The night drifts by slowly for Reine, her mind and body not used to sleeping in such conditions. The humid air is relentlessly unforgiving, making her toss and turn through the night as she yearns for every comfort in her home that she grew with.

The fact that she couldn't get comfortable enough to fall into a deep sleep is a bittersweet feeling. Though she remained uncomfortable throughout the night, she didn't get to the point where she dreamed about anything. It was darkness for those moments where she drifted on the seam between the real world and her dream world - the world she is terrified of reliving.

The sun's harsh rays shine on her, causing her to groan in annoyance as she wishes for the sun to stop existing so brightly in a world that is significantly darker in her eyes. She only frowns for a moment, however, as suddenly, a shadow envelops over her face and she is no longer seeing the brightness through her closed eyelids.

She slowly lets her eyes flutter open, and her gaze immediately widens in alarm when she sees Jimin's face far too close to hers as he frowns slightly in concentration while his eyes roam every inch of her features.

Without thinking, Reine pushes him away, who lets out a small chuckle as she sits, groaning in annoyance again as she feels her curly hair falling out of the bun she had it in. Her hand moves to the tangles and feels a few leaves caught in the tresses, and her hand falls away in defeat as she sighs heavily. She turns her angry gaze to Jimin, who is leaning back against his palms as he watches her with amusement dancing in his dark eyes.

"What were you doing?" she asks in an accusatory tone.

"Don't flatter yourself, Your Highness," Jimin shrugs. "I was checking that cut on your forehead."
Reine stares at him for a moment, deciding to believe him before sighing heavily.

"I need to bathe," she says, her hands moving to her hair again and cringing at the feeling of the tangles. "I feel silly for saying this, but I forgot to bring supplies to keep myself groomed and clean - clothes, a brush..."

"I can wash your clothes for you while you bathe in the river," he offers nonchalantly. "I can move downstream so I don't see anything."

Her mouth pops open slightly, and she unconsciously crosses her arms over her chest. "I can bathe myself and wash my clothes at the same time. You can go explore or something until I am done."

"As you wish," he says, tilting his head towards her, but she can sense the sarcasm in not only his tone, but also his movements.

"I don't trust you to stay away and not look," Reine says in a low voice, keeping her harsh gaze on her companion.

"When have I ever come off as anything less than a gentleman?" Jimin asks, looking offended.

She scoffs. "When you kissed me without my permission."

He rolls his eyes. "I apologized for that, and it wasn't anything romantic; I was thankful and happy. I got caught in the moment of finally being freed."

She, letting her hands fall to her lap. "Can you give me an hour to bathe and clean my clothes please?"

Jimin stands, brushing the dried leaves off of his pants as he bows, and Reine notices his cloak is back around his shoulders. "Of course."

"Thank you for letting me use your cloak to stop the bleeding yesterday," she, pointing at the fabric.

He stands straight, smiling widely as his eyes twinkle. "I'll be back in an hour. I swear to you I won't look, and when I come back, I'll be sure to be noisy about it so you can yell at me to go back if you're still... indecent."

"Thank you, Jimin," she says, standing as well as she tips her head towards him. "I mean it."

He smiles at her once more before turning and jogging away through the trees, and she stays still as she listens to his fading footfalls.

She, trying to run her hands through her hair and humorlessly laughing when her fingers get stuck.

"I'm useless," she whispers as she removes the clips that are now doing nothing more than dangling in her hair and she sets them on a large rock before slowly peeling out of her shoes and clothes. She winces in pain as she remembers the previous day's adventure and she lightly gasps as she takes in the bruising across her ribs.

Once bare, she takes her clothes and sets them next to the river's bank before slowly stepping into the river, letting out a slow breath as the cool water envelops her skin. She decides to take her time, trusting that Jimin won't come back for an hour. If she's not finished, she can yell that she needs more time.

After stepping into the water, she grabs her clothing, taking one piece at a time and letting the water engulf it, seeing the dirt, blood and leaves falling away from the fabric of her outfit as she scrubs everything between her hands. She does her best to get them as clean as she can in her current situation.

After she is satisfied with the cleanliness of her clothes, she steps out of the river, shivering slightly as she jogs over to the rock Jimin used the previous day to dry her cloak. She places her outfit on the rock, stretching it out so it can dry beneath the sun's heat.

After she gets the clothes situated on the rock, she moves back to the water, stepping back in so she can finally get herself clean, hoping that she can get all of the tangles out of her hair so it doesn't turn into a rat's nest on her head.

She slowly lets her body get used to the temperature of the water again, not fighting the small smile that forms on her lips as she leans her head back, letting her hair dip into the water. She slowly works the tangles and leaves out of it, feeling badly that she is turning the water around her a light shade of red again with the dried blood coming off of her.

