Exhausted from having all those emotions flow through me and because of the fact that it was the middle of the night, I leaned my head back against the padded back of the carriage and fell into a deep dreamless sleep. A hand shaking my shoulder woke me up a couple of minutes later. Blinking my eyes open and struggling to pull myself completely awake, I looked blearily at the person who woke me up. When my vision cleared I realized that Casey had woken me up. “We are almost to the first village. Are you ready to meet some new people?”

Fully awake now, I smiled at him. “I am always ready to meet new people.” That got a small laugh out of him. Grateful that my guards were finally relaxed enough to laugh, even if it was only a small laugh, I resolved to make them laugh more often. They were always so stressed and it made me sad because I knew they were only stressed because they were trying so hard to protect me. While I was thinking of ways to make them laugh more and have fun, the carriage stopped and both doors opened to let us out. Scrambling out of the carriage after Casey, I groaned when I saw that it was basically pitch black outside. The only thing that I could see in front of me was a huge gate with people holding torches on top of it. I should be sleeping right now. Not meeting new people and trying to get my brain to work well enough to actually have a good conversation with them. Hoping that they would understand why I had to think over my words more and hesitate more during the conversations, I walked into the village after Milo had convinced the people on top of the gate to let us in.

My first thought after we went through the gate was how big the village was. There seemed to be around 100 wood houses of varying sizes spread throughout the village. In Kuli there are around 300 houses, but the villages close to Kuli only have around 50-75 houses. Apparently the eastern kingdoms were larger than all the other kingdoms were. Especially since Raetis, even though I have not gone to see all of it, had around 450 houses according to Milo. Gazing around at all the people who had gotten out of their houses to see who had entered their village, I was stunned by how dark their skin was. The natives we had met in the forest had pretty dark skin, but it was nothing compared to these villagers' skin. You could barely see them because they blended in with the dark night sky. Whispering to Milo I asked, “Why is their skin so dark? I mean your skin is not dark.”

Milo gave a soft chuckle before he whispered back to me. “People outside of the main kingdoms here in the east color their skin a darker color with some native plants. They do this so you can tell them apart from people who live in the main kingdoms.” Spotting the question in my eyes, Milo elaborated. “We never told them to do this. It is their tradition and they were the ones who decided to start doing it.” While still curious about why they darken their skin, I decided to save my questions for someone who might actually know the answer to them. Milo pulled away from our group to address the natives who were facing us. “Some of you already know me. For the ones who do not, my name is Milo Bullara, Crown Prince of Raetis.” Murmuring broke out among the natives facing us. It seemed that most people had not recognized him since it was so dark outside.

One of the natives stepped forward and introduced himself as the leader of the village. He said that his name was Brendon. After we had all introduced ourselves to him, Brendon gestured us towards one of the wooden houses that seemed to be their guest house. Piling gratefully inside we each found a cot and quickly fell asleep. My dreams swirled through my head with no obvious pattern. Sometimes they were nightmares, other times they were daydreams. As soon as one started though, a new dream would take its place and soon I was lost in the chaotic colors and images. Several hours later when someone shook me awake I jolted upright so fast that I startled the person who had woken me up. That person turned out to be Sophia. She had stumbled backwards a step and let out a gasp when I had shot upright. Apologizing to her for scaring her, I thanked her for waking me up. Wiping a trickle of sweat off my brow, I hurried to get ready for the day. Everyone else had already gotten up and was outside with the natives eating what smelled like a delicious breakfast.

Attributing the dreams to all of the activity that had been happening lately, I splashed water on my face and thrust the dreams from my mind. Following Sophia out of the house, my mouth began to water as I got closer and closer to the tantalizing smells. Once I had grabbed a bowl full of what looked like a bunch of random food thrown together, I sat next to my guards while Sophia went to sit next to Hazel who was talking with a bunch of native women. Peering into the bowl, I asked my guards what was in the bowl. Alex replied, “It is a mixture of several different types of fruits, some type of porridge, and some salmon meat. They caught the fish this morning in a nearby stream.” My expression changed from one of excitement to eat the delicious smelling food, to a look of suspicion. While that was all good food alone, I was unsure how it would taste all mixed together. Taking a deep breath I dipped my two of my fingers into the bowl, the natives did not have anything to eat the food with, and I took comfort from the fact that everyone around me seemed to like the food. I then scooped some into my mouth.

