Chapter 2 - a talk along a moonlit path

“This is not what I meant,” the princess remarked drily as she was carried out of the cottage and into the cool air of a summer night, slung over Lev’s shoulder.

"This is more than you deserve, your highness." Lev walked down the cottage stairs, eliciting nauseated grunts of protest from the stuffed royal with each step. "I should be making you carry your own weight down these stairs. I shall have to apologize to my horse for making her carry you the rest of the way to your father."

“Well, I never asked you to carry me. Put me down.”

“And let you run away?”

“Do I–hff–do I look like I can manage more than a waddle? Put me down.”

Lev stopped and set her down onto her feet. She winced as cold water from an earlier squall seeped into her socks. After reordering her hair, which had fallen over her eyes in messy curls during her brief portage, she looked up at Lev with a scowl. The knight returned it wordlessly, arms crossed, bracers glinting in the pale light of a full moon. Lev stood taller than her by more than a head, and she had to lift her chin to get a good look at Lev’s eyes from where she had been deposited, still within arm’s length of one another.

After a short staring contest, she broke the silence. “Do you leave all your women high and dry, or only those you’ve finished stuffing like a harvest turkey?”

“I have yet to marry, and so I have yet to share a bed with anyone.”

“Of course. We wouldn’t want you tarnishing your precious honor, now would we? Devotion to the Three, and all that? So, what, do you take care of yourself with the gauntlets on? I bet the cold touch feels good to your cold heart."

“It is called restraint, your highness. Are you familiar with the term? I seem to doubt it.”

“Yes, it means, ‘dry, boring, and detestable.’ And stop calling me ‘your highness.’ I have a name.”

“I am aware, your highness. But it is not my station to speak to you so casually.”

“That didn’t stop you from deriding my intelligence, just now.”

Lev’s eyes dropped, abashed. “I spoke out of anger.” A heartbeat, then, “No. I had no excuse. I apologize, your highness. My words did not befit a knight, no matter your station.” Lev dropped to one knee, head bowed. “Though you are not a princess of the realm from which I hail, my actions reflect poorly upon my lord and my land, and so I shall accept whatever punishment you see fit to render upon me in recompense for–”

“Stop.” A hand on her brow, the princess raised the other hand to forestall Lev’s outpouring of penitent intent, but the knight was too busy speaking to the mud in which they both stood to see or hear, so she grabbed a fistfull of Lev’s sandy hair–it was surprisingly soft–and pulled it backward to make Lev shut up and look at her.

“Listen. I didn’t leave the palace just so that I could have people kneel in front of me and ask to be beheaded in the mud instead of in the comfort of a throne room. If you’re set on dragging me to my father, I’d rather have you spitting insults at me than simpering in the mud at my feet. Is that clear?”

Even kneeling, Lev didn’t need to strain to look her in the eye, affronted. “Understood. But I must clarify one thing, your highness. I care not for your forgiveness, but only for the honor I bring to my people. Not only that, but your return shall secure an alliance between our realms. I will return you, not for your sake or gratitude, but for the greater good.”

“You’re insufferable.”

“As are you. Your father thinks you were kidnapped. It seems he was wrong. In training, if we abandoned our post, we would have been starved for a week. You’ve clearly never known discipline a day in your life.”

“What makes you say that? Was it the fact that I burst out of my nightgown eating enough food to feed an army?” Seeing red creep back into Lev’s cheeks, the princess smiled wickedly, running a hand along her ample curves, lingering especially long on the swell of her stomach, pregnant with the weight of overindulgence, bouncing softly at her touch. “Admit it. Whatever I do, I look incredible doing it. Why would I need discipline when this is what I get for going without it?”

“It’s debauched.” Lev stood, looking pointedly in another direction.

“You don’t get out much, do you? You’d be surprised how popular debauchery is.” She reached out and gently took Lev’s hand, beginning to pull it to the outward curve of her waist. “And you seem to have a particular taste for it.”

Lev pulled away quickly and started walking down the road, not sparing the princess another glance. “The night grows dark. Follow me. Do not make me carry you again.”

She sighed resignedly. “Can I at least go back inside for a moment and get something better to wear? Unless you want to spend more of your money on traveling gear and other things a lady needs.”

“If you are thinking of running again–”

“Thinking of running is making me nauseous enough as it is, thank you.”

“Then go. You have until I count ten-hundred heartbeats.”

“I’ll be surprised if you can make it to ten.” With that, she left Lev standing in the middle of the muddy path back to Heksenberg, counting rapid heartbeats, the warmth of her touch still fresh.

Lev got to five hundred before deciding to check if she had in fact run away, marching toward the cottage door and grasping the handle. The knight pushed it open and surveyed the room, expecting to see no sign of the vexing woman, and was surprised to see her searching frantically through cupboards and under seat cushions. “What are you–”

“It’s gone!” She rose, equipped now with a loose travel cloak and satchel which surprised Lev further with their practical and modest designs, and rushed toward the basement. She emerged shortly, her hair once more in disarray, and looked up at Lev. “Have you seen a book?”

“Yes, I know how to read.”

“Dolt, there’s no time for that. It’s a large book, bound with curling, black leather; it was beside the crystal ball that was on the table–” she looked suddenly at the table where she had been feasting; it had been there, safely separated from the food, but now it was missing as well. “Scorch me, that’s gone too!”

“You said that was a decoration,” Lev said, expression darkening. The princess’s did as well.

“I lied, but you know what I didn’t lie about? That you’d regret freeing that woman in the cellar.”

“I–what? What does she have to do with this?”

The princess glared accusingly at Lev. “She’s the one who actually owns this house, and that book, and the crystal ball. The woman for whom the town is named. The woman I asked for help to hide from people like you, and who decided that the best way to hide me was to eat me–but not without fattening me first. The witch, Hekse, whom you freed and told to go to the town–”

But Lev was already running out the door and toward the town of Heksenberg.