"What do you mean the sack is empty!?" Nate growled at the twins, who were each holding a sack in hand where our lunch should be.
"Like we said, the sack was hanging upside down. Our food must have fallen along the way." Ren deadpanned and leveled Nate's murderous gaze with his own.
"How could you both not have noticed anything!?"
"Gee let me think." Dan stepped forward and tapped his chin three times before looking at Nate with a not so happy look.
"Maybe because we were busy blocking you out and away from Rose because you kept flirting with her!"
I patted Cloud as I watched the three of them argue. Cloud and I were getting along pretty well and she seemed to have grown fond of me seeing as I kept feeding her apples. "Here, Cloud." I cooed and gave her an apple. I grinned as I watched her taking the apple from my palm and eating it. I find it cute when her lips move to eat. After all, horses in my world are not that common anymore thanks to modern transportation.
"It was one job. One job for the two of you to keep an eye on our food and yet you can't handle it!?" Nate bellowed.
Ace was standing not far from them looking tired. His head was cast downward and one of his hands was rubbing the bridge of his nose. I say give it about 10 seconds before he would start to explode.
"Well if you are so concerned about the food then why don't you carry it?" Ren shot back.
"And make you idiots carry our sleeping bags? Forget it!"
"Are you implying that we can't be trusted with our belongings!?"
"What else could it mean?!"
I took another apple from my saddlebag and fed it to Cloud when she nudged me for more. She's just too cute not to feed. I can just cuddle with her all day!
"Fine! You know what? Since you two lost our lunch, then we might as well eat the fruits that we got." Said Nate just as
Cloud finished her apple.
"Rose!" I jumped at the sound of my name.
I stopped petting Cloud and turned to the princes. "Yes?"
"You got our fruits, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah. In my saddlebag." I pointed my thumb to the saddlebag at Cloud. Nate nodded and gave the twins one last glare before heading towards Cloud.
He paused and opened the saddle bag before turning towards me. "Is this the bag?" I made my way beside him and checked to see if it was the right pocket.
"It is." I confirmed.
"It's empty." He said.
My eyebrow shot up. "Empty? It can't be. It was full of appl-" I stopped as soon as realization hit me. Oh boy. Don't tell me that I got so caught up in feeding Cloud that I fed all our apples to her. I gulped and turned to face Cloud, who flicked her tail in excitement when our eyes met.
Well at least she's cute.
"Uhm...Rose? You were talking about apples?" Asked Nate to give me a scrutinizing look.
Oh well. Might as well play dumb and clueless, because I am quite positive that they won't like it when I tell them the truth.
"I'm pretty sure that it was full of apples before we left!" I said and made my voice rise as if I was as confused and distressed as I looked. Plus, I know Nate and he has a soft spot for girls who are on the verge of tears.
Dead puppies, Rose! Dead puppies! Think of Titanic! Think of something sad and horrible and bring out those tears!!
"You don't know what happened?"
"I don't." I breathed heavily and looked him in the day with big round tearful doe eyes.
The expression on Nate's face allowed me to confirm that my acting was working. He was slightly taken aback by my look that he swallowed hard and took a step back.
"Ren!" Dan screamed. "Nate is making Rose cry!"
"I can see that, brother!" Ren snapped at him. "You don't have to shout in my ear!"
"I-It's fine, Rose. It's fine." Nate cleared his throat and patted my back as some sort of comforting gesture. "We'll find another way on how to get food."
"I'm sorry." I said sadly.
"It's okay, Rose. It's not your fault." As soon as those words came out from his mouth, I turned slightly to the side and let out a victorious evil grin. My plan worked. Stupid ignorant princes!
I knew that trick would work. Avoiding their gaze, I grinned victoriously.
My eye caught something and I looked up to see that Ace was looking at me as I was smiling. He didn't react though, he just stared at me with a blank look. Very slowly, I wiped the smile off of my face and plastered on my distressed look and looked away.
Crap...He of all people saw me.
He's going to tell the others. I just know it!
"Prince Nate," Ace started to speak. There it is. He's going to rant me out! "I remember that you learned how to skin and gut our kills now, don't you?"
Nate nodded. "Yes, I do. Why?"
I turned my head slightly towards Ace's direction and I saw him addressing the twins. "You two, go into the woods and hunt for wild berries. Make sure they are not poisonous because I am going to let you eat it first. I'm going into the woods to hunt." He said.