Immediately afterwards my eyes shot open in shock. The texture of all that food mixed together was kind of unpleasant, but the taste more than made up for it. The fruit was sweet, but not too sweet, the salmon was smokey and tender, and the porridge made it filling without adding too much flavor. Relaxing now I enjoyed the rest of my food while also gazing around the village now that it was day time. The natives’ skin looked lighter in the light, but it was still very dark. Most of the natives wore very colorful clothing. The women wore skirts and shirts while the men wore either pants or shorts with a shirt. Based on what I could see on the children running all around, they wore a shirt and either shorts or a skirt that covered most of their bodies. All of their clothing was made out of the same material. Skin from wild beasts that they had tanned, dyed different colors, and sewed together. Brendon came up and sat next to us when I was about halfway done with my meal.

Some of my guards looked at him expectantly thinking that he had come over to talk to us. However, he just started to eat his meal. In fact it did not really appear like he had even noticed us other than the fact that he had sat next to us. Shrugging internally, I went back to eating my meal. Once I had finished, I made to stand up. Before I could though, Brendon’s hand shot out to grab my arm. Startled, I looked at him curiously. He still did not say a word. Instead he tugged on my arm to let me know that he wanted me to sit back down. After sharing looks with my guards I sat down again. Several minutes passed and still nothing was said between us. Brendon just kept eating and watching the children run and play around the village. Mystified by his behavior I wondered if I should initiate the conversation since he wouldn’t. The second I opened my mouth Brendon spoke up. “You are very patient. An attribute that I greatly appreciate. It is not everyday that you meet someone who will sit still in silence for as long as you have.”

Grateful now that I had not said anything I replied, “Thank you. I have worked very hard on becoming as patient as possible because that is what was expected of me in my kingdom. Was the reason why you sat by me, did not talk to me, and why you tugged me back down when I stood all to test my patience?”

Brendon finally turned to face me. “Yes. We do not get many outsiders here and I was wondering what you were all like. This was one of the ways to figure something out about you. Your guards also did very well at being patient. I suspect however that they have had much training to become the way that they are.” All of my guards nodded. Whenever I went in for meetings or for classes they would have to go in with me and they were not supposed to interrupt us in any way shape or form. My teachers and other royals expected it of them. I had watched them doing this for years and that was another reason why I was as patient as I was because I had tried to beat them in sitting or standing still longer than them. I was way too competitive, but my competitiveness helped me accomplish my goals and become a better person. Either that or it had made people not like me because they were sore losers. Many royals were like that so I had to be careful who I competed against so that I did not start a war because of it. Brendon now stood and held a hand down to me to help me up.

Taking it, I wondered what was going to happen now. Was he going to give me another test, or were we just going to talk? First we placed our dishes down next to a pile of other dirty dishes that a couple of young natives would take down to the stream to wash and then we continued walking around the village. It almost seemed like Brendon was giving me a tour of his village except that he was not talking to me again. After he glanced behind him towards my guards he spoke to me. “Please dismiss your guards. They can have fun with my people or just wander around the village. However you will not need them and I wish to speak with you privately.” Thinking about how I would explain this to them I slowed down to talk to my guards. It took a couple of minutes to convince them to go off on their own and let Brendon and me talk in peace, but eventually they left. Their grumbles were audible for a little while even while they walked away. Smiling, I went back to Brendon to see what he wanted to say to me. Once I had caught back up to him, he had not stopped walking even when I was talking to my guards, I waited for him to talk to me again.

It was kind of starting to annoy me that he took forever to start talking to me after he stopped, but I forced myself to stay silent. I was afraid that if I broke the silence then he would either just ignore me or he would say how impatient I was and not talk to me. Or he might even just send me back to my guards and not tell me what he wanted to tell me. Putting all my energy and impatientance into my hands I clenched them together hoping to release it all in that way. It was a skill that I had watched other people do and I had heard worked for them, but not something that had actually worked for me. At least not yet. For the next while all of my focus went into forcing all my emotions into my hands and getting them out of my system. I was paying just enough attention to dodge the child that ran in front of me all of a sudden however. All it took was a small sidestep to avoid the child. Hearing Brendon start to clap, I released my hands and returned my gaze to him.