After cleaning her hair, she runs her hands over her body to try to get it into some semblance of cleanliness. She makes sure to be careful with the numerous small scrapes across the entirety of her body due to running through so many branches.

Her fingertips glide over the bruise on her ribs, knowing there must be more bruising on her back but not able to fully see it. Her eyes flutter closed as she tries to distract herself from the soreness of her body, letting herself believe that the cool water is taking the pain away as it's taking the dried blood off of her skin.

She cups her hands into the water, letting her hands fill with the cool liquid before splashing it onto her face, making sure not to irritate the cut above her eyebrow.

She's not sure what her physical appearance looks like right now, and she can't help but feel like a different person at this moment.

She has always been treated as a precious doll. From the moment she was born, she was put into pretty dresses, had makeup caked onto her face to create the illusion of perfection and had her hair treated as if it were a fine, rare silk as it was always well taken care of.

Now, in the middle of this humid forest, she has no makeup, pretty outfits or hair accessories to bring her to the image of perfection she has always seen in the mirror when she glanced at herself.

She is not the perfect Princess of the kingdom of Cendres anymore.

She is their Queen, but she is far from perfect at this moment.

She doesn't feel like a Queen, nor does she feel like she is anywhere close to perfection.

She is a lonely girl, littered with bruises and cuts on her body and a broken heart barely beating inside her chest.

Reine lets her tears fall freely down her cheeks, knowing they are mixing with the water surrounding her and appreciating the solace the water is offering her at this moment.

It is giving her the opportunity to cry, comforting her by hiding her pain from everyone.

Realizing she needs to hurry if she wants to be fully dressed when Jimin comes back to her, she sighs before stepping out, wringing her hair out gently as she goes to the tree she was sleeping under and grabs her cloak. It's generally clean since Jimin washed it yesterday in the river, so she shakes the leaves from it and wraps it around her like a robe, pulling the hood over her hair to give her a sense of warmth as she makes sure she is covered.

She moves to her clothes on the rock, feeling them to check if they're dry. They're still damp, but Reine knows that Jimin will be back soon and she would prefer to be dressed in a damp outfit than only wearing her cloak when he shows back up.

She stands for a moment, listening to make sure she can't hear Jimin's returning footsteps. After hearing nothing but silence, she slides her cloak off and hurriedly gets dressed, her form shivering as she sets her cloak on the rock to help it dry since she essentially used it to dry herself off.

She moves to sit on a rock as she pulls her boots back on, thankful she had such practical clothes in her closet at home so she could be better prepared for the terrains of the outer regions.

Reine runs her fingers through her lengthy hair, helping it dry as she tries to keep it from tangling back. Once it has dried a bit, she pulls it into a quick braid down her back, securing it tightly by wrapping a string around it and tying it together.

Her stomach growls, so she moves to her bag and grabs the rest of her fruit and vegetables, remembering that she decided to finish her food this morning since it won't stay fresh for much longer. As she finishes an apple, she hears Jimin's heavy footfalls returning to their makeshift camp.

He whistles and clears his throat as he moves closer. "I'm coming back now. Is it safe?"

"Yes," she says back in a loud voice and she hears him moving faster, his pace more of a jog as he comes into view from behind her.

She sends him a small, appreciative smile before turning back to her breakfast, and he moves to build a fire.

"I'll boil some of the water to purify it for you and we can go," Jimin explains as he gets a fire going almost immediately. "You need to conserve your water in case we can't find any out there in the desert."

She nods, ignoring the slight twinge of worry creeping in her mind. She knows that he wouldn't let anything bad happen to her because he needs her to free his brothers, but she also can't help but worry about the potential lack of water. It won't take her long to succumb to dehydration, especially when she will be constantly sweating from the heat of the desert.

"Reine," Jimin says, pulling her from her worries as he places some water in a makeshift bowl over the fire. "I'll keep you safe. Relax."

"Don't call me that," she scolds as she finishes her meal. "How long until we depart?"

"Less than an hour," he shrugs. "I cleaned up way downstream so all we need to wait for is this water. We should've brought more than one canteen so you could have extra water."

Jimin sighs, running his hand through his hair.

"Jimin, don't worry about me," she says, standing and wiping her mouth with her hand. "I'm not interested in dying. I have justice to serve and a kingdom to run."

"Death doesn't take your interests into consideration," he says, smiling a bit. "Trust me on that."

She sighs. "I will be okay."

He smiles at her, his teeth nearly sparkling in the early morning light. "As long as you don't try to let another dragon nearly eat you."

