"Good morning, Nikki!"

Nikki opened her eyes at the sound of Lizzie's happy voice. It was her first morning waking up outside the castle and she was excited to start the day. She sat up and saw Lizzie bouncing on her toes.

"What's got you so upbeat today?" she giggled.

"We're moving! And I have a sister!"

"Gwen had another baby?"

"No, you!" Lizzie's smile was too much for Nikki and the older girl grabbed the toddler in a hug.

"You are too cute!"

A knock came at the door.

"Are you decent?" Max's voice called.

"Yes, Max!" Lizzie chirped. He came in, his already-messy, curly hair somehow even messier from sleep. Lizzie started giggling and went over to mess with his hair.

"Ah! Lizzie, what are the rules about my hair?"

"No touching without permission?"

"Good girl." He patted her head. "Gwen's got breakfast ready, so—"

"FOOD!"

Lizzie was out the door before Max could finish his sentence. The door banged shut behind her and Max laughed.

"She's adorable," Nikki commented.

"Yep. Hard to believe her parents raised me sometimes." He turned to face her. "Anyway, you'd better get out there. Lizzie's tiny, but she eats a lot."

"Okay." He handed her a set of clothes.

"Wear these. We'll get you your own when we get to the next town."

"Thank you." She had a smile for him, but he just sighed and went back outside.

Nikki pulled on the tunic and leggings, along with the boots that Gwen had lent her the night before, and headed out. David and Jaspar were hitching horses to the two wagons the small caravan had, the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. Gwen was handing a bowl of oatmeal to her daughter, who quickly—and messily—began eating it. Max snickered and his sister threw a small handful of the stuff at him. Neil was looking exhausted and uncomfortable, the platypus staring at him from the ground.

"Good morning, Your Highness!" David yelped, bowing low at Nikki.

"I'm not the princess here," she told him, shaking her head. "I'm just Nikki. Treat me like a normal person."

"Yes, Your Highness." Nikki giggled.

"Hey, Nikki, come get breakfast before Lizzie eats it all," Gwen called. She handed the green-haired girl a bowl full of the same oatmeal that she'd given her children, which Nikki was grateful for.

It was bland and tasteless, but it was one of the best meals she'd ever eaten.

She was outside the castle. Lucy hadn't woken her up and dressed her in an uncomfortable silk gown. She hadn't had to go down to the dining room and eat a silent and nerve-wracking meal with her mother. She didn't have to go to etiquette lessons and be lectured by her tutor on her lack of manners. No, now she could be outside without a chaperone and just enjoy the world. Maybe she'd even begin earning her own money!

"I've never seen anybody so excited to eat oatmeal," Max snorted. "Except Lizzie."

"It's food," Lizzie retorted.

"She really takes after David," commented Neil, leaning against a nearby tree.

"Except for her eyes and her sense of humor and sarcasm," Max added. "She got her eyes from her mom and the humor and sarcasm from me."

"You're not even related!"

"Hey, family's about who cares, not blood."

Nikki tilted her head in thought. That seemed… accurate. Her mother only cared about appearances and reputations. She'd never accept that Nikki had followed a thief and a gang of performers into a new life.

"Horses are hitched!" announced Cameron Campbell—a man she'd recognized as the same man who crashed her wedding drunk with the platypus in tow.

She owed him a thank-you.

Maybe she'd give him one of the earrings her mother had insisted she wear.

"Okay, kids, finish your breakfast and we'll get going," Gwen said. "And Lizzie, please stay in the wagon with Max this time. You aren't allowed to drive yet."

"Okay, Mommy."

"David and Jaspar will each be driving a wagon. Neil and Nikki, you ride with Campbell. Max and Lizzie, you're with me."

"Great," Max deadpanned, getting into the same wagon Nikki, Lizzie, David, and Gwen had slept in the night before. Nikki got into the other one, Neil reluctantly following her.

Within minutes, they were on the road.

Max could feel the wagon rocking as they made their way down the road. Lizzie was excitedly bouncing on the seat to a degree where if she'd been anybody else, he would've told her to sit the fuck down and knock that shit off. However, this was his little sister. As much as he hated to admit it (especially to David and Gwen), the little girl had him wrapped around her finger. He couldn't really tell her 'no' without feeling like an asshole. She was only four, so she had plenty of time to become an annoying sister, but until then, he'd be the doting big brother she saw him as.

"How long is Nikki gonna be with us?" Lizzie asked, looking up at Max with her big violet eyes. Gwen had decided to sit with David to help drive the wagon (and so she could have some alone time with her husband).

"I don't know, Lizard. Until her mom decides that Nikki can make her own decisions."

"Is she really the princess of Lilac?"

"Yep. She jumped out a window and I caught her."

"Oh! Like in that story Mommy told me?"

"What story?"