Huh? He's not ranting me out?
I turned to him fully with a confused look. He noticed me watching him and only raised a brow in my way while giving me an unreadable expression.
Then I noticed that he already assigned everyone a task except me.
"Um....what should I do?" I asked.
"What good are you for?" He challenged me.
I frowned. "I don't know. You have to give me something."
"I would think that it is already an initiative to do something without the others hinting it for you."
"Not fair! You assigned their task for them. What makes me different?"
At that, Ace gave me a look that said 'you really want me to say it in front of everyone?'. I gritted my teeth and sighed. "Fine. I'll go get some water." I muttered and went to grab each of our bota bags from the pockets of our saddle to fill them in.
"Rose, want me to help?" Ren offered.
"She can do it on her own." Ace told him.
"But it'll be heavy." said Nate as he stood behind me and helped me gather our bota bags. He was looking at Ace while following me.
"If you go, then no one will watch our camp. Also, if the twins separate then there is no knowing what the other one might do."
"Hey!" The twins protested.
I already gathered our bota bags and held them to my chest. The others still have a few water in them so it just added to its weight. "There is a lake just below that cliff." Ace pointed behind me and I turned around to see that the cliff was not that far from us and that we are below it. "Once you are done, hurry back here. Also, you can bring your horse with you. I think she needs a little exercise." He said and started to turn around to get his fancy silver bow and arrow to hunt. Oh I bet he's just dying to kill something.
I rolled my eyes at his back and went to Cloud to place the bota bags in the saddle bag. Ren came to my side and helped me secure them all in. "I don't know what he's deal is making you do this work." He muttered and secured one at Cloud's side.
"I can manage." I said.
"Still, I think he's being rude."
"He's always rude. You should know that."
Ren laughed. "Alright then." He dusted his hands when we finally finished securing them all in. "If you need any help or get into trouble just yell. I have good ears and I'll run to you as fast as I can if you need me." He grinned proudly.
"Aw yeah boy!" Dan hooted somewhere in the background for some unknown reason.
I nodded and offered him a smile. "Got it. Thanks."
"Hey, I can -" Nate started but was dragged away by Dan when he jumped between Ren and I.
"I've spent so long waiting for one tiny moment such as this and you are not going to ruin it!" Dan growled as he dragged Nate away from us. Ren and I only stared at them long enough before looking at each other again. Both utterly confused by what just happened.
"I think you should go now and stop your brother from killing him."
"Nah. I wouldn't stop him anyway." He said and when I stared at him for a long time he shifted on his feet and cleared his throat. "Um...alright. I'll stop whatever Dan is going to do to him. Take care." He gave me one final wave before running off to where Dan and Nate were.
I shook my head at them and grabbed Cloud's reigns as I started to lead her towards the cliff. It wasn't that far to begin with, but the route that I took made it difficult with many twists and turns. It was actually a good idea that I wasn't riding Cloud, because I would have fallen with the state that the ground provided. I struggled to hold my skirt up while pulling Cloud's reins.
We finally emerged from the forest and finally I saw the lake that Ace told me about. It was indeed beneath the cliff that stretches about half of the clear landscape in front of me. The water was very clear and reflected the blue hues of the sky and sun making it glitter like diamonds. I could even smell the freshness of the water that I didn't even know has a scent.
I tied Cloud's reins to a tree and started gathering the bota bags in my arms as I made my way to the edge of the lake. I placed the bags beside me as I reached out and ran my fingers in the water. Smiling as I watched the ripple run through the water. And before I knew it, I started playing with the water by making it rain around me.
"Weee!" I felt like a kid again. Not caring whether my dress was sprayed with droplets of water. It felt good. I giggled and rained water around me again.
"Feels nice, doesn't it?"
My head turned to the side and saw a girl leaning by the edge of the lake with half of her body submerged in the water. Her long blonde hair covered her naked chest and her green piercing eyes stared at me in pure amusement. I stared at her. Entranced by her beauty and perfect skin and body. My eyes caught something glimmering below her and I looked down to see sea green scales moving. At first, I thought it was just a huge fish but when I followed where it was headed, it led back to the blonde-haired beauty in front of me. My jaw dropped in sudden realization of what she was.
"Y-Y-Y-You're" I stammered.
"A mermaid?" She smirked at me and raised her fishtail for me to see clearly. She flicked it once, sending raindrops in the air, and started to run her fingers on it gently before looking back at me.