Arlo

After a delicious breakfast filled with fresh fruit and warm bread that still has my mouth watering, Robin announced that he wanted to show us all the horse stables. The dining room was so precious and I hated to leave it. It was almost built like a greenhouse. Above your head, the ceiling was replaced with grand windows that revealed the bright sky that lit up the whole room. Maybe I'm only sad to leave it now because I won't have the same peaceful feeling when I come back for dinner with Mr. Kedron, Robin's Father, later.

Another thing I'm grateful for is the lack of walking I've been doing. Believe it or not, I finally got used to how massive the school was. So, because I'm well conditioned from walking across the large school, smaller distances feel like nothing. It seems like my friends are that way too because we got from the dining room to our bedrooms within several minutes.

Quickly, I changed into clothes I could afford to ride in and lightly combed over my hair again. It's been a while since I've ridden a horse. Back at home, I had my own named Charmer. As a hobby, and because every other boy did it, I participated in some competitive horse racing. But of course, I'll stay humble today and try not to show off my racing skills.

The sound of a hand colliding with my door startles me out of thought. The rest are ready to go. They must be excited since they got dressed so fast. Before I can even open my bedroom door, Robin swings it open, his hand covering his eyes. The gesture of him covering his eyes is nice, but I would have rathered him not burst through like that.

"Are you ready, Arlo? You're taking your sweet time like the princess you are," Robin calls into the room. I don't say a word as I creep closer to the door. Eden's head pops over Robin's shoulder. Her mouth opens once she sees me and I hold a finger to my mouth, asking her to stay silent.

"Arlo, you snail, are you still changing?" Right as Robin finished his sentence, I finished tying his shoelaces together. I've never done it before so I'm surprised I could do it so fast. I stand up and pat Robin on the shoulder. His hand slides from his eyes and he smiles innocently.

"Oh, here you are. Well, let's head down now-" Robin's voice cuts off when he falls to the ground rapidly. His arms catch his fall, but he still takes a moment to glare at me from the ground. Eden's hand released from Fox's mouth where she was trying to stop her from laughing and ruining the prank before I could perform it. The angel on my shoulder bites at my ear, so I extend a hand to help Robin up after he untied and retied his laces correctly. Robin takes it and quickly contorts my arm behind my back. His other arm goes around my neck in a chock-hold.

"Alright, enough of the games," Fox complains while waiting at the end of the hall. "I haven't ridden a horse in ages," She calls out when turning away to find her way to the stables herself. Eden follows after her. Robin releases his grip and runs after Fox. Robin tells me we'll continue this later and that Fox will probably get lost without him.

-

I pull the sleeve of my thick brown sweater down to my hands. My coat was too nice to bring out here, so I'll just have to deal with being cold. It doesn't help that today is a lot colder than usual. Every time I let out a breath, a fog cloud floats in front of me. The walk to the stables wasn't far, so we weren't in the cold for long.

The scenery of Robin's estate is even more beautiful than what I saw from my bedroom window. Grass may not be common in the window time, but large patches of moss and pine trees fill in for the lack of greenery. My boots crunch over the long pebble path that has been constructed through this forest. I see that it continues to go off to my left where a bridge is, but we stop right in front of a wooden building.

A man with the longest beard I have ever seen sits in front of the two large doors that open to the horse stables. He looks hard at work as he's sitting on a haybail and bent over to scrub different pieces of metal. The man didn't look up until Robin sat next to him on his haybail. Robin's arm extends over the clueless man, making him jump in surprise. The metal drops from his hands, but a bright expression replaces the shock immediately. Aggressively, the man pulls Robin into a bear hug.

"He must be close with all the workers around here," Eden quietly states at my side. Her fingers slighter and gaze over mine, without thinking, I take her hand. Her touch has become so natural to me. Because I feel like I'm in the middle of Robin's reunion, my head tilts to give my attention to Eden. Her hair is often in cute, complex hairstyles, but she wears a simple ponytail today. I love the way some pieces of her way hair curve upwards. Eden's sparkly green eyes flicker to mine once she feels my stare.

"Hm?" She smiles warmly at me. I don't stay anything, hoping my smile in return says enough.

My hand squeezes hers before I turn back to Robin. He and his friend are standing up now discussing the piece of metal the man was working on. It looks to be a key of some sort, like the one that hangs around Robin's neck. Maybe that's where Robin got his key from?