"In her story, there was a beautiful princess who was captured by a witch! The witch locked the princess in the tower and fed her bread crusts and water. Then a prince climbed the tower trying to rescue the princess, but she didn't like him so she pushed him out. A thief came by afterwards and the princess fell in love with him and escaped. They lived happily ever after. The end." She clapped her hands, applauding her 'A+' storytelling skills.

"Cute story, but that's probably not going to happen."

"Why not?"

"Well, for one thing, she jumped out of the window of a church on her wedding day, not a tower. And she landed in my arms because I didn't want her to break her ankles on the cobblestones. That… feeling… hurts." He remembered to watch his language just before he slipped up. "I've done it a couple of times. It's painful. And she did it in heels and a dress."

Secretly, he was impressed that she'd managed to bust the window like she had without injuring herself. He had more than a few cuts on his hands from smashing windows over the years, cuts that had become scars over time from repeated offenses. Lizzie didn't know they were real, and she'd sometimes wrap his hands in bandages while playing at being a barber/doctor.

Seriously, how the fuck hadn't she even bruised her knuckles from that shit?!

"Why did she run away from her wedding?"

"Because most of the time, kings and queens want princes and princesses to marry each other so they can get richer. Most of the time, the prince and princess getting married haven't even met, much less love each other."

"Mommy and Daddy love each other and they're married."

"Because they're not royalty like Princess Nicolette."

"Nikki," she corrected. "She wants to be called Nikki."

"Right. They're not royalty like Nikki. Be glad you're not. That means you don't have any expectations for who you have to be."

"Do you?"

"Yep. I'm a thief, so people expect me to steal things. Like Princess Nicolette—I mean, Nikki's crown."

"Nikki's crown? The fancy triangle hat?"

"Yes, the fancy triangle hat." Max was laughing a bit. "It's actually worth a lot of money—enough so that I might never have to steal anything else."

"So you got the fancy triangle hat along with the princess?"

"Yep." He could tell that Lizzie's eyelids were getting heavy. The movement of the wagon always made her sleepy—the effects of being a four-year-old raised on the road. "You ready for your nap, kiddo?"

"Not sleepy." She puffed out her cheeks but then let out a yawn before lying her head on Max's lap.

"You sure?"

"I like Nikki, Max. She's pretty, and I want you to be happy with her."

"Okay, kid. Just get some sleep."

She was out like a candle within minutes of his suggestion. Her small chest rose and fell with each breath, but that was the only sound besides the tell-tale clip-clop of horse hooves and the rattling of the rickety wagon. He allowed himself to fall into memories of before Lizzie, before David and Gwen got married, before the caravan even really formed…

"Mama? Papa?"

It was sad that his first recallable memory was that of looking for his birth parents. They'd dumped him in a forest clearing while he was asleep and left him there. He was five years old at the time, very young, impressionable, and fearful.

"Where are you?"

His voice echoed in the empty forest. The only other sounds were that of frogs and birds. His feet crunched through the dead leaves on the ground, his heart beating almost too fast for his little body.

"Stupid boy," he heard his father mutter. "Waste of fucking money."

"Now, dear, he could still fetch us a decent price on the market," his mother replied. "Anything's better than caring for him. He's young, strong, and with those looks, he'll be snatched up by some childless married couple in a heartbeat, don't you agree?"

"True."

Max stumbled backwards, his head and legs screaming for him to run. Unfortunately, they'd noticed him and his father lifted him up.

"Stop fighting, you stupid boy," he snapped. "You little shit. You're going straight to the market. If you're lucky, some lady will take pity on your fucking pathetic self to be her son. Otherwise…"

His smile said that Max was going to have a hard time.

He was seven years old now, running through the forest again. This time, he was running from his latest set of 'adoptive parents'. Really, they were just people who didn't want to work and only adopted kids to get easy money. They preferred beating and starving those kids to raising and loving them. The sad thing was that they were his ninth set in two years. Every time he ran away, he got caught by the child dealers and resold to a new 'family'. He'd begun acting out—fighting, swearing, even stealing to get by.

"You little bastard!" he could hear one of the dealers screaming.

Not this time.

He wasn't going to get caught this fucking time.

Suddenly, he ran into somebody. The force of the impact caused the little boy to fall on his ass and look up at who he'd crashed into—a man with light skin, red hair, and green eyes. The man smiled and offered him a hand, which Max declined in favor of hiding behind the guy.

"Hey!" the dealer who'd been chasing him snapped as he came to a stop. "Brat, get over here."

"No fucking way!" Max yelled. The red-haired man looked from Max to the dealer and shook his head.

"Chasing a child. Shame on you."

"That ain't a child. That's a demon in human form. Given me trouble for two years. Hand him over and I'll take care of him. Make it worth your while."

Max began backing away, ready to bolt again. Nobody turned down a dealer's gold.

