Flora and I scrambled up the path to the top of the cliffs both of us still very much shaken up. We were silent during our climb back to the horses. My thoughts were focused on where the king would stash a dragon egg, I've lived in that castle for a long time and had never seen it. I was lost in my thoughts when we reached the horses, they were sleeping peacefully under the tree.

"I'm not going back." Flora stated as she gazed down at her horse.

"I need your help with this, please." I placed my hand on her shoulder, I noticed tears welling in her eyes as she looked up at me.

"He's gonna marry me off like some piece of property! You don't understand!"

"Flora, I understand better than most. I don't intend to leave you there."

"What?"

"Look, let's be honest, I haven't the slightest idea where your father hid this egg. I'm gonna need your help. So we need to come up with a plan so we can both escape with the egg."

She seemed to ponder this idea, would she actually help me or would she betray me to save her own skin? I honestly didn't know if I could trust her.

"...Ok well what's the plan then?"

"We have a while before we're back at the castle, let's go find camp for the evening and we can discuss our plans over dinner."

"What is for dinner?"

"Well if we're lucky I can catch some fish..."

"I have money, let's go to town and buy some food and lodging."

I sigh deeply, I guess a stay at a lodge wouldn't be horrible.

"Ok, lets go into town then. You made quite an impression on them last time so let's avoid that shall we?"

"Fine." She said flatly, I couldn't handle any more problems from the village.

We saddled up the horses and rode slowly into town, both of us had a lot on our minds. If we're lucky the king won't catch us and kill us both. That dragon also seemed to be hiding something, as of right now I didn't know who to trust.

Entering the town I saw the man from the store and gave him my meanest look, he made eye contact with me and ducked his head down before running inside a building. I prayed we wouldn't have to deal with him again, my life would be infinitely easier had he not tricked Flora.

"Ok but Flora?"

"Yes?"

"Please use your good princess manners, these people already don't like us."

"Yeah, yeah I know."

She huffed as she walked into the lodge, at least tonight we'd have comfy beds and good food while we made our plan. We were in for a rough time when we made our way to the castle.