About To Get In Trouble

Liam waited for Leo to tell the princess that they had agreed to her request. He saw Leo walk to the carriage and knocked on the door. The door didn't open but Leo walked back to him.

"Did you tell the princess yet? I didn't see you nor the guards open the door."Liam asked as Leo walked toward him.

"The princess didn't reply to me...I guess she is sleeping..."Leo replied while looking at the carriage as he stood next to Liam.

"Then what should we-"

Liam was cut off by Leo.

"I did tell the guards to tell her when she woke up."

"Oh...Then what should we do now? You said we will leave by noon, right?"

"Yup!"

"We still have a couple of hours left before noon...so?What should we do?"

Leo placed his hand under his chin and thought for a while. Then, looked up at him again.

"I guess we can stroll around. Nearby that is, we must stay close to the carriage. You know...what if we went astray?"

"Yeah...I think that's good to waste some time...Wait...now that I think about it...Where is your bag?"

"Oh, my bag? I left it there, next to the gate."He said as he pointed to his bag, which was laying against the wall next to the steel gate."I didn't want to enter the royal carriage with my dirty bag. I don't want to get the carriage dirty. You know what would the princess and guards think of me if I take such an old, dirty bag in?

Liam quietly thought for a second before replying.

"Yeah...true...It will ruin your image...But sooner or later, we will still have to put our bags in!"

"I know! And we can use our free time now to clean it! I know where to find a river, I saw it on the map. It is just a few miles away from here."

"Let's go then..."

They set off to the nearby river. After they were out of sight, the princess pushed the door, lightly, revealing a small opening.

"What does he want?"She whispered through the small opening and the guards flinched, startled by a sudden sound from behind.

Both of them noticed the tiny opening in the door.

"Oh! You're awake, Your Highness. He asks me to pass a message to you. He said something about he agreed to your agreement."

"I see..."Her voice was calm and resilient but her mind was screaming, happily and celebrating his answer."Where are they going now? I saw them walking down the hill."

"I don't know, they didn't tell me about it. Should I follow them and tell them to come back?"

"No, but I do want you to stalk them. After seeing where they are, report back to me."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The guard who talked to the princess ran off while the other one continued to guard her. The princess shut the door and laid back down on her seat, her tears were dried and her makeup was ruined. But she didn't care much as her heart was flattered by the thought of her journey with him.

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After a while, Liam and Leo were finally at the bottom of the hill, where they first reached this place. Liam looked back up the castle and Leo turned around to look at him when he realized Liam wasn't by his side.

"Hey, aren't we going to the river?"He asked but Liam didn't reply while his back was still facing Leo so he continued." I did say it is nearby but we still need some time to go there.No time to lose, later we need to come back for our trip."

"I know and I heard you! But..."He said as he pointed up the hill."Do we really have to climb up the hill again after this?!

"Well...we can't do anything about it...I guess we have to..."

He heard Liam, grumbling as he turned around and walked straight into the forest, where they first met their mystical friends. Liam followed. behind but then he suddenly noticed something.

"Isn't this the forest we came from? And we met some...what do you call that again? Centaurs?"

"Yup! We're here again! We didn't see a river last time since we went off-road."

"So you're saying if we didn't get lost in the first place we would see a river?"

"Yup!"

Leo walked into the forest with Liam until they found a small path.

"Is this the path you were saying?"

"Yes...yeah."He said as he pulled out his map and stared at it then took it up to let Liam see."You saw the small yellow path on the map leading to the river."

"Yeah..."

"That's the river we're heading to!"

"That close?!"

"Yup!"

As they walked deeper and closer to the river they began to feel something was off as if someone or something were following them. Both of them would sometimes turn around to see what it was but they kept seeing nothing and just the same plain old view of the forest. After reaching a split road, Leo stopped and Liam crashed into him. He didn't see Leo stop as he was looking behind them.

"Ouch, sorry...I didn't see you."He said, apologetically while rubbing his nose since it hurts when he crashed into his backpack.

"Hmm?" Leo turned around to look at Liam."Ah...Did I hurt you? Sorry for the sudden stop without warning."

"I should be the one who's apologizing since I'm the one who crashed into you. And where are we heading? There are two paths."

"Well..."Leo said as he saw something far away from Liam, moving behind a tree. It seemed shiny, he quickly grabbed Liam by the wrist and yelled."This way!"

He pulled him into neither of the road and into a place with trees and bushes. He ran further in and hid behind a tree. He leaned on the tree while hugging Liam close in his muscular arms. Liam blushed and quickly pushed him away as he was about to say something. Leo shut his mouth with his hand while the other still hugging him, tight.

What the hell is he doing?! Liam thought his whole face was burning up with embarrassment. Why is he suddenly hugging me like this and why did he go off path?!

Suddenly someone caught his attention, a person with a shiny helmet and armor was walking around finding something or someone. He seemed like a guard from the palace but they couldn't take the risk, just in case, if he was from somewhere.

"Where did they go? They suddenly ran off without a reason. What am I going to tell the princess? They went off by themselves? No...that's going to disappoint her and she doesn't like disappointments. I might as well just bet on my luck and continue to find them."

The guard ran away from his place and headed deeper into the place they ran off. Leo let go of Liam and Liam quickly backed away. He knocked on something and fell backward.

"Ouch!"He yelled as he rubbed his back.

"Are you alright?!"Leo yelled as he kneeled down next to him."Are you hurt anywhere?!"Did you sprain your ankle?!"