"I don't think so," the red-haired man laughed. "You're a child dealer, right?"

"Damn right I am."

"So, you're willing to sell a child for a price. What if I bought him off you?"

"You a dealer, too?"

"Oh, heavens, no. I'm a minstrel."

"Then no."

"I think you misunderstood me. He doesn't want to go with you. You've been having problems with him. I'm willing to take him off your hands. How much?"

"Fifty."

"Done." The minstrel reached into his wallet and counted out fifty pieces of gold.

"Enjoy the demon, sir." The dealer was cackling as he walked away.

"What's your name, little guy?" the minstrel asked Max.

"M-Max."

"Well, I'm David. It's nice to meet you, Max."

"What kind of work do you need me to do?"

"Excuse me?"

"That's the only reason people buy from the dealers—to get workers that they don't have to pay and they can make fucking money off of."

"You looked like you needed a home and a friend. And watch your language."

"Suck a dick, Music Man."

David started laughing and Max knew this guy wasn't going to be like the others.

Three months.

Three months and David hadn't dumped Max back with the dealers yet. It was the longest Max had gone without visiting the people his birth parents had dumped him with and he was almost impressed with David for putting up with him this long.

Almost.

Currently, they were walking through a small village, where a crowd of people was gathered at the center. They were yelling and screaming at a young woman who was crouching in the middle of said crowd, protecting herself from whatever they threw at her.

"HEY!" Max yelled, grabbing the attention of everyone. "The fuck do you think you're doing?!"

The woman began to crawl away from the crowd, nobody noticing as David helped her to her feet and ran out of the village with her.

"We were about to stone that woman!" a man declared. "She's a writer."

"Oh, gosh, how terrible," Max replied sarcastically. "She's doing something with her life besides being a wife and a mother."

"She was neither." The man turned. "Hey! Where'd she go?!"

"Nice meeting you fuckers." Max walked out of the village as the angry mob began searching for their victim.

He met up with David, who was trying to calm the woman down. She had dark skin and reddish-brown hair with violet eyes, which were wide with panic as she hyperventilated. David had a hand on her arm and was talking in a low, gentle voice, assuring her that she was safe now.

"Thank you," she sighed once her panic attack had subsided. "They found my writings and burned them, saying that a woman shouldn't even be able to read."

"That's bullshit," Max snorted. "That's like saying kids shouldn't learn how to do that shit."

"Ha, thanks, kid. I'm Gwen, by the way."

"I'm David, and this is my son, Max."

Max felt his heart stop for a second.

Son.

David had called him his son.

He had a dad now, a real one.

"I can't go back to that fucking place," Gwen muttered. "You two got room for one more?"

"Of course," David replied, smiling.

Max, for the first time in years, felt hope that maybe he wouldn't be as fucked up as he thought.

And now, ten years later, he was still with David and Gwen. He didn't call them 'Mom' and 'Dad' very often, since he felt those titles had been tainted by his actual parents, but they served the roles to a degree that made him feel safe. Cameron, Jaspar, and Muack had joined shortly before Gwen and David had gotten married, and Lizzie had been born a couple years later. For the past four years, Max's circle of people he trusted had consisted of just four souls: David, Gwen, Jaspar, and Lizzie.

Now, with Nikki and Neil, he had the possibility to expand that circle.

Neil was going to scream if Campbell made another comment about Lilac's alcohol.

"…and you just dilute it that much?! How stupid can you be?!"

"We want people to buy more, so we dilute it to make it last longer and so they'll buy more," Nikki explained, cheery.

Neil failed to see how that was possible.

"Nikki, could you keep the talking down? I'm trying to catch up on sleep that I missed while sleeping in a fucking wagon on a straw bed."

"I thought it was comfy," Nikki replied with a grin.

"Yeah, well… you're you. You think everything that's not royal is the fucking best, when it's actually really shitty."

"Go to sleep, Neil."

The alchemist curled up in the corner, trying his best to do so, but he was shaken awake every time the wagon hit a bump in the road. He muttered to himself, wishing that the wedding had gone as planned.

Why was Max even there? It makes no fucking sense for a thief to be standing outside the church… unless he knew Nikki was going to try and run! How'd she meet him? No, wait, she didn't even know his name yesterday. He could've been an assassin for all we know!

"Neil, you okay?"

He rolled over to see Nikki giving him a concerned look. Campbell had passed out on his seat, dead to the world around him.

"I'm just concerned that maybe we made the wrong choice in coming on this little trip."

" 'Little trip'? Neil, if I can, I'm going to avoid going back to the castle. Ever."

"But why?!"

"Because I can't be what anybody wants me to be! I'm a terrible princess and I'd probably burn the kingdom to the ground on my first day as queen."

"Um… actually, that's probably true."

"Plus, this way, I can find out what I'm good at!"

