beautiful and looked like a bit of heaven. Not far from the large flock grazing, about sat a table with a rainbow colored cloth laid over it. But I didn't really notice this. I only noticed the fresh smell of food and the sight of it. Oh, this was a very large part of heaven.

I swung off Ares and hardly noticed when one of the girls led him calmly away. I started for the table but suddenly there was another girl in front of me. She was a totally new one with a whole other different kind of beauty. This fourth one was covered in green from green slippers to a green hair tie in her curly brown hair. She smiled, but didn't say anything. I looked at her confusedly and Rose took this time to ask some questions.

"Who are you wenches?" she demanded.

"We are the Four Kalos," said the green girl simply.

As if that should explain everything.

"What's that?"

"Kalos means beautiful in Greek," explained the blonde tossing her hair from her shoulders.

All four were definately beautiful. Actually, they were each a little different, beautiful (purple), gorgeous (blue), pretty (red), and verylovely (green).

"We are friends all named the same and born on the same date," added the purple solemnly.

"And we share a sort of power," finished the red head with a mischeivious smile and wink.

"Pleased to meet you...Kalos," I said nodding to all four who stood in front of me like a row of angels.

Again in chorus the three said, "Pleased to meet you too, sir."

The Green Girl glared at them. I think she was the leader of the group. She then looked at me and said contradictally, "Don't call us that. We are rarely called that. We have individual names, too. The one in purple is Violet. The blonde is Elise. This is Penny, and I am Hazel. I suppose you want to eat?"

She sounded as if she asked this question everyday, she might've even yawned.

"No, but yes, Mr. Hungry..." started Rose.

But I was curious. "What is your power?"

"What were you bickering about?" asked Rose, forgetting the food.

"Our power is nothing serious or great," said Hazel. "We are the keepers of the sheep. They can not be killed, and since we care for them, we can not be killed and no one can refuse us anything."

"We can tame wild animals," said Violet in her solemn voice.

"We can also spin invisibility cloaks," added Penny with another wink.

"Anything we touch will be perfect, that is why our sheep are so fine," sighed Elise and she smiled sweetly at her flock.

"Goats," said Violet, "Our goats are so fine. The sheep are a nusince and a bother."

"Nonsense. They keep together and don't go wandering off like those...short haired beasts."

"There's nothing wrong with short hair," shot out Penny, who had the shortest and curliest hair of the four.

"That's my answer," said Rose, rolling her eyes. "Girls. They are sooo weird."

"I second that," I murmured.

Hazel seemed very irritated with her companions. I don't think she liked being a Kalos. I bet she thought girls were weird too. She looked apologetically at me and was about to say something but Ares suddenly snorted and Penny suddenly forgot about her goats and stepped up to him. As usual he gave a small start and rolled his eyes.

"Oh, I'm so sorry I did not recognize your horse, sir. He is a magnificent creature. I've seen lots of beautiful horses from Gaul, but none so wonderful as this one. He is as amazing as his rider."

Where did that come from?

"He is very wild, too," said Elise, coming to stand by her.

"You must be a very brave horse tamer to ride him so casually," said Violet blinking rapidly. "When did you start his training? When he was a colt?"

"No, actually it was only a few weeks ago. It actually didn't take much training at all. We just bonded quickly."

"Oh, you are detaining Sir Jesse from eating, Violet," sniffed Penny. "Please, Sir Knight come, eat."

"Wait," said Hazel, thinning her eyes at me. "Your name is Jesse?"

"How did you know that?" I asked. I knew I hadn't said it. Had I?

"Penny can see and know certain things about a few people," said Hazel absently as if she said Penny had red hair. "If your name is Jesse, then I think there are some people here you would like to meet, or you've already known."

Just at this moment a figure came dashing into the meadow.

"Hazel!" he cried. "Minerva is gone! She has disappeared!"

"You again!" yelled Rose.

"What?" cried the four Kaloses.

"Conrad?" I exploded.

Conrad swung around from Hazel and caught sight of me. His mouth dropped open and his eyes grew as big as dinner plates.

"Lance!" he said, and I was immediately caught up in an enormous bear hug. I had forgotten how much I missed Conrad. We were as close and as a stableboy and a Prince could get. I was so happy I didn't even care he had called me Lance. It felt good to be called that by him.

"Where've you been?"

"I've been tracking you all over the place!"

"Well, you certainly took a while."

"I admit, you are quicker than I thought."

"Wow, was that a compliment from Lance?"

"You look horrible!"

"Well, you would too if you'd been stolen away to be a sacrifice for some freaky god."

"WHERE IS MINERVA!" screamed Rose.

We both jumped. I looked at Conrad and he looked down, and also confusedly at me.

"I thought she was with you, Lance," he murmured. "But Hazel and I found her this morning, in a terrible state. I had been caring for her just a few minutes ago. But then when I returned from getting water, she was gone. I'm sorry."