After a long evening of going through all the possible safety issues for the duration on the princesses stay Rachel slipped immediately into a deep sleep. But it seemed like she had only closed her eyes for a moment when she was awoken by a loud banging at her hut door. She looked through blurry vision, momentarily forgetting where she was, it took a moment for her remember why her grand palace bedroom had been replaced by a small rural hut. Upon coming to her senses she let out a long moan and threw her head back on the pillow. Just then her hut door flew open.
"Come on Princess, time to get up"
Quinn stood on the other side of the door, left eyebrow perked up high on her forehead, failing at looking disinterested with an evil grin sneaking onto her face.
Rachel shot up in her bed, suddenly self-conscious about her state of undress; she only wore a short strappy nightgown that usually only her dress maids had seen her in.
"You can't just come in here like that, get out" the brunette squealed.
Quinn rolled her eyes, suddenly the Diva has emerged, she thought to herself. Instead of retreating as Rachel had expected Quinn moved further into the hut and dropped a pile of clothing at the foot of the princess' bed.
"You need to blend in, put these on and meet me outside in five" Quinn commanded to the stunned woman. The blonde then swiftly turned on her heels and left, flinging the door closed behind her.
Rachel sat in bed stunned silent, no one had ever treated her this way, no one had ever commanded her other than her fathers and they did so with a loving undertone that Quinn certainly did not posses. After a moment Rachel inspected the clothing at the foot of her bed. There was a skirt made from a rough brown fabric, something the princess had never felt before and immediately disliked. The second piece of clothing was what she quickly identified as a top piece; it was a not entirely unpleasant green color but was fitted and so small it would not cover even the princess' small torso so she assumed there would be a larger garment to place over this piece but all that remained were a pair of sandals. She couldn't be seen in this outfit, it is entirely unsuitable for a princess of Lima, she protested in her mind. She looked at the hut door, picturing the terrifying blonde on the other side, waiting. She shook her head at what she was about to do and quickly grabbed the clothing and began changing.
Outside the hut Quinn tapped her foot as she waited impatiently. It had only been a couple of minutes but the blonde was over this day before she had even woken up. She hated that she would be spending it dealing with this princess rather than training with her friends. She really began seething when she saw the group of Warrios heading down to the lake for their morning water training. She turned when she heard the hut door creek open breaking her angry internal monologue.
The small brunette self consciously emerged from the hut in the outfit Quinn had placed out, it was in fact the standard dress of most of the women in the forest, but Quinn could not help being taken aback by the site. She chalked this up to the fact that the princess just looked so different from when she had seen her yesterday. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail; fringe falling just above her eyes, and her flowing dress was now replaced by figure hugging material that left much of the shorter girls tanned skin exposed. Quinn smiled without conscious control but then instantly caught herself doing this and turned back to a signature stone cold glare.
"Took you long enough princess," she snarled.
"You said five minutes and I was no longer than four" Rachel retorted.
" And please stop calling me princess…just Rachel is fine" she added.
"Whatever Princess, I'm going to show you around, try and keep up" Quinn said dismissively as she began walking towards the village center.
Rachel scoffed and then, without any other option, began following the blonde who was indeed walking very quickly.
They reached a group of tribes women sitting around the smoldering fire from the evening before. The women chatted excitedly to one another while spooning what appeared to be porridge into their mouths or chewing on pieces of fruit. The group fell silent as they saw the princess approach. Even though the women were dressed similarly to her she still felt self conscious about the way she looked and her arms fell instinctively in front of her exposed midriff. Quinn saw this and did feel a small pain in her stomach, maybe she felt a little sorry for Rachel. But she shrugged that feeling aside and turned to the women before her.
"Everyone, this is Princess, Princess these are some of our tribeswomen." Quinn began pointing at the individuals in the group.
"This is Mercedes, she is our cook" Rachel nodded at the young girl who gave a genuine and warm smile back.
"This is Tina, she is a medic in the group…." Quinn pointed and introduced the rest of the women who all seemed kind but a little unsettled by Rachel's presence. Quinn continued "These women are who you will be spending your meals with, we do meals in shifts, the Warrios eat earlier in the morning and later in the evening, everyone else eats during the later or earlier shift." Rachel nodded in understanding.
"It's nice to meet you all properly, please just call me Rachel," the brunette said genuinely to the small group.
"Alright, take some fruit and let's keep moving princess" Quinn interrupted, handing Rachel an apple and banana.