“You just passed my second test. Whether you could still pay attention to your surroundings when you are focusing your attention on other things.” He sounded impressed about it, but I was used to dodging around obstacles when I was running, walking, or paying attention to my emotions. It was something that I did practically every day. Following all of these tests from Brendon I was going to have to go on a long run to release all of my frustration. Although I understood that he wanted to learn more about me and wanted to see what I was capable of, it still really annoyed me and made me want to scream. Maybe that was because when I was tested in the past, if I did not get it exactly right then I had to do all the lessons again until I could pass the test easily. This just triggered so much stress because of that reason. The annoyance was triggered because he would not tell me when he is going to test me or what he is going to test me on. Gritting my teeth I did not respond to his question and resolved to just go along with his tests. I had to show respect to him since the whole point of Darius and I meeting all these new people was to get them to like us and see that an alliance with our kingdoms would be beneficial to everyone.

Spotting him looking at me with a smile on his face, I realized that he knew all about why we were here and what we were trying to accomplish. That also meant that he knew that I had to be on my best behavior and not retaliate against him and his tests. Normally I would send him tests of my own, but I did not want to accidentally get on his bad side. Letting out a huge breath, I hoped that would let out my annoyance more than me clenching my fists because I felt like clenching my fists did practically nothing other than make me want to punch something. Brendon finally broke the silence surrounding us. “For your third test I am going to ask you some questions and I want you to answer them completely honestly.” Narrowing my eyes at him I almost listened to the little voice inside of me that told me this was a bad idea, but I decided to get it over with. With the way he was playing with me right now I figured he would get me to answer these questions anyways and it would be better to answer them with just him around instead of a big audience.

“Go ahead and ask your questions. As long as it does not endanger my friends, family, or myself then I will try to answer them as truthfully as possible.” I thought that I was so smart adding that condition in there. I would soon realize how hopelessly outmatched I really was.

“What is your full name?”

“Princess Ariana Esma. My parents did not like middle names. They said they had no purpose.” Most people wondered why I did not have a middle name since most royals had them so I always added that last part in there to forestall that question.

Brendon smiled at me. “How old are you?”

“I am 16 years old.”

“When was your birthday?”

This question actually made me think for a second before I just decided to guess. Honestly I was not sure how long ago my birthday was. “It happened around a month ago.”

“Who are all the members of your family?”

“I have two older brothers, Tristan and Carter, and then my two parents. However I have always seen my personal guards and maids as part of my family as well.”

That answer seemed to shock Brendon. He undoubtedly thought that I was one of those uptight snobby royals who think of all non-royals as lesser beings. Sometimes they do not even think of them as human. “What are your guards’ and maids’ names?”

“My guards’ names are Tyler, Alex, Liam, and Casey. My maids are Hazel and Sophia. Alex is the head of my guards, and Hazel is the oldest of my two maids.” I was fine responding truthfully to all of the questions that he had asked me so far. I just wondered when he would start getting to the harder questions to answer. I didn’t have to wait long.

“Do you like anyone as more than a friend and this has to be someone who is not part of your family.”

Shock registered on my face before I could stop it. “I-I am not sure if this is relevant to anything.”

Brendon smiled at my obvious discomfort. “It is a pretty simple question and I think it relates to everything. Love can be a weakness, or a strength. Sometimes it can even be both. When someone loves someone else it changes them. I think that it is a very important question to ask someone because it can tell you a lot about that person.”

Positive that my cheeks were bright red with embarrassment, I considered how to approach this question. I had to answer truthfully since it did not endanger anyone. “I…” Pausing here to gather my confidence up, I continued. “Do like someone as more than a friend and they are not part of my family.”

A huge smile split Brendon’s face and I could tell that he was going to continue down this vein of questioning for at least a little while longer. “What is this person’s name?”

Resigning myself to the fact that Brendon would most likely soon know practically everything about me, I sighed. “His name is Crown Prince Darius Hashim.”

A thoughtful look came over Brendon’s face. “Does he know that you like him? Also does he love you back?” A soft smile immediately appeared on my face. Him asking those questions sent my mind back in time to when we both sent our guards to see what the other person thought about us. It may have been kind of cowardly of us to not just ask each other ourselves, but it had all worked out so far. “I am going to guess by that smile on your face that the answer to both of the questions I just asked was yes.” I gave a small nod. I decided from now on I would not give him more information than needed. After all, I knew barely anything about him. “How was your trip out here to the east? Was it uneventful or was there at least a little excitement in the journey over?” Laughter bubbled up inside of me before some of it came out. Once some of it came out I did not seem to be able to stop the rest of it from following suit. Brendon seemed very confused, but that just made me laugh harder.

