Chapter 2

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John, or Jonathan Carmien, 2nd Prince of the Carmien kingdom, felt sleepy as he was lulled by the smooth rocking motion of the carriage. It was not a "Royal" carriage as technically they were trying to remain anonymous.... ,John figured the 400 strong guard accompanying them was a bit of a give away, but it was still blessed with magic to make the ride more comfortable. The sun shone bright, and warm air flowed through the open windows as he watched the scenery flow past.

His little sister had asked for him to accompany her in the carriage because "It'll be boring just sitting here with only Mom and Hana." Although he knew the real reason was fear, even at 7 years old, suddenly leaving the Castle before first light, with a large escort, practically no servants, traveling at a fast pace, along roads seldom used, during a time of war, just to visit their Aunt Cynthia in the nearby Kingdom of Tamarin?... was a stretch. Being the bright young child she was, she recognized the tense atmosphere among the adults and knew something was wrong.

Being a young man of 22 years, he would normally ride along with the guard, riding in the carriage was not his idea of excitement, but he couldn't resist her adorable pout, and to be honest he’d had his fill of riding the past few weeks.

As the second prince, he had been groomed since childhood to lead the kingdoms armies, and spent much of his time training and leading small actions . But he would not fully step into that roll until the first prince was crowned king. As considerable as his talent might be... he was not considered to have the experience necessary to join the war against the dark invaders in any meaningful way.

So he was “escorting” his sister and mother to safety, although he suspected his father the King, gave him this task just to get him out of Carmien. The defense of the kingdom against the invaders was… not going well.

So when the king realized that his kingdom was being quickly overwhelmed, with the enemy approaching the capital, he had sent as many of his family as he could to nearby friendly nations. Lucy (Lucindra), his mother Malinda (Molly) Carmien and himself went West to Tamarin, with two other siblings sent North to Rolinburg . The king himself, and the crown prince, would have to stay until the bitter end.

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Lucy didn’t really know how she was supposed to feel, she flopped between excited, bored, happy, worried and scared. When she had been woken up that morning, the sun hadn’t even come up yet, it had been somehow exciting and scary at the same time as she had been hustled through the castle and out into the night, she had tried asking questions but she had just been told they were going to visit Aunt Cynthia and to hush. The carriage rocketed through the dark, and with nothing to look at but darkness out the window, and the grownups all been grim, she had soon fallen asleep again as she was still tired.

She was jostled awake some time after, the road apparently being rough enough to overcome the magical cushioning of the carriage, she had of course immediately gone back to asking questions, but just got told the same things.

She was happy that John was riding with them, he was her favorite brother, he would often take her for rides or play games with her, but there wasn’t much to do inside a carriage and soon found herself just watching the scenery pass, feeling bored. She knew they were running away, she caught enough snippets of conversations to know that home wasn’t safe anymore. It was exciting to think that she was like a princess in the stories, being chased by evil men. But she was glad she wasn’t alone like in those stories, it would have been a lot scarier if she didn’t have everybody with her. She wished her father was there, that way if the bad men caught up he could tell them to go away, everybody listened to a king…

By late afternoon Lucy had firmly decided that she was definitely feeling bored! When they had entered the green valley with the green grass and wild flowers she had begged to stop and have a picnic, thinking maybe she could convince John to play tag with her, mainly she just wanted out of the stuffy carriage and move around!

But she had firmly been told, no, and even John had been terse with her when she started begging. Apparently they wouldn’t be allowed to stop until late tonight! John had even had to leave the carriage so they could pee in a bucket. (that was very hard in a moving carriage)

So she watched the valley pass and was looking at the trees to see if she could see any animals, maybe a deer or a beer would come out… and so she was actually the first to see men exiting the treeline.

“Who’s that?” she asked at about the time a yell from one of the scouts sounded out. And suddenly everything was chaos, with people shouting, John jumped out of the carriage, her mother pulled her from the window and wooden shutters slapped shut over them, and then there was a crack of a whip and the carriage lurched forward, rumbling over the rocky road. “Whats going on!?” she asked in a panicky voice. Her mother hugged her and said “It’s ok darling, it’s going to be alright” but her voice was distracted and she looked pale as she tried to see out of a crack in the shutter. Hana was praying under her breath. “OK, I’m scared now.” Lucy felt tears starting. “It’s going to be ok Lucy you’ll see.” Her mother tried to reassure her hugging her tighter.