Zora was trapped in a blizzard. Snow flurries whirled around her, obscuring her vision. Her teeth clacked together, and she wrapped her arms around herself to keep in the warmth. Her lips, fingers, and toes were all frozen.

     Then a fire appeared. She dropped to her knees, not caring if the snow soaked her trousers. But being by the fire wasn't enough. Her limbs trembling from cold, Zora threw herself into the flames.

     The flames were warm, and they didn't burn like she'd expected them to. She snuggled in closer to the burning logs, relishing the heat they gave off.

     The fire let out a low laugh.

     Zora's eyes flew open. She was encompassed in a warm cocoon. A cocoon that was breathing.

     With a shriek, she shoved herself away. "Wh-what the hell are you doing?" she gaped. Jurauk smirked from his position on the ground.

     "You should be thanking me. How did you think sleeping in a snowbank would be good for your health?"

     "You didn't need to hug- to do that!" Zora was flustered, wringing her hands. "You also tried to eat me!"

     Jurauk scowled, sitting upright in the sleeping bag. "I thought we made a promise." He jerked his chin at her arm. Zora had forgotten about the magical bond they now shared. Experimentally, she tried swiping away the black marks with melted snow, but they stubbornly remained.

     "You Nefari sure have dramatic flairs."

     "I supposed that's one of the amazing things about me."

      "Ugh. That wasn't meant to be a compliment."

     They kept off the main road, walking for nearly another two days. Zora's legs and feet were so sore, and she relished it when night fell and sleep came. As a princess, she'd never needed to walk so much. Along the way, she'd needed to stop nearly every mile to massage calves and to rewrap the popped blisters beneath her feet.

     If Jurauk was annoyed by their pace, he didn't show it, and Zora was grateful. Finally, the woods got too dense to travel through, so they were forced to move to the dirt road. The pair didn't run into anybody other than the occasional merchant.

     Zora studied the tracks. It had just rained, but the only tracks on the road were theirs, meaning no one else had come through.

     "It's so empty," Zora mused through the crying of her feet. "We aren't the largest country, but we aren't small either. I wonder where everyone is."

     "Next town over, we can ask around," Jurauk suggested. He adjusted the strap of his bag. "While we're at it, we'd better buy you an eyepatch."

     Zora self-consciously touched her scars, before letting her hand fall. "Yeah," she said. "Can't let the scary princess frighten the menfolk. At least having one eye is more than enough to stop people from wanting to buy me." Speaking this, she ripped a long line of cloth from the hem of her pants to fashion a false bandage.

     "I won't let that happen to you. It'd be a waste anyway; I'm sure you've never done that sort of thing before."

     Zora resisted the urge to smack him. "Oh, here we are!"

     The tiny town came into view as they crested the top of a hill. There was a sign made of weathered wood hanging from a post. It creaked as it swayed in the wind.

     "It looks deserted," Jurauk commented. Zora shook her head.

     "Not quite. There's still people. C'mon, let's go speak with them." Their feet splashed in the mud as they trekked downhill. "Erm, excuse me," Zora called out to an old man who looked to be staggering beneath the weight of the flour sack on his back.

     The old man turned, and she inwardly winced at his blackened teeth.

     "Yes?" He directed the question at Jurauk, and Zora nearly throttled him right there, elderly or not.

     "Good day sir," Jurauk replied brightly. "We're just passing through, but we couldn't help noticing the lack of civilians. Pray tell, is there a reason for that?"

     The villager chuckled. "You must not be from Etharia, lad. Everyone has gone to attend King Gregori's coronation! Only the young, elderly, and the sick have remained. This is one of the biggest events of the century. The young prince holds so much promise! If you young ones hurry, you can catch it. There are only a few days left before it begins."

     Gregori held promise? What a load of – Zora's thoughts were cut short by an arm casually slinging over her shoulders. She looked around wildly for her assailant, only to discover Jurauk with his easygoing smile.

     "Then I suppose my brother and I should go pay our respects too. Right, Zeke?"

     Zeke? Brother?

     The old man looked at them strangely. "Brother, you say?"

     Jurauk smirked. "He likes looking like a girl. Can't imagine why. See?" To Zora's absolute horror, he thumped the back of his hand against her bound chest. "Flat as a board."

     Her chest.

     Zora's mind went blank. Her mouth fell open, and before she could start spitting out the vilest words she knew, Jurauk had already guided her away. The moment they were out of sight, she shoved him against the side of a building, her forearm digging into his jugular.

     "What was that for?" she snarled, still tomato red from the neck up. Jurauk's gaze was transfixed on her throat.

     "You've got so much blood there now," he mused, unaware that he was being held hostage by a girl a head shorter than him.

     "Stop that! If you wanted to convince him that I was a boy, you could've just stopped after saying I liked to cross-dress!"

     "I said that you enjoyed looking like a girl and made it more believable. It's not the same thing –"

     "Shut up!" She let her arm drop so she could hug herself. "I don't like you anymore."

     She stalked off, not thinking where she was going. The streetlamps and cobblestones all blurred together through her tears of humiliation. Zora wasn't sure how long she wandered the streets. Not that she cared.

     "Hey!" A callused brown hand snagged her by the arm. "Look, I'm sorry. I meant it as a joke. I didn't realize that you would take it seriously."

     Zora wiped at her eye. She could hear the sincerity in his voice, but she didn't feel ready to forgive him just yet. Fingers gently pulled at the end of her makeshift bandage, almost uncovering her scars.

     "What are you –" She felt a soft cotton fabric settle over the scar tissue and a band snap into place at the back of her head.

     "There. I promised to get you one, right?" Jurauk slid back into her field of vision, a tentative smile gracing his lips. Zora touched the eyepatch, tracing its edges.

     "Oh. Thank you. How did you get it?"

     He shrugged. "I traded a little something. Come on. Let's go crash Gregori's coronation, shall we?"

     Zora hurried to catch up with his swift pace. "If it's alright to ask, what did you trade?"

     "Nothing of importance. Just my earring." He tapped the small hole in his earlobe. "Not a big deal."

     Zora gaped at him. "B -but that was gold, wasn't it?"

     Jurauk laughed and reached to his waist, drawing out a lumpy satchel and jangled it. Coins clattered together. "A fair trade, I'd say."

     Zora smiled, sweeping her fingers across the eyepatch again.

     "I think so too."

hellooooo lovelies! hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'm trying to put as much character interaction development as I can while still keeping this story going.

Are we dragging? Maybe I only feel like it because I take so long to write, haha. Please let me know!

Discussion Questions: How should Zora behave/dress if she's going to go with the boy ruse? How do you think they're going to get to the coronation?