Angelica crouched low to the ground, pushing the hilt of her sword down to keep it from brushing against the ground. She was being followed, again. She caught sight of her two pursuers through the tangle of undergrowth behind which she crouched. One moved his hands, making a series of basic patterns that allowed them to communicate silently.

“Did you see her?“

“No, but she can’t be far.“

Then the first man flicked up his middle finger. Angelica smiled and, still crouched low, moved downhill, toward the lake. When she had gotten a good distance from the two men, she picked up a nut from the forest floor and tossed it into a patch of undergrowth. The men turned immediately and moved toward it. Step, step, step- “YARGHHH!”

Both men disappeared from view with undignified screams. Angelica laughed and stood up, moving slowly forward until she stood on the edge of the mud pit. Both men sat, dazed, in mud that covered their laps in their prone positions. That was until they spied Angelica, and both jumped to their feet. “You bitch, how dare you-”

“Howard, you can’t speak to the princess like that.” The second man tried to cut him off.

“Like hell I can’t,” Howard spat. “That little bitch doesn’t deserve to be called a princess.”

“Miss Angelica, we were just following our orders from your father to protect you.”

“I know Rilen, but I’ve told him time and time again that I don’t need protection. Not that I have anything against you two, I’d still prefer to not having people breathing down my neck every second of the day.”

Howard just muttered something under his breath, looking around the pit for a way out. The walls were slick, and every attempt he made to gather a handhold was quickly thwarted. There were dozens of such pits on the hills surrounding the lake, and not even Angelica knew where they all were. Most people just stuck to the marked paths to make it to the lake safely.

“I’ll send someone out after you once I get back to the castle.” Angelica smiled.

Rilen just sighed, but Howard turned, his face livid. “Don’t you dare leave us down here you damn bitch! Come back here! How dare you…”

Angelica was already making her way back up the hill toward the castle, leaving the two guards and their complaints behind. A little mud would not kill them.

The castle itself sat at the top of the large hill, on land that had been manually flattened with dirt that had been hauled up by hand. Down the hill in front of it, a town had grown up on a stretch of flat (or as flat as it could get) land. Further down were numerous villages and farms spread out on the more vast stretches of land in the foothills.

Angelica made her way to the back door of the castle, pulling it open to move into the kitchen. No one gave her more than a glance as she grabbed an apple from a barrel, and headed through the steam and delicious smells. The chef was outdoing himself again, she thought as she saw a half-cooked turkey being basted in its own juices before being slipped back into the oven.

The young woman mounted the stairs, and came out into the halls of the castle. She took a bite of the apple and headed toward her room.

“You ducked the guards again,” a voice said behind her.

Angelica turned, continuing to walk backward when she saw a tall guard with rich brown hair. He stepped after her.

“Well at least you don’t sound surprised anymore.” Angelica took another bite of the apple. She chewed and swallowed. “Oh right, and you might want to send someone to get Rilen out of that mud pit down toward the lake, and Howard too if you must.”

Jasper shook his head slightly. “You certainly earn your nickname, ‘Renegade Princess’.”

“Thank you.” She turned to begin walking forward again, falling in next to the level headed guard. “How did the uprising turn out? You didn’t have to hurt anyone did you?”

“No, luckily the Choir was able to calm everyone down, but it’s not looking good. People have been getting more and more restless.”

“Yeah, well Father can’t exactly stay on the throne forever. I mean it’s been over twenty years.” Angelica grinned. “I’m getting tired of all this princess stuff.”

“You’ve been a princess all your life.”

“Well that doesn’t mean I can’t get tired of it.”

They were approaching Angelica’s room now, but she espied a figure next to her door. Jasper must have seen her too, because he fell back to the other side of the hall.

“Father’s looking for you,” Angelica’s sister said as she approached.

“Eh, no surprise.”

“You were supposed to come home hours ago with the guards. Did you forget that Elder Gareth and his son are coming tonight?”

“Actually I did. No wonder the chef was outdoing himself. Thanks for reminding me, Nell.”

Penelope smiled. “Because now you can get out of here before they arrive?”

“You know me so well.”

Penelope was almost a polar opposite of Angelica. She was small and petite, even though she was several years older, and she was wearing a pleasantly exquisite blue dress as opposed to Angelica’s mud stained tunic and leggings.

“Angelica, why do you insist on testing father so?”

“Because no one else is going to. The Choir hasn’t been showing up as much recently.” Angelica turned and hurried back the way she had come.

“Miss Angelica, your father would not want you to go out again,” Jasper said quickly.

The princess turned, moving her fingers swiftly over silent words she knew Jasper would understand. “My sister wanted to talk to you in private. You shouldn’t miss this opportunity.“

She saw the resulting blush across his cheeks as he glanced at Penelope. Angelica laughed before taking off down the hall during the guard’s moment of distraction.