As the cart moved down the road through the night Amalia's thoughts started to drift off to dreamland.
"You think she's going to wake up." a voice said.
"Who knows, Bro Yugo found her in the back past out like a log." another voice said.
As Amalia opened her eyes she saw that their two pairs of eyes were looking at her. She quickly sat up to see that she was not on the floor of the wagon she was hiding but a bed. She then looked at the two kids staring at her. They both seemed to be about seven years old wearing similar clothes to the Yugo and Mina, just different colors, one was a boy that had worn black and gray while the other was a girl that was wearing pink and red. Lost in thought, Amalia didn't notice the kids coming closer into her personal space.
"Okay do you think I could get some space here?" Amalia said as she turned around to see that they were closer than she needed.
"I like your hair." the boy said. touching Amalia hair.
"I like your skirt," the girl complemented tugging a little on Amalia's skirt. "How do you get the leaves to do this?"
Amalia was about to smack the girl's hand away from her skirt. But stopped when she heard another voice. "Okay you two back off, you know you're not supposed to do that when someone wakes up."
Amalia then saw that Mina had come in.
"Before you ask, this is the cart where we try to sleep when we're on the road and don't feel like making camp." Mina explained knowing that the Princess would want to know where she was. "We found you in our supplies cart, you want to tell me why you were there instead of your home back in the Sadida kingdom."
"Before I answer you, could I maybe find out where we are?" Amalia asked.
Mina sighed then said, "We're near a town called Dragmar, seems some people from Barkmar came here to try and get a better life, but they don't break their bad habit and now the town is like a smaller version of Barkmar. Including that messed up entry fee. Now you mind answering my earlier question."
Amalia knew she had to explain herself considering they could easily force her back to the Sadida kingdom, she sighed then said, "I ran away from home."
"Why would you do that?" the girl quickly asked.
"Yeah, didn't you like it there?" the boy questioned.
"A princess running away from home." Mina said loudly, "That's a new one. What the royal lifestyle not to your liking."
"When you have seven guards around you around the clock it feels less like a life of a person and more like a caged animal." Amaila corrected.
"Wow, that bad just because of some rumor about an attack." Mina said, looking Amalia over. "Seems kind of over the top don't you think."
Amaila took a second look at Mina said, "How do you know about the attack."
Mina looked at Amaila then looked towards the younger kids and said, "Chibi, Nora Why don't the two of you go look for Yugo and tell him that our guest has woken up."
"Okay, big sister Mina." the girl said.
"But why?" the boy complained.
"Come on Chibi you know Mina isn't wrong Yugo needs to know she's awake." the girl said pulled the boy along.
"Ow stop pulling Nora." Chibi said back.
Amaila chuckled a little remembering a time when is did the same to Evangelyne when they were little.
"Okay as I was about say Princess…" Mina started to say.
"Amalia is fine, at the moment I would like to be treated like a normal person all things considered." Amaila interrupted.
"Sorry, But the attack your kingdom seems to be worried about comes from a rumor that happened in the Barkmar kingdom when a woman finally stood up to the kingdom's rules about a match in Gobowl." Mina explained. "A fight ended up coming about and someone threw a shoe at the king and called him a fool unworthy of his crown."
"You're telling me that this whole attack nonsense was from someone hitting the prince with a shoe." Amalia questioned feeling like she had more of right to be angry then even before.
"Guess so." Mina said. "Now that leaves us with something else to discuss."
"Which is?" Amalia asked.
"To take you back to the Sadida kingdom or not." A voice said. Mine turned her head and looked towards the door to the cart to see her brother Yugo. "No afinces but I don't really want to have your guards coming after us."
"Please let me stay with you guys, just until they find me, or you can take me to a friend of mine who can watch me." Amalia pleaded with puppy dog eyes. "She lives near the Iop kingdom's capital. Last time I checked, and if she's not there then you can leave me there to wait for the guards to catch up. Besides, it would be less of a hases to turn back around."
"Come on Yugo, she ran away from home to see the world for a bit." Mina quickly added. "Give her a chance to see a bit of the world she's been locked away from."
Yugo thought for a moment then said, "Fine you can stay for the time being but the moment the guards come looking for you it's your problem, and while your your here you'll be put to work. We could use the extra hands with customers when we set up a place for them to sit down."
"You can't be serious Yugo." Mina complained. "She's a princess."
"That ran away." Yugo quickly added.
"But still that seems like a bit…" Mina argued.
"It's fine." Amalia interrupted. "I would like to feel like a normal Sadida for as long as I can. So, I have no problem helping out to earn my keep. Plus, I can tell you a bit more about the plants that can help your cooking."
"Then It looks like we've got a deal." Yugo said, reaching out his hand. "Do you mind if we call you Amalia or do you want to be called something else."
Amalia thought for a moment then took Yugo's hand and said, "Amalia will be fine. I should at least give my followers a chance at finding me."
"Okay then let's get moving." Yugo said letting go of Amaila's hand.