“M’lady, it is only just becoming dawn, do you insist on such an early walk in the woods?” he asked, agitated.

“Oh, I am sorry, Brian. But I thought you’d enjoy it,” she apologized. She gave him a puppy-dog face.

“Don’t do that to me, Celeste, you know that I cannot resist such a sweet face like yours,” he teased, before getting up and stretching.

She hugged him. “You are too precious, Brian! Now get dressed,” she ordered and sat down on his bed. She smoothed out her white blouse and skin-tight riding chaps and watched him take off his nightshirt and slip on a white sweater.

He turned around and blushed. “Please turn your head, Celeste.”

“Why? I’ve seen it before,” she stated.

He blushed a deep scarlet. “Please?”

She turned around stubbornly and let him dress. She walked up behind him after he pulled up his pants, and put her arms around him. His fingers slipped around hers, and brought one up to his lips and kissed it. She giggled and let go. “C’mon on, Brian, let’s go.”

He nodded and followed her out of the castle. “You know if you get caught wearing that outfit, you’ll be shamed.”

She shrugged and trotted to the stables. She picked out a black horse named Merlin and saddled it up. Brian prepared his steed, Bear. The reason for that name was unknown, but Brian didn’t mind it.

Celeste led Merlin out onto the dirt path that winded away from the palace. Eventually, when they were far enough, Celeste put Merlin into a gallop and traveled into the forest. All around her, trees rushed past them, barely missing them. She could hear the rustling of the leaves beneath the horses’ hooves. She slowed down to a canter then to just a trot. Brian was beside her.

“Why did you slow down?” he questioned.

“I challenge you to a race. You know where the lake is from here, correct?”

Brian checked the forest and knew exactly where he was and where he needed to go. “Yes.”

“All right, then. From here to the lake.”

“Ready…” he prompted. “Set…” But before he could say the last word, she was gone.

He set off after her, chanting, “Cheater! Cheater!” She giggled, full of energy and continued down the beaten path.

She beat him to the lake and laughed. “You were always gullible. Do you honestly ever remember me following rules?” She dismounted off her horse and nuzzled it. “Good Merlin.”

Celeste grabbed Brian’s hand walked over to the shore. He sat down under a shady tree and she leaned her head against his chest. She closed her eyes and listened to the lake’s tide drift in. The day was warm, not to the point of haziness and humidity, but of just pure heat.

Celeste looked up at Brian. “I am worried. Father wants me to marry soon, and I am not ready. All the suitors are horrible, you’ve seen them, Brian,” she said.

“Princess, you are, after all, twenty years old. Soon turning twenty-one after this winter. He doesn’t mean to be harsh, but you are getting to the peak point of your life.”

“How is it the peak point of my life, Brian?” she asked, angrily. “That’s what everyone always says. It’s always, ‘You need to marry, it is tradition.’ Who made up that stupid tradition, anyway?”

“Darling, you’ll be the only Peters to have not been married before their twenty-first birthday. I cannot help that, neither can your father,” he defended, “Your father is a slave to the crown; a very dedicated man to his title.”

“Why haven’t you married yet? You are twenty-five, and you aren’t with some beautiful woman, who is a slave to your every whim yet. That’s what I’m to become. A servant to a selfish, unworthy man. Just like my mother was doomed to be. I know she was more than that, Father says I inherited that from her.”

Brian rubbed her hand. “I am dispensable, Celeste. If I go to war and don’t come back, my wife, whoever it may be would be heart-broken. And from the Heavens I would watch this loyal woman, unable to comfort her. It would be hell for us both. So I save myself the pain before it actually happens.”

She stared out at the lake, her stare completely fixated on something far off, it didn’t matter what it was. “You will not die in battle, Brian. You will come back every time to see me and hoist me from my down spirits. You’ve done so each time before and will do it again.”

“Are you always that certain?” he asked.

“Yes, I know it, Brian. It’s a gut feeling. And I check up on you all the time. If it seems like a dangerous situation, I make it so that you are pulled out. I know it not honorable, but I rather see you alive and well than dead and away from me.”

Brian smiled and exhaled. This feeling, the atmosphere around him was wonderful. Nothing could surpass the feeling he felt at that moment.

Celeste perked up to a second. She listened intently, hearing a noise. “Did you hear that?”

Brian strained his hearing for any noise. He relaxed. “It was just probably a squirrel. You are too uptight, Celeste, honestly.”

“And you, sir, are very easy to deceive,” a voice Celeste remembered spoke. She looked up and saw that face again. The face with the same childish grin.

Brian instantly reached to his hip, where his sword rested. “Prince Nickolas, this is Peters land. Get out,” he growled.

“I know, sir. Please, relax, I am by myself. I was just hoping to see Princess Celeste again, after our short meeting yesterday,” he told him, calmly.

Celeste shook her head and pointed to the direction he appeared from. “You see me. Now leave, Nickolas or else I’ll make this knight slit you open.” She stood up with Brian. Nickolas loomed over both.

He examined Brian with a straight, critical face. Then he laughed. “I do not believe this soldier would hurt me.”

Celeste brought out Brian’s sword with one quick, liquid move and directed to Nickolas’ throat. “He may not hurt you, but I will.”

Nickolas’ chin up, his bare neck exposed. The sword’s tip was next to his Adam’s apple and was putting pressure on it. He swallowed, breathed slowly, but didn’t dare move more than that.

Brian lightly pulled the sword from the Princess’ hand and coaxed her a little. He looked over at Nickolas, who was now in a normal position, not like the desperate one like before. Brian put his sword away and stepped back a maybe a foot. He nodded quickly, allowing the Prince to speak again.

“Who is this knight?” Nickolas asked Celeste. “And does he really fight or just carry a sword for you to pull out, m’lady?”

“Sir Brian Thomas of the Peters Brigade,” Brian introduced himself.

Nickolas stared at Brian like he was unreal. He repeated the name and fell to the ground, fainting. Brian and Celeste exchanged glances and shrugged.