"Where do you think you are going dressed like that?" Victoria asked me the following morning.

I was wearing what I wore the last time I went out into the town: leather men's breeches and a billowy shirt. I made sure to tie my hair up securely in a braid which I pinned firmly to my head. I wasn't hoping that we would be attacked again, but it didn't hurt to be prepared if we had to run again. Just to annoy her I gave a vague one word answer, "Out."

"You're going out?" Victoria repeated. When I didn't elaborate she continued. "Are you going out with the prince again? Did you already forget the warning I gave you before? You have already spent too much time with him already and my patience is wearing thin."

She was being wholly unfair and I wasn't going to fall for it anymore. "Have the two of you ever considered that maybe Prince Christian actually likes being around me more than Giselle? He invited me to accompany him to the hall of mirrors and it was him who invited me to the tournaments."

As if she heard her name, Giselle appeared in the door way. I sighed. At this rate I would probably never be able to leave. Still, I didn't want to tell them where I was actually going. "What are you talking about?" Giselle asked as she looked between me and her sister. Her blonde hair was still up in curlers from the night and she had not yet changed out of her nightgown.

"Ebony is going to be spending the day with the prince." Victoria informed her sister.

Giselle's face turned an attractive shade of pink and I could see her jaw clench tightly. "Fine," She ground out slowly. "Have your day with the prince. Just know that you will be hard pressed to keep him. Already he has invited me to go to the menagerie with him tomorrow. How could you ever beat me?"

I wanted to rip those nice curlers off her head. She was being so nasty. Now I certainly wasn't going to tell her that I wasn't actually going to see the prince today. Let her think that I was spending my time with her prince. It would teach her that she can't have everything she wants. Instead of engaging them both in an argument, I muttered a goodbye and quickly left the room. I was glad that I had an excuse to go somewhere. I did not think I could take another minute of their condescension.

I was in a foul mood when I hurried down the steps of the inn. The sky above mirrored my feelings as it was gray and overcast. I walked quickly down the street with my arms folded over my chest, trying to calm down. Giselle and Victoria had bullied me my entire life but this time it was different somehow. Maybe it was that they were trying to ruin the entire trip for me and lock me in our hotel room. It could have been the fact that at every turn Giselle was there to make jabs at my self esteem by reminding me that she was the one who men usually desired. But most of all it was the fact that I couldn't help but feel she was right. I was angry and I reminded myself that she was just jealous, but it didn't stop the whispers of doubt that maybe, just maybe, she was right. What if Christian did fall in love with her beauty and charm? He had invited her to the zoo tomorrow. Maybe she had bonded with him in a way that I hadn't at the ball and then at Etvor, and yet he was so attentive to me at the tournament while she was being crowded by Dewey.

The conflicting thoughts circled in my head round and around so I didn't realize my feet had carried me all the way to the square. Due to my agitated pace, I arrived much sooner than I was expecting to. The square wasn't as crowed as it was a few days ago. The weather was no doubt keeping people indoors. If Giselle and Victoria were not there, I would have considered returning to the inn. With the fewer people crowding the space, the whole of the square was easier to see and seemed more ominous somehow. Abandoned booths dotted the square and the colorful ribbons blew in the breeze with no children to dance with them. I scanned the area for Kol and felt foolish just standing looking for someone who might not even be there. I couldn't see him anywhere in the square. I turned to leave and possibly explore other streets, but he was there behind me. It looked as if he had just come from one of the small stands lining the edge of the square. I must have missed him when I walked passed.

"You came." Kol stated. He sounded almost surprised. "You look more threatening than the clouds in the sky today. Should I be worried?"

"You are the gang leader or whatever it is you said you were. I should be the one afraid of you." I snapped. Immediately I regretted my harsh tone. It was not him that I was angry with today.

Kol didn't seem to mind though. He raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth pulled up playfully. "So you aren't afraid of me then; even though I am some big scary gang leader?"

"You can't be that scary of a leader. What was the place you told me about? A fishing pond, was it? That's not exactly the most threatening place." I joked. My bad mood was drifting away.

"Wait until we get there," Kol winked. "Come on this way."

