Chapter 46- Forest

(SAGE P.O.V)

After hearing what the queen said, I became extremely upset. I stood up from my seat and walked around the circle table to stand in front of them.

"Calm down, and listen", Queen Malaysia said.

I folded my arms and continued to look at her.

"There's no way in hell I'm marrying someone I don't even know", I said.

Queen Malaysia raised her hand and gestured for me to take a seat.

"The king made a deal with me, think of your father. We can rescind his exile and he can return to the royal family", she said.

"The king huh", I said while scoffing, "The same king that sent bounty hunters after my sister and I. There's no way I'm doing anything for that man." I said, while folding my arms.

The Queen became silent for a moment, it seemed she was thinking about something very deeply.

"Please think about it", she said with a sad expression, "if you want to help your father, this could be the only way" she added.

At first I felt sorry for her, but there's no way in hell I'm sacrificing myself for these people.

" For your request I'll respectfully decline", I said.

I turned around without looking back and walked out of the inside garden the way the guard had brought me. I saw Asiana and Lacy coming behind me.

"Lady Sage, why are you walking so fast?"Asiana asked.

"Let's get the hell out of here", I said.

I followed behind Asiana and she led us back to the entrance of the palace. Sylvester was standing there talking to one of the guards. Before I could call out to him, Asiana gestured for me to ignore him. I didn't understand why but I still nodded my head to her.

After we exited the palace, I saw a couple guards coming our way. All of a sudden Sylvester came behind and whispered in my ear and walked away.

"Don't go to the car, follow Asiana", he whispered.

Asiana gestured her hand toward the forest on the outskirts of the palace walls. I grabbed Lacy by her hand and followed behind Asiana.

I glanced back and saw knights coming to the front of the palace.

"We need to hurry", Asiana said.

"What the hell is going on?", I asked.

"I don't think they have any intentions on letting you leave the palace.", she said, "We need to get to the forest", she added.

(ROSEMARY P.O.V)

We finally made it to the eastern part of the kingdom after the seven hour trip. When we arrived in the town of Lonsdale, mother and I stopped at a local inn. The town looked normal and seemed to be filled with lower class people. I figured this was what the whole commoners term meant in the noble society.

"Let's check in the inn for now, we still need a place to come to while gathering information", mother said.

We walked in the inn and went towards the desk where the clerk was standing. She smiled as we approached and mother handed her some money.

"Just one room with two beds", mother said.

"We only have the second floor available, is that okay?", the clerk asked.

"Yes that's fine", mother replied.

"Room 206, upstairs to the right", the clerk said.

After the clerk handed mother the key we walked up the stairs to the second floor and headed to the room. Once we entered, mother sat her luggage onto the bed.

"What exactly did you bring with you mom?", I asked, curiously.

She opened the bag and showed me a tiny earpiece.

"You know the kingdom doesn't like the free nation, the outside world technology. Your grandfather snuck a few of his handy devices into the kingdom and made some while he was still in the villa", mother explained.

She walked over and handed it to me.

"As long as we leave our hair down we'll be able to communicate with each other", she said.

"Why is the kingdom so old fashioned?", I asked.

Mother walked back to her bed and took out some more stuff.

"I think it's because the king is afraid of being overpowered, but that is also why the kingdom is failing. The world is changing and he is still trying to hold on to the old customs", mother said.

"Is that what the rebellion is about?", I asked, trying to understand.

"The rebellion is because the citizens are fed up with the nobility. Your father and Prince Morgan were the only ones trying to change the kingdom", she replied.

"Do you think father still wants the throne after being disowned by his own family?", I asked.

Mother looked at me and smiled a little.

"As long as your father isn't on a battlefield he's nothing more than a gentle giant. He loves his country and cares for the people here. I don't think the kingdom needs another tyrant, it needs someone who is level-headed and not someone who make rash decisions and is discriminative " She stated.

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I thought about what she said, and honestly everything still feels foreign to me. Since I didn't grow up here I don't have any type of attachments to the kingdom, I thought to myself.

I walked over to mother's bed and looked inside the bag mother kept pulling different items out of, I didn't even know she packed all of this.

"What are these little bottles?", I asked, after picking one of them up.

Mother flipped the bag over and over 10 different bottles fell onto the bed. She picked one and opened it taking a round looking pill that was green.

"This pill is for counteracting poison", she said, and grabbed my hand. "Take it", she said, handing me a bottle of water out of the bag.

I took the pill only because she took it as well.

"So, what's the other bottles for?"I asked, pointing at them one by one.

"Most of them are poisons we'll use while staying at the Counts estate", she said, "we'll mainly use this one here", she said picking up a blue bottle.

"And what does it do?", I asked as I reached for the bottle.

"It's just for sleeping, we'll put the powder into the tea and cake them to sleep so we can snoop around", she said.

After she explained the different bottles, we decided to take a short rest before we began our infiltration. I laid down and stared at the ceiling for a little while. I looked over at the clock that was on the wall and glanced outside of the window and saw the sun was beginning to set.

I started thinking to myself and decided to ask my mother something I always wondered about.

"Mom, I have a question?", I said, looking in her direction.

She looked over at me, "Seems like a serious question is about to be asked", mother said.

"How come you never escaped the dungeon?", I asked, seriously.

Mother sighed for a second and continued to look at me.

"That son of a bitch Prince Marshall chained me to a wall and constantly harassing me over the years. During that time I didn't know where your father was, and I was planning for the moment to kill Prince Marshall, but that bastard would never come inside of the cell", she explained, while balling up her fist.

