54 A Familiar Face

The next morning I was forcefully pulled from my bed. "The sun has just come up! Leave me be!" I say as I hold onto the bed for dear life. Chyou pulls me with surprising strength as she says "His Highness wants to take you into town! You have to get up and get dressed."

I hold onto the bed with a death grip as I say "Let him go by himself! I'm not a morning person!! I literally went to sleep three hours agoooo!" Chyou pulls again and this time my hold slips. We both fall backwards and I end up sitting on top of her.

"My lady... please!" She says grabbing me as I try to crawl away. "I swear to all that is holy... if you don't let me go back to bed you will learn what the walking dead is!!!" I say grabbing the carpet. She huffs and pulls me as hard as she can.

Suddenly the door is pushed open, scaring both of us. I look over to see Bai Lei looking at both of us with a frown. I still cling to the carpet as I say "Are you even human!? How can you ask me to get up this early!?" Bai Lei arches his dark brows at me as he casually says "I never claimed to be human. Do you need me to dress you or can you handle it?"

I instantly release the carpet causing Chyou and I both to fall backwards. I struggle to stand up and say "Just get out! I'll get dressed okay? Happy!?" Bai Lei smirks and leaves as I'm left huffing in anger. "M.. my lady, I will help you..." I slowly turn my head to glare at Chyou making her freeze midsentence.

"I... will dress myself," I say through my teeth as I walk away to clean up. Chyou stands there twisting her dress in her hands. My Lady really doesn't like being woken up... She sighs and follows after her.

After a few minutes, I stalk out to find Bai Lei waiting for me under a peach tree. I grumble the whole way over and stop before him as I say "I'm ready. Let's get this over with." Bai Lei gives me a smirk before walking away.

I follow him out of the courtyard and out of the front gates. A servant waits at the front with a large black horse. Bai Lei walks over and climbs on the horse with little to no effort. I freeze in my tracks and debate how far I'll get if I run away now.

I went to summer camp once... we had the opportunity to learn how to ride horses... I thought I could give it a try... I thought wrong. I was placed on the meanest horse they had!! It kept trying to bite the horse's ass in front of it and on the fifth time, the other horse kicked my horse!

He was an ass... he totally deserved it but then my horse rears up and takes off running. The people in charge of the horses run after me and kept yelling at me to pull back on the reins. I was!!!! I was nearly kissing the horse's ass with tears in my eyes and snot running down my face but the damn thing just kept running!

So I was stuck, crying tears of utter fear as this horse takes me away to god knows where. After a thirty-minute chase, two men were able to bring the horse to a stop but the damage had already been done. To an eleven-year-old... it was traumatizing!

I rode back on another horse but once I was finally free, I never went near another horse! I stare at the big black horse with fear crawling up my throat. Nope! I turn around and start walking back in the courtyard when Bai Lei suddenly says "Stop! Come here."

I slowly turn around and stay frozen in one spot. Bai Lei frowns at me and says "Come here, Nova." I begin shaking my head as I take another step back. Bai Lei's frown grows but within the blink of an eye, he jumps down and quickly grabs me.

He starts walking back to the horse so I dig my heels in but it does little against his strength. He turns back to me with confusion before I say "I'm scared of horses!" Bai Lei freezes with a look of shock. He looks into my green eyes and must see the fear as he suddenly becomes more gentle.

"This is my horse, he's well trained and he won't hurt you okay? Plus, I'll be right beside you." Bai Lei says in a calm voice. Any other time I would have been taken back by his sudden gentleness but all I could see was the damn horse!

He begins pulling me again and only stops when we're next to the horse. I look up at the large horse as fear takes over. Bai Lei reaches down to help me up but I quickly lean down and bite his hand. He jerks his hand back in shock as I take off running "Animals can smell fear!!" I say as I run for my life.

Bai Lei steps on the end of my dress nearly causing me to fall over face first. I look back to him in horror as he slowly lifts his hand to show me my handy work. I could clearly see the teeth marks but there wasn't any blood! I look back to the horse and begin pulling my dress with desperation but he quickly scoops me up and throws me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.