"Ho! Though, never mind that, it's been a long time hasn't it, Robin?" The man chides. A troubled face replaced his joyful expression, "Why haven't you been visiting us lately? Don't tell me you've lost your love for horses like your love for literature." Robin lets out a loud, nervous chuckle and lifts his hands to stop the man from talking. Finally, Robin turns to us where we've been quickly listening to their conversation.

"Bernard, these are my friends that I met at school," Robin emphasizes the last word, making sure Bernard heard it right. The man, Bernard, lifts a meaty hand to wave at us. Before Robin can continue his sentence, Bernard's eyes open wide in shock. Quickly, his head bows low in an ungraceful manner.

Bernard apologizes rapidly, "Your Highness and Highnesses, please excuse me for my ignorant manner. I hadn't recognized you at first. I'm an old rag who can't see, you have to believe me." Cautiously, I approach the distressed man and lay a kind hand on his shoulder. He lifts his bowed head to my face.

"All is well, friend," I assure Bernard. His chapped lips lift to a smile before backing up to sit on his haybale again. He seems happy, yet confused with our presence. Bernard turns to Robin and asks him if the reason why he hasn't visited home is because he has some friends. Robin glances nervously at us before going back to explaining.

"Bernard, listen. I haven't visited you because I didn't want to, I now attend a royal school and that is how I have met these wonderful people." Robin makes serious hand gestures while explaining this crazy concept to confused Bernard. His thick, fuzzy eyebrows continue to respond in confusion.

Bernard warily glances in our direction once again before turning to Robin. His voice drops to a quiet tone, but we can still hear him from where we stand. "Do they- Do they know that you're not?" Bernard doesn't finish the last word as he asks Robin.

"Yes, they know I'm not royal," He responds, but he appreciates the concern. My weight shifts from side to side. It's cold and as nice as the reunion is, I would like to go into the stables, where it is possibly warmer. Robin must sense how cold I am or maybe he's cold himself because he ends the conversation.

"You're right, Bernard, it has been a long time since I've ridden a horse. Do you mind if my friends and I take them out for a ride?" Robin suggests and Bernard happily agrees. He and Robin pull open the large doors, revealing multiple stalls with horses inside. I was right about the temperature, it became so much warmer once I stepped inside. Too bad I like horses more than warmth.

Robin and Bernard gather some riding gear off a wall before setting up some horses. There are four horses in this barn which is the perfect number for all of us. Bernard quickly saddles up a light brown beauty with a braided mane. I watch as he leads the horse back out of the stables to tie him to a pole in the front. He comes back and informs me I'll be riding that horse.

As the rest of my friends wait for their horses, I stroll outside to introduce myself to my horse. Before I approach it, I look at its empty stall to see its name written over the door. In bold letters, the name states the horse's name is Annie. Slowly, I walk towards the front of Annie. When I was younger, I learned the hard way to never walk behind a horse. My stomach hurts just thinking about the bruise I got from that experience.

This horse might be used to different strangers riding it, but just in case she's uncomfortable with me, I stand near her as I watch my friends inside the barn. A careful nose pokes my shoulder right as I turn my attention away from the horse. My head whips back to her to see she's almost giving me a horse laugh. I guess she isn't the shy type.

Eden walks out with her pure white horse. Gently, she tugs the animal to follow her. A wide smile spreads across her face once she ties her horse to a separate pole and waits for the two others. Eden tells me her horse's name is Basket. Before I could question the odd name for the horse, Robin and Fox come out of the stables.

A large, midnight-colored horse comes rushing out of the building. His face stops abruptly in front of mine. Its hot breath covers my face before Robin, who is seated on top of the horse, turns his head away from mine. It lets out a sound of disagreement but obeys and strays away from where I stand. Fox, who is also seated on a dark brown horse asks me if I'm alright. I shoot her a thumbs up before getting up on Annie, my horse.

Robin steers his muscular monster up next to me. "This is Carrots," Robin introduces his horse. A quick chuckle escapes my lips because the names of these horses are ridiculous. Back at home, we had horses named John and Sam. You know, basic names. Robin brushes a strand of hair away from his eyes before continuing, "He's called that because he's obsessed with eating food the color orange. I guess he assumed your hair was edible." I would have screamed if that horse took a bite out of my hair.

"And this is Socks!" Fox exclaims as she and her horse spin in circles. Socks, the horse, tries to bite its tail while Fox's hands are in her lap, not doing anything to stop it. This might be wrong for me to assume, but I don't think Fox had many riding lessons.

"Fox on Socks? Ha! That's perfect," Eden notes while she plays with her horse's long mane.