The wagon came to a sudden and complete stop, sending Nikki to the floor and Campbell's head into the wall. He mumbled a few curses and went back to sleep. Neil took the opportunity to leave and see that they were set up outside a decently-sized town. Lizzie was bouncing as her father took an axe out of the wagon.

"You ready to help me get firewood, Lizzie?" he asked.

"Yeah!" she cheered. She ran on her little legs to keep up with the much-taller man and soon they were out of sight. Max dusted off his hands once he'd set the horses up to graze and Gwen had opened up the wagons to air out.

"You're all remarkably efficient," Neil commented.

"We have to be," Gwen sighed. "It helps keep us on the road. Most of us are outlaws—except for David and Lizzie, oddly enough."

"What did you do?"

"Refused to just be a wife and mother. Max and David got me out of there right before they stoned me to death."

"Wow." Neil raised his eyebrows. "What about Campbell and Jaspar?"

"Campbell's a con man. Jaspar was supposed to be hanged for killing a man, but it was in self-defense."

"And Max is a thief."

"He wasn't always one. He became one right after Lizzie was born to help us feed her."

"That's… sweet, actually."

"Tell me about it." Gwen smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Okay, that shit's done," Max announced, cracking his knuckles. "I'm heading to town. Neil, you and Nikki wanna come?"

"Hell yeah!" Nikki called, running up. "What are we doing?"

"We're going to a pub."

"Don't get them drunk," Gwen warned. "And be responsible. You've got to set a better example for Lizzie than Campbell."

"I do that just by existing."

"True. Still, don't come back drunk."

"Yes, ma'am." Max rolled his eyes and they headed for town.

Nikki was bouncing-off-the-walls excited. She'd drunken alcohol before, but that had just been some wine at a dinner party or champagne at a wedding. She'd never had beer or mead or whatever it was that the less-wealthy drank.

"My first time in a bar!" she gasped to Max, jumping excitedly.

"Jesus, are you serious?"

"Before yesterday, I'd barely been outside the castle."

"Oh, yeah. Sheltered kid."

"Pubs aren't that great," Neil scoffed.

"Says the guy who probably never tried to get wasted once in his life."

"Hey!"

"We're here. Welcome to the town of Sleepy Peak."

Nikki and Neil got a good look at the town. It was full of people, bustling around from place to place.

"This is also known as a den for thieves, kidnappers, and other criminals, so watch your back," Max warned. "Luckily, I've got a couple of friends in the pub here."

They walked up to a place called The Grumpy Butterfly, where Nikki could see a tough-looking guy drinking alone. He had a few tattoos that she could see, and that made her feel better about the whole thing. Max led them inside.

"Okay, Nerris," she heard a man say. "How about this one? A princess, a thief, and an alchemist walk into a bar…"

"Like them?" A dark-skinned woman in the robes of a sorceress pointed to Nikki, Max, and Neil.

"Yes."

"What happens next?"

"I don't know. It's never actually happened before." The man's face lit up as he got a look at the trio. "Max! Long time no see!"

"Harrison. Still doing shitty card tricks."

"They're not shitty."

"Yes, they are," the dark-skinned woman butted in.

"Nerris. How goes the spell-casting?"

"People are still trying to burn me at the stake, but not as much as Harrison."

"Well, this is Nikki and Neil. They just joined up with the caravan."

"That's odd," commented a man with golden eyes and dark brown hair. "It's been… four years since the latest member of your group joined up?"

"Since she was born."

"How is Lizzie?" inquired a girl with long blonde hair and a berry-pink streak in it.

"She's fine. Adorable as hell."

"How'd you meet our buddy, Max, here?" the girl asked Nikki.

"I jumped out of a window and he caught me." Nikki shrugged as if this were an everyday occurrence. "After that, we just ran and he invited me and Neil to join them."

"That's cool. I'm—"

"Meredith!" called a man. "We need help back here!"

"Ugh. Duty calls. And it's Ered. Not Meredith." She walked into the back.

"Since we're here," Max told his buddies, old and new, "I thought I'd introduce them to a little Sleepy Peak ale."

"Good plan!" the tough guy in the corner called, getting up. "I'm Nurf, by the way," he added to Neil.

"Nice to meet you." Neil appeared extremely intimidated.

Max, on the other hand, headed over to a table, followed by Nikki. He pulled out a chair for her and pushed it in, surprising Neil.

"How gentlemanly of you," he commented, sitting down across from Nikki.

"David told me that just because I'm a thief, it doesn't mean I can't be a gentleman."

Within a couple minutes, the first round of drinks was brought to their table. Max picked up his tankard and lifted it up.

"To sticking it to the kingdoms and telling them to go fuck themselves!" he toasted.

Everyone else in the pub raised their tankards and cheered. Nikki cheered extra loud.

This was the best decision she'd ever made.