"No...I guess not. But my butt hurts!"

"Well...obviously, it hurts... since you land on your butt."He then stretched out his hand."Can you stand?"

"Yeah, do you think I am so fragile?!"

He grabbed onto Leo's hand and Leo pulled him up on his feet again, swiftly.

"Thanks!"

"No prob!"

Suddenly, rustling sounds of feet stepping on dried leaves could be heard coming from Liam's back. Liam turned around and Leo leaned his head to the side, both of them met eyes with the guard from before. They immediately pointed their weapons at the guard.

"What do you want from us?!"Liam and Leo yelled at the same time, aggressively.

The guard quickly raised both his hands into the air, surrendering and said.

"Don't attack! The princess sent me to check in on you two!"

"Huh?!Why?!We don't need supervise! We can take care of ourselves."Liam yelled as if asking the guard to go away.

"I can't do that! The princess asked me to stalk you two because she wants to know where you went."He said as he looked at Leo.

"We're not kids! We don't have to tell you where we go-"

A hand was placed on his shoulder, stopping him from continuing his speech.

"It's just where we are going, it's not a big deal," Leo said as he patted Liam's shoulder. Then switched his sight to the guard."We're heading to the river just a few steps away from here. As long as you move along the split path, the right path, you will find a river there. That's where we're at."

"Why?"

"Do you really have to ask for everything?!"Liam interfered.

"If I don't, I will disappoint the princess..."

"Come on, don't be so grumpy today!"Leo pushed Liam back, gently a few steps away from the guard since he seemed like he was about to attack. Then, answered the question."We just wanted to clean our bags. You know we can't dirty the royal carriage."

"I see...Thank you for your cooperation! I will report it to the princess now! Please do have fun!"

He left, sprinting.

"Why do we have to tell them everything?"Liam murmured, angrily.

Leo sighed.

"We can't do anything about it...What the royal wants, they will get it no matter what."

"And we people have to obey."Liam continued, pissed.

"Don't be so mad. It's already over. Let's continue our path, shall we?"

"Ya!" Liam said, back to his usual self.

Both of them walked back to the split path and went to the right path. After following for some time, they saw the river, it was hiding behind some trees and bushes.

Leo took out his sword and slashed the branches that were blocking their path. He pushed some of the bushes away and squeezed through to the other side.

Sunlight shone down around the river's surroundings, which made a breathtaking scenery. Liam squeezed through the little opening and saw the view, his eyes instantly fell wide open. He gazed around the place, his mouth was also opened wide.

"It's a beautiful view, right?"Leo asked him, snapping Liam out of his stunned state.

Liam looked to his side, his face facing Leo.

"Ya...It's really a wonderful sight...Like a sight which all people should see once in their lifetime..."

He looked back to the view as he said with a mesmerized expression.

Leo looked at him and gave a friendly smile before clapping his hands together while walking to the river bank.

"Chop chop, admiring time's over. Let's start what we really come here for."

Leo squatted down at the side of the river and opened his bag, he faced it downward while all the items poured out of his bag.

"Ah...right!"

Liam suddenly remembered what they were here for after seeing what Leo was doing, he hastily ran to the river bank and squatted down next to him. He did what Leo did, taking out all his items but didn't follow Leo's tactic. He took them all out by hand.

They soaked them in the river without any soap since they didn't have any on them. They flushed it, clean with only fresh water, then waited for them to dry. They hung it on the branches of a tree and sat on a log, which they found near the river.

As they were waiting, Leo looked up at the sky and saw the sun shining brighter and hotter than before, which made him sweat even more. Suddenly, he remembered his agreement with the princess.

"Oh, no..."Leo said and Liam looked at him, confused.

"What?"He asked as he followed him and looked up to the sky.

"It's noon..."

"So what?

"Have you forgotten what we are going to do at this time?!"

"..." Liam silently hesitated for a while before his face turned pale. Then, he yelled as he stood up to grab his dripping wet bag and his items."What are we waiting for?! Let's go! Let's go! We're late! Very late! How long is it for us from here to there?!"

"I think about 30 minutes!"Leo yelled as he grabbed a handful of his things, his drench bag hanging loosely on his back with one strap on his shoulder.

He sprinted behind Liam but soon caught up to him and heard him yell.

"We're going to get our head chop off for being so late! Why did you agree?!"

"You asked me to!"Leo was now running in front of him as both of them dashed back along the path, where they came from."And I don't think the princess will execute us. Even if she decides to, I'll try to convince her to let us off the hook like I did earlier in the castle!"

"I hope you can!"

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Back at the royal carriage...

Where is he? The princess thought as she looked out the carriage window. Didn't I tell him, we were going at noon?

"Princess, "She heard someone knock on the door.

"What is it?"She spoke, her eyes never left the window.

"Should we leave now, Your Highness? We took the carriage down the hill as you said. What is delaying our trip?"

Her eyes left the window and to the guard at the door.

"The two adventurers...I'm waiting for them."She spoke as the guards stared at her with shock."That was my deal with him."

"Your Highness, this is outrageous!"One of the guards said."We can't let strangers take you to a place, we've never been to. What if they betrayed you midway?!"

"Do not speak of him that way!"The princess yelled with rage as she glared at him."You all are strangers as well! Ordered by my father to protect me, I don't even know you all! What is the difference between you and them?!"

"Your Highness-"

"Stop your yapping! I had enough of this nonsense!"She said as she turned her head back to the window.

Then, she saw two silhouettes emerge from the forest.