The road we walked along lead towards the castle and away from the lower city. Kol was keeping his word about staying in the upper city. We were going in the opposite direction from the Gilded Leopard's street. We came to a road I recognized as one end of Lilac Avenue. We were a ways away from the Gilded Leopard but not so far it was out of walking distance. We passed Lilac Avenue and a few streets beyond was a narrow stream with a stone bridge wide enough for carts to pass over. The stream was about as wide as two carts if they were placed end to end. I asked Kol how there could be a stream such as this in the center of a city. He explained it was because the land was slightly lower in this part of the city so an underground river that flowed under the city was able to come above ground for a ways. I could see the pond that he mentioned from where we stood on the bridge. On the banks of the small river it looked as if someone had dug out a round hole for water to flow into making a small pond. Children were standing on the edges of the pond with wooden fishing rods. Carved wooden fish that were painted in bright colors floated on the surface of the water moved by the gentle current that the river made in the pool. The children were trying to get their fish hooks through the rings on top of the fish's heads. An old man sat near the river and whenever a fish was caught he would send another one floating into the pool.

Kol grinned at me and we went down to the edge of the pond. "This is a child's game. We are the oldest ones here." I pointed out. I felt the stares of the children as Kol handed me the small wooden fishing rod.

"Nonsense," Kol exclaimed. "Barnaby here is much older than both of us. Besides, why should children get to have all the fun?"

A child ran up to Barnaby and handed him the wooden fish. The old man smiled and took the fish. "And what did you find today, little one?"

"I finded a little dolly," The girl exclaimed. She held up a tiny doll in a pink dress.

Kol elbowed me lightly. I turned to look at him and he was smiling. "See, Ebb, you could win a little dolly. All the fish have some small treasure inside. All you have to do is catch one."

I laughed. He was so ridiculous. I decided that he must have been exaggerating his fearsome mobster status. "Fearsome gang leader, indeed," I pointed my fishing pole to the water. "Shall we go fishing then?"

Kol wrinkled his nose at me and we went to stand by the water's edge. The edges of the pond where shored up with bricks so we stood about half a foot above the water. Each fish was carved in different designs. I examined each one as they lazily floated by. Kol was doing the same. "You are an expert fisherwoman already, Ebb. Only the experts know that you have to wait for the best fish to come along and not settle for the mediocre ones."

I nodded in agreement at his solemn tone. "I think I see the one that I want – that one there." I pointed to a blue fish that had sharp teeth but big goofy eyes and looked similar to a shark.

"Are you sure you don't want that one?" Kol pointed to a round fish with eyelashes and a pink bow on its head.

I laughed at the overtly girly fish. "No, I think I will leave that one for you."

"Very well then," Kol fixed his expression into one of deep concentration and determination. He lowered his hook and worked to fit the point through the small ring on top of the pink fish. I laughed even harder and it was not long until my shark came around and I tried to catch it.

It was harder than it looked to get my fish hook into the ring. The line kept swinging the wrong way and even though the fish was moving slowly I still missed it and it floated on by. Kol caught his fish though and some of the children gave him a strange look when he pulled the bright pink fish from the pond. He reached into the fish's open mouth and pulled out a tiny sparkling ring. "Looks like I caught a whopper today!"

"The fish weren't biting for me." I sighed as I watched my shark floating around the pond again.

Kol handed the now empty fish to Barnaby who put another bauble into its mouth and released it back into the pond. "That's alright, it is coming back around."

My shark was left alone by most of the children who were also fishing. One small boy tried to catch it but it eluded him as well. Eventually it made its way back around and I readied myself to try and snag it. "Alright, this time try to hold your line steady in front of the fish so the ring just glides onto it instead of waving it around all over the place." Kol instructed. He demonstrated with his line and I noticed that he had slipped the tiny ring onto his pinkie finger where it barely went down to the second knuckle. I did as he said and this time I caught the fish even though it was a bit troublesome getting the hook to stay still.

"Ha," I blurted as the fish caught on my line. I pulled the bothersome thing out of the water and eagerly looked to see what my prize was. I pulled out a piece of taffy that was neatly parceled up in a colorful wrapper. I tore off the paper and put the sweet in my mouth, savoring what I had won.

"Well done, Ebb. You are now a master angler." Kol smirked. I returned his smile around the taffy I was chewing.

So much for writing all day. I've only finished one chapter, but it's still early yet!