@Kada _____________________________________________________________________________
"Ouch!"
Flordia winced as she shifted, her whole body screaming in protest. She carefully pushed herself up, blinking the sleep from her eyes as she tried to get her bearings.
She was lying in an alleyway, the sunlight just peeking over the top of one of the buildings and onto her. She had crawled under this pile of garbage the night before to sleep, and to hide from anyone who may come by. She knew her parents and their guards were looking for her, and while it was unlikely that they'd find her in this tiny town so soon after she'd left, she wasn't stupid. It was wise to hide from everyone if you had to sleep on the street.
She heaved a sigh and slowly got to her feet, stretching as she did to not hurt her sore body even more. The garbage had been softer than the cobblestone street would have been, but the princess was used to feather beds and cushy pillows in clean rooms, not dirty alleyways.
Her clothes, while plain, were of fine make, but they were now as dirty as her skin and tangle of blonde hair, and she looked more like a street urchin than a runaway princess. No one would take notice of her, unless to possibly give her a dirty look.
The young elf headed out of the alleyway and onto the main street. It was early, and the docks were buzzing with activity. Fishermen sold their catch, collected before the sun had even risen, and sailors bustled about; loading and unloading cargo, buying supplies, and some staggering across the piers, still drunk from the previous night's revelry.
Amidst it all was Flordia. And she was alone. Completely and utterly alone.
It didn't feel as foreign as Flordia would have expected it to.
There had always been people around her in the castle -servants, ladies-in-waiting, guards, noblemen and women, tutors-, but they'd all only been there for their jobs. Had only been there to serve her, or teach her, or greet her kindly with the sole intention of her mentioning their kindness to her parents, the Kind and Queen, so they may gain favor. There had been select few that had ever been there for
her.
At least now, here in this marketplace, no one was
pretending to be her friend. They ignored her. They treated her not like a princess, but like a normal person. A commoner.
That was perhaps the happiest thought she'd had in a while.
She longed to stay here all day, but an angry fishmonger started yelling at her, telling her she was blocking his stall and scaring away all his customers.
"They won't want to buy from me if they think they're going to get their purses stolen by some dirty little street urchin?!"
Flordia bolted down the street to escape the man's angry words, and the fish heads he had started throwing at her. When she came to a walk she realized how lightheaded she was. She hadn't eaten in over a day, and the princess was used to three square meals.
Her hands immediately went to the pockets of her trousers, and a sigh of relief escaped her upon feeling their contents. The left pocket was filled with coins -the money she had stashed away in the hopes that someday she would leave the castle-, and the other with her jewelry. The jewelry was far more valuable than the coins. She didn't know how valuable, but she knew she couldn't afford to lose them. Luckily, all the pieces were there. Two earrings, a necklace, and two rings.
She could use them to get out of here. Her eyes fell upon one of the huge ships that sat in the harbor. She could use them to
sail out of here. Her parents would never expect her to do that. She could escape. Finally.
