“So explain to me why the prince and princess of the king are all the way up north in a small village in the middle of nowhere?” Bryson asked once they entered their hotel room.

The place itself was a rustic but cozy place. Two double beds being separated by a bedside counter. A light attached to a ceiling fan, a couple of old-looking sofa chairs with a coffee table between them. On the wall was a pleasant-looking watercolour painting of a forest, there was just enough open space for the four to stand and have a conversation.

“Oh? They’re royalty?” Lottie said interested as she moved over to one of the beds and tested out the softness.

“Hey! That’s my bed!” The princess complained. Bryson pondered for a moment before looking over to her.

“You’re Princess Mallory, the seventh child of the King.” Bryson said recognizing her.

“Uh.” Mallory said blinking, surprised to be named.

“How do you know that?” The prince asked.

“That would mean that you are Prince Reynard.” Bryson said ignoring his question, “Why are you two here?”

“Okay, who are you to demand us to answer you? As you said I am a princess, why do you know that? Who are you?” Mallory said getting annoyed by the lack of answers she and her brother were receiving.

“Bryson Coldwater.” Bryson state. Causing Mallory to take pause.

“You mean like, the same Coldwater family our father is seeing?” Reynard said suddenly looking very nervous.

“Yes.” Bryson said narrowing his eyes wondering why they were reacting like this.

“What are you doing here?” Mallory asked looking equally as nervous.

“I’m here to because my parents wanted me out of the way while the king toured the place.” Bryson said casually before a disapproving look appeared on his face, “The king doesn’t know you’re here does he?”

“Uh, well...” Reynard stammered out.

“We don’t need to answer that.” Mallory said adamantly.

“They’re guilty.” Lottie sang out bouncing on the bed.

“Would you be quiet! Who are you? Another Coldwater?” Mallory hissed.

“Nope, I’m Lottie Frost, pleased to meet you, your highnesses.” Lottie said offering a hand to them.

“Oh, uh, hello Lottie.” Reynard said shaking her hand.

“Reynard!” Mallory complained.

“What? We’re guests, we should be polite.” Reynard said as Bryson pulled out his Communicator.

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“What are you doing?” Mallory asked.

“I’m going to ask my parents if there was any news of the king’s children going missing.” Bryson said with a smile.

“W-wait!” Mallory said looking panicked.

“Please don’t.” Reynard begged, “We just want to explore around the place. Dad doesn’t let us do anything on the ship.”

“So you decided to run all the way up north?” Bryson said not believing the story.

“We’ve never seen a winter like this before. It looked beautiful up here, besides we like exploring forests.”

“You realize this village is near a contaminated area right? Also it’s still fall, it won’t be winter for another few more weeks.”

“Well that’s part of the fun.” Reynard said with a shrug.

“He’s right.” Lottie added.

“Shut up Frost.” Bryson said before readdressing the two siblings, “You two ran off without permission from the king of all people. Don’t you think that’s a little bit irresponsible?”

“Well we aren’t hurting anyone. Can’t you just let this go?” Mallory pouted.

“You aren’t hurting anyone except I’m pretty sure that once you two are discovered missing, a massive search party is likely going to occur and those who tried to hide your location would be in trouble. Meaning I might get in trouble.” Bryson pointed out.

“Please, we can keep it a secret. You won’t get caught.” Reynard promised.

“Why not show them around?” Lottie offered.

“What?” Bryson said narrowing his eyes at her.

“You found them, so I know you think you have to be responsible for them, which you don’t have to by the way.” Lottie said adding the last part very quickly, “But we still need to go hunting and they want to explore the wilderness. They can join us.”

“I’ve hunted before. Doing it in a new environment sounds fun.” Reynard offered.

“You have experience then?” Bryson asked raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve even hunted monsters. Brought an heirloom crossbow here with me.” Reynard said pulling out a suitcase from under the bed. Unlatching it he opened it up to reveal an ornamental-looking crossbow, laced with silver and finely carved dark wood.

Upon unveiling the weapon from the suitcase Bryson was hit by a wave magic as the item was revealed to him. Definitely magical, and the case can mask the presence of magic. It’s definitely special. Bryson thought, still he found their want to explore a snowy biome rather strange.

“Okay, just answer me this. Why up here? Couldn’t you two go to some ski resort or amusement park?”

“We’re royalty. We can do all that whenever we want. This is different you know?” Reynard said with a shrug. Both he and Mallory now looked at Bryson with hopeful eyes, sharing an experience of noble kids to noble kid.

“I can’t believe I understand where you two are coming from.” Bryson said with a sigh of disappointment.

“So that means?” Lottie asked leaning over to him.

“Yes, okay fine. As long as you two help. I’ll keep my mouth shut and help tour you around the place.” Bryson said nodding his head, “But when I go back, you two come with me and we lie about how I found you.”

“Deal.” Reynard said grabbing Bryson’s hand and shaking it.

“I look forward to having you guide us.” Mallory said happily.

“Whatever.” Bryson grunted, “Frost we’re leaving. We’ll begin our hike around these woods tomorrow morning.”

“That works for us.” Reynard said.

“Oh, right.” Bryson said pausing as he remembered something crucial.

“What?” Mallory asked.

“There’s this other brat, I mean noble brat. Named Snowfield, son of the Marquess here on Wrabuth. For some reason he’s here for similar reasons as I am. We need to make sure he doesn’t know who you two are.”

“We should be fine with using our normal names.” Mallory said, “No one here recognized us.”

“Snowfield knows that the king is visiting the place, but I can’t imagine he would come up with the conclusion you two are the prince and princess so I suppose that works.” Bryson mumbled in agreement.

“We can just be two wealthy travellers here to explore.” Reynard proposed.

“Eh, that works.” Bryson said as he left the room, “I’ll see you in the morning. Now which room… ah.” Bryson realized looking at the number labeled on the key, room 202, which was right next to the royal siblings’ room of room 201.

“Hey! We’re neighbors!” Lottie said looking at the room.

“Yeah, great.” Bryson said with a sigh as he opened the door. He had a bad feeling that tomorrow would be a busy day.