"Are you still waiting for the moment to kill him?", I asked.

Mother smirked, "Everyday", she said.

I swear if she wasn't my mother I'd stay far away from this crazy woman, I thought to myself as I looked at her.

I turned back around and stared at the ceiling again.

"I wondered if your sister made it back to the villa yet", mother said.

"Hopefully she made it back safely", I said, while sighing.

(SAGE P.O.V)

It's been a few hours since we entered the forest. I could hear the guards shouting to each other as they searched the different areas of the forest. I climbed up one of the trees while Asiana kept Lacy close to her so she could protect her. I honestly regret bringing her because she is nothing but a hindrance at the moment.

I saw one of the guards approaching and stood still and controlled my breathing like mother taught me.

"Where the hell did she go, the king is going to be pissed if we don't bring her back", I heard the guard complaining as he walked under the tree I was in.

I watched as he walked past the tree and continued on walking. Ì waited until some more guards passed until I moved to the next tree.

Another guard was behind them and started to look up at the trees. Before he could look at the tree I was in, another knight approached.

"She couldn't have gotten far, the forest is vast and dangerous at night but I'm sure she couldn't have traveled that far yet", I heard the knight say.

"We can't return without her or that's our heads", the guard said.

"Let's keep searching", the knight said.

They started walking forward and I waited for a couple minutes before moving to the next tree. I looked up and saw that the sun was setting. I had no idea where Asiana and Lacy were at this point. I couldn't call out for them because I didn't want the guards to find me.

When I noticed there weren't any more guards or knights around. I decided to move further into the forest by moving from tree to tree. When I saw a clearance in the area, I dropped down from the tree onto the ground. I needed to find a place that had water before it got dark.

While wandering in the forest I stumbled upon a small river and flopped down to the ground. I placed both of my hands down into the water and pulled them up slightly. I leaned down and drank the water that was still in my hand.

It was starting to become night and I still haven't found Asiana or Lacy. I turned around quickly after hearing footsteps approaching. I looked around and hid behind one of the bushes.

"Shit where the hell is Sage?", I heard Asiana say.

"I'm over here", I said, coming from behind the bush.

Asiana turned my direction and ran over and hugged me. When she hugged me I felt the wetness of her blouses.

"Where is Lacy?", I asked, noticing she wasn't around.

"She's dead, the knights attacked us", she said.

"Then your blouse is that blood, were you hit?"I asked as I grabbed onto her.

"No, it's Lacys blood," she said.

"We found them", I heard someone shout.

"Shit, run", Asiana said.

"Don't let them get away", I heard them yelling at the same time.

Asiana and I ran as fast as we could. The guards continued to run behind us.

"Sage keep running, I'll distract them", Asiana said.

"No, we run together", I yelled at her.

"Sage, Go!", she shouted, "I'll be fine", she said.

"No way, we fight together", I said.

"Sage, listen you have to keep going, I'll find you once I make them lose our tracks", she said, "I won't take no for an answer", she added.

I gritted my teeth, "You better come back to me unharmed", I shouted.

I kept running forward while Asiana turned in another direction. I looked up and saw the moon and decided to follow the direction it was in. I lost track of time as I kept running forward jumping over logs and different tree branches. I didn't know how far I ran or the distance between here and the palace. After continually running in between a few breaks, I could tell I've been traveling through the forest for a couple of hours. At some point I could hear water flowing from a distance. I stopped running for a second to listen in the direction it was coming from.

"West", I said out loud.

I turned and ran in the direction of the sound. I was running out of breath and a part of me thought I was losing my mind because of how tired I was.

As I got closer to the sound of water, I started to smell smoke from a fire. I stepped slowly towards the area the smell was coming from, and saw a little pit burning in the middle of an open area next to the river. It looked like someone had put it out not too long ago, as it still had smoke coming from the pit.. I looked around to scan the area, when I looked to my left there was a small wooden cabin, the lights inside were off and I didn't see anyone around.

Shit, I'm so hungry, I mumbled.

I stepped back into the forest and walked over towards the river. I leaned down and washed my face and took a sip from my palm. After drinking enough water, I sat down behind one of the trees for a short break.

While dozing off I heard footsteps approaching, and quickly opened my eyes. I got up in a hurry and slightly twisted my left wrist. While holding my wrist I ran towards the wooden house in case of finding some type of knife or something to protect myself with.

Shit, maybe I should run again instead, I thought to myself.

"Do you need some help?"I heard a man's voice.

I didn't hear him approaching, it was like he concealed himself.

"I won't hurt you, I'm just asking if you need some help?", he said.

I was about to run off until he shouted again.

"Wait, you don't have to run, this is a safe zone", he said.

I turned around and he began to walk closer. Since the moon was shining bright I could see his frame, how tall and muscular he was.

"It's okay you can come closer, I won't harm you", he said as he held his hands up in a surrendering stance.

I hesitated for a moment and started to take tiny steps towards him.

"Wow you're smaller than I thought", he said. "What's a young lady like you doing out in the forest alone?", he asked, curiously.

I didn't answer, and started to walk forward. I saw the light from the moon shining down on him. When I got closer my mouth dropped and my eyes began to fill with tears after seeing his face.

"Oh my God", I mumbled, tears started to fall down my face. "Mr...", I mumbled again.

He looked at me confused while still holding his hands up.

"Mr. Nathan", I said, looking up at him.

His eyes widened, and he took a few steps forward.

"Sage, is that you?", he asked.