Reine purses her lips before wordlessly turning away from Jimin and sitting back on a rock. She ignores his laughter as she mindlessly plays with her still damp braid, her fingertips running through the ends of her hair.

"Your hair looks nice like that," he says, pointing at her as he moves the water away from the fire and places it in the shade to cool off for a few minutes.

"Thank you," Reine says, lost in her thoughts. "I can't do the elegant styles a Queen should have in her hair, but I can get by with simplistic ones."

"You don't need to look like a Queen out here," he reminds her. "You're a girl looking to get revenge for her parents' death. Don't worry about being that perfect person you've been brainwashed to be."

Reine strangely finds comfort in his words, so she smiles at him as she stands. "I appreciate that, Jimin. Thank you."

He places a hand over his chest. "So much gratitude from you today, Your Highness. I can hardly take it."

Reine laughs, rolling her eyes as she helps him get the water into the canteen. "I will always give credit where credit is due."

"Noted," he says, smiling at her brightly as he places the canteen and Reine's cloak into the bag before pulling his own cloak off and placing it in there as well. He places the bag onto his back and turns to her, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Are you ready?" he asks, gesturing her forward.

"Of course I am," she replies in a strong tone of voice as the two move forward. "Lead the way to Chaleuse."

Jimin sighs as the two walk through the forest, Reine being extra careful about running into branches so she doesn't accidentally re-open the cut on her forehead.

"Why are you sighing?" she asks as she speeds slightly to fall in step with him.

"My brother you're going to be freeing in Chaleuse," he shakes his head, "is one of those people everyone feels drawn to because he's charming."

"Okay," she, not understanding where he is going with this.

"To be up front, I feel like you'll like him better than me," he frowns as she sighs and rolls her eyes.

"You're jealous of this brother," Reine says, raising an eyebrow and Jimin laughs.

"Don't try to coddle me," he warns. "I hate that. I feel like you and I are becoming friends and once you meet the others, you may connect with them more and... I don't know, I would miss the sparring you and I have."

"This is not about forming friendships, Jimin," she says, keeping her eyes forward. "I appreciate that you see me as a friend, but my intention isn't to create friendships with the four of you. I am on a mission to avenge my parents and having a fun time doing it is the least of my concerns."

Jimin stops, standing in front of Reine to stop her from continuing forward. "I'm being insensitive again."

"You are," she says, nodding slightly. "But I understand where you're coming from. You not only miss your brothers, but you also miss having friendships and connections with others. You were locked away alone for a long time, and because I'm the first person you encountered after being freed, and also because I'm the one who freed you, you feel this connection to me. You don't like the thought of losing that connection because deep down, you're afraid to be alone again."

Jimin's lips turn upwards into a small smile before he is grinning his usual bright smile, his eyes squinting as he turns to walk again. "That assumption alone proves we are forming a friendship, Reine."

"Don't call me that," she says, though she can feel her resolve crumbling as Jimin laughs, his melodic tone floating through the humid air surrounding them like a thick blanket.

"What will you do if I ignore your protests and call you that anyway?" he asks, tilting his head slightly in amusement.

Reine blinks, taken aback by the question.

He hums, nodding his head as he presses forward through the terrain. "Exactly. There is nothing you can do to stop me. You need me as much as I need you."

She, realizing he has cornered her.

He clicks his tongue. "Gotcha."

"You did," she admits, crossing her arms. "You may call me by my first name, but only because you saved my life."

"So the others won't get to call you by your name?" he beams, and she rolls her eyes.

"As you pointed out, I need them as much as you all need me, so there is realistically nothing I can do except demand respect from them," Reine says. "You kept ignoring my demands so I've officially given up."

"I am persistent," Jimin says, shrugging as he kicks a few stray leaves in the grass.

"That you are," she says, looking towards the blue sky.

"Are you going to miss it being you and me?" he asks, lightly hitting his shoulder against hers.

She frowns as she glances over at him. "Again with the unnecessary touching. Unless you're saving my life, or I am saving yours, you are not to touch me. Understand?"

The look on her face is serious, but as soon as Jimin meets her gaze, he laughs out loud, his hand resting on his exposed abdomen as tears form in his eyes.

"You tried, didn't you?" he asks, running a hand through his unruly blonde hair. "You did your best to be intimidating, but look at me. I wear a metal mask over my face when I'm fighting and I'm carrying a bow and arrows. Your words do nothing to intimidate me, I'm sorry to say."

Reine purses her lips, but can't help the small smile that spreads across her lips as the two move towards the outer edges of Verre, where it meets with the unforgiving deserts of Chaleuse.