"Alright, you all ready to go?" Robin calls from the top of his energized horse. I take it Carrots has missed him. With a careful hand, Robin steers himself towards an open path. Without direction, my horse follows them in a hurry.

-

It's rare when I get to see pine trees. My neck starts to ache because I'm so drawn to the beautiful trees. Once, when I was younger, I was able to travel to this northern area with my older brothers. Maybe, I like the nostalgic feeling these trees give me. My second oldest brother would always take the pine leaves off the ground to poke at my oldest brother.

"What are you thinking about?" Eden's soft voice draws closer as her horse glides next to mine. We've traded our spots along the path a few times, but I'm always happy when Eden is next to me. Her face is genuine as we hold eye contact for a few seconds before she turns back to concentrate on the road.

My eyes wander back up to the trees as joy fills me with being able to share a memory with the girl I like. "I traveled here with my brothers once. Not here, but in the area. It was nice," I tell her. Eden's ponytail bobs as she nods along to my stories about my visit. She asks me all types of questions about if I like to travel and my family life.

"Wait, so how many brothers do you have? Do you have any sisters?" Eden's brows scrunch in confusion as she tries to piece my large family together. It's hard to explain you have multiple brothers, especially if you're the youngest like I am. This is a piece of information I hadn't been able to share with the rest of my friends because having a larger family in the royal world can be considered odd, but I know Eden would never judge me.

"So," I take a breath before jumping into my explanation, "I have four older brothers and no sisters. I have no clue how my parents managed to get five boys in a row," I laugh nervously to myself.

"What are their names?" Eden asks next and I die a little inside. Telling her how many siblings I have was hard enough but this is the question I try to avoid the most. My head shakes from side to side as a cheeky expression replaces my worried one. I tell Eden that information is a secret.

"A secret?" She laughs as our horses slow down in speed so I can hear her over the footsteps and wind. "Well, you have to tell me now or else I'll start guessing. Even better, I'll get Fox and Robin to guess them." She returns the sly behavior. I cringe at the thought of having Robin and Fox guessing my sibling's names. They would never stop asking until they got them all right. I glance up quickly to see if they can hear our conversation, but they emerge in their talk while their horses stroll in front of the line.

"You got me there," I admit while I take my hands off the horse for a moment to point my hands upward. "Their names are Asher, Adrian, Archer, and Atlas." My eyes squeeze close as I tell her their names. I peek slightly to see her hand hovered over her mouth as she tries not to giggle.

My head drops in defeat. "You are allowed to laugh," I tell her. "I'm aware that our matching names are lame." Eden lets out a small laugh but doesn't judge.

"No, no. I think it's cute, actually I also think you got the best 'A' name out of them all."

Before I could respond, the horses in front of us started to run at near full speed. Eden and I exchange a glance before increasing the speed of our horses to follow the two others. It was out of nowhere and now Robin and Fox are out of sight. Did they see something? Why did they start running and not warn us?

We run side by side not wanting to lose each other as we track the other horses down. My thighs squeeze against the saddle in desperation. Annie, my horse must have sensed the urgency because we were going at top speeds. My legs float in the air for a brief moment when we jump over a fallen log on the road. The worried thoughts in my mind are replaced with a complete focus on trying to catch up with the others.

After we round an up-coming corner, my friends come back into view. Their horses are slowed once again, giving us a chance to get close to them. Their breath was heavy and from a distance, it looked like they were crying of some sort, but I heard their erupting laughs soon enough. I watch as Robin throws his hands up in the air and Fox doubles over in laughter. She pulls her horse closer to his to reach out a leg to kick his. Their playful attitudes continue as my adrenalin goes down.

Eden is back at my side. She's brushing the loose hair out of her face while trying to catch her breath. "Those two had scared me for a moment," She exclaims once her voice comes back. I couldn't have agreed more. Luckily Robin and Fox are fine and probably just did that stunt to be dumb.

Our ride quiets down to a peaceful pace once again. At one point Eden asked me another question but this time it was about our other two friends.

"Do you think they like each other?" She asked me in a low voice, cautious that Robin and Fox wouldn't hear our private conversation. I see where Eden is coming from. Over the last year, we have watched their friendship grow even if it did start because I wanted to meet Eden. I remember how I was nervous because Robin didn't exactly get along with Fox at first, but now it's like watching two idiots in love.

"I think it's a great possibility," I answer Eden and she smiles warmly at my answer.

─────── ☼ ───────

Ayy! Chapter 34! 3000 words. Can you tell I had fun writing this?