"Nice to meet you Rachel" Mercedes called out sympathetically as Rachel was dragged away.
Rachel stumbled trying to keep up with the blonde who was now walking up a steep hill. They reached the top of the hill a few minutes later and by that point Rachel, was beginning to sweat and breath heavily. It was not that Rachel was not fit, she participated in a rigid regime of exercise at the palace, but Quinn had all but sprinted up this hill at a pace that Rachel was just not prepared for. Rachel got the distinct feeling that Quinn was purposefully making this as difficult as possible. Looking out around the hill Rachel saw it gave a pretty good view of the small village, Quinn immediately began racing through a list of places and procedures while vaguely gesturing to various points within site. After another couple of minutes Quinn put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips.
"Any questions?" she asked dryly.
Rachel had no idea what the blonde had just ranted about, the content moved too quickly for Rachel to absorb anything she was hearing. Looking out at the village Rachel new she had only one question.
"Why do you not like me?"
Quinn seemed taken aback by the question, her stern glare faltering for a moment.
"Have I done something to offend you, or are you just this mean to everyone?" Rachel continued to enquire, a genuinely inquisitive look on her face.
"Listen Princess" Quinn snapped back into defensive mode "I'm not going to pretend like I want you here, it is my job to look after this village and at the moment you are its biggest threat. However, my mother still rules this land and so I will obey her and put up with you staying here and endangering the lives of these people that I care about but I am not going to pretend to like it. So after I show you around today I'll stay out of your way and you better stay the hell out of mine"
Rachel's face grew red, she understood it was a risk for all the women here that they take her in but nothing excused the way Quinn was speaking to her. Rachel was still royalty even out in this forest, and no one spoke that way to a princess.
Quinn saw Rachel's face change into an even sterner face than her own, the brunettes posture grew straighter as she stepped towards the blonde. Quinn looked surprised at Rachel's sudden assertiveness.
"I think you are forgetting your place Quinn, even in this godforsaken place I am a member of the royal family who rules this land and I will one day be the one who rules over your insignificant self"
Quinn began fuming; nobody referred to her or her village that way. White-hot anger began taking her over as she got in the shorter girls face.
"I would rather be ruled over by the rebels than by a selfish big nosed midget of a princess like you, I hope your fathers are overthrown before you have a chance to take rule of Lima"
Suddenly Quinn felt a sharp pain across her face. It took Quinn a moment to realize she had been slapped, hard. Rachel appeared even more shocked than Quinn at what she had done. They both stood frozen for a moment, the blonde made the next move, shoving the smaller girl to the ground. The two began fighting for dominance, rolling around, each trying to push the other back into the hard ground. Quinn was surprised at how strong the princess was for her size, but she was still not match for Quinn who eventually got the upper hand and pushed the smaller girl roughly on her back but before she had a chance to do any further damage she felt strong hands pulling her back.
It was Brittany and Santana, one on either side of her pulling her to her feet and away from the princess. The entire group of Warrios, who all wore a confused and concerned look on their faces, were now surrounded the brawling women.
"Quinn what the hell are you doing!" Santana asked
Quinn looked around, what was she doing?
She looked down at Rachel, who had somehow during the scuffle acquired a bleeding lip and was looking around with equal confusion on her face.
"What is going on here!" a booming voice now took over from Quinn's thoughts.
She went pale as the sea of people that had formed now parted, revealing her mother storming towards the front of the group.
Judy surveyed the scene, growing increasingly aggravated. She looked down at the bleeding princess and to her daughter who looked disheveled and was still being held on either side by her best friends.
"You two take her highness to see Tina" Judy coldly commanded Brittany and Santana.
"Quinn, you're coming with me" Quinn flinched at her mother's tone.
Rachel stood up and wiped her face.
"Judy this was just a misunderstanding, I was out of line and we just got carried away"
Quinn was shocked with Rachel's defense of her actions, Judy too seemed impressed by the gesture, seeing this just made Quinn angry again.
"Rachel, I know my daughter and if this wasn't her doing then the sky isn't blue. Please go see the medic and try and forgive us all for this incident."
Rachel tried to speak again but Judy gave her a pleading look to leave. Brittany and Santana began leading her down the hill.
"Everyone get back to what you were doing, shows over" Judy commanded the audience of Warrios
Turning back to her pouting daughter Judy growled "my hut, right now!"