Finally able to talk now that my laughter had subsided at least a little, I said, “It was definitely not a boring trip.”

Brendon’s eyes narrowed at me again. “Do you care to explain that statement?” I tapped my chin in fake thought for a moment before I shook my head.

“Nope I think that statement will suffice for the question that you asked.” Unable to help it, I smirked a little at him.

Rolling his eyes at me, he seemed to be considering what question he would ask me next. “Alright, fine then I will ask another question. Was there an event that stood out above all the others that happened on your way over here? If there was, what was it?”

I had to bite my lip to keep myself from laughing again when I responded to these questions. “Yes there was. That event would have to be when I got kidnapped and what happened while I was being held captive.”

A sigh escaped Brendon. “The part where Crown Prince Milo kidnapped you can not count in this question so pick a new event.”

Barely able to swallow the laughter that once again almost escaped from me, I had to take a moment before I replied. “That was not the kidnapping I was talking about, however you are right. Malick and the Black Renegades did kidnap me as well.”

In shock from what I said, Brendon stammered, “You mean to tell me that someone kidnapped you from Crown Prince Milo and the Black Renegades when they were bringing you to Raetis?” A shout from one of my guards forestalled my reply. Apparently Darius wanted to speak with me. Waving good-bye to Brendon I ran towards my guards. I was pretty happy with the way that conversation ended. Even though Brendon had asked me some questions that had made me embarrassed and he had directed that whole conversation, I had not said anything that he could really use against me. Most of my secrets were still mine and he did not know what Darius's and my presences were. Reaching my guards I smiled up at them.

“That was awesome timing on your part! He is now extremely confused and concerned.” I said this all with a satisfied smirk on my face. “Serves him right for trying to ask me a ton of personal questions.”

“What kinds of things did he ask you and what did you say? I have to determine if anything was said that could have put you or anyone else in danger. Even something innocent could have consequences that we do not want.” Alex said this in such a way that I knew he wanted me to say our conversation as word for word as I could. He even wanted me to say the things that I considered irrelevant. Resigning myself to a long conversation sometime in the near future, I asked where Darius was so I could talk to him before we had our long conversation. A smug look came over Alex's face. “Darius did not ask for you. I am sure that he would love to talk to you, but he did not tell us that.”

My face turned incredulous. “You lied to get me over here and stop talking to Brendon?” I couldn't contain the laughter that grew inside of me and soon I was bent in half laughing hysterically. Again. I seemed to be doing that a lot lately, but at least this time I was not alone in doing it. All of my guards tried to repress their laughter, but soon they were all laughing along with me until we were all gasping for breath. Several of the natives were giving us very strange looks and when one of us saw their looks we would start laughing again. As such it took us several minutes before we were finally able to completely stop laughing and regain control over ourselves. Deciding that now was as good of a time as any to recount my conversation that I had with Brendon, I launched right into it. While I did not have as good of a memory as Ethan or Tyler, I felt like I did pretty well. Once I had finished I waited patiently while my guards all considered my words. If I had said anything to compromise any part of my security or anyone else's security then they would find it. During my wait, I began to observe the village and the people who lived here. The kids all seemed to be separated into different groups. Each group played a different game and when a child got tired of being in their group then they would just randomly join a different group so the amount of kids in a certain group was always changing.

Meanwhile the adults and older children seemed to either be doing chores, talking, taking care of children too young to play, or just wandering around the village. Some of the natives must have already started working on lunch because the savory smell of meat permeated through the air to me. I closed my eyes to focus more on the smell and my mouth started to water. Breakfast had only happened around an hour ago, but I was already starting to get hungry again. Casey's voice broke through my musings and my attention turned to him. “We do not think that anything you said could put anyone in danger or threaten their security.” A huge breath of relief went out of me. I had assumed that I had not said anything harmful, but you never know. Some people can take the smallest bit of information and turn it into a huge problem. Spotting Darius waving to me from behind my guards, I pointed to him and asked if I was now free to go. Rolling their eyes at me, they moved out of the way and allowed me to walk over to Darius. They followed pretty closely behind me. It was apparent that they were not going to leave me again no matter what anyone said. The threats that had been said against me were obviously still on their minds.