The sound of someone crying wakes me up during the night. At first I think I am hearing things, that it is just my imagination playing tricks on my sleepy self but then when I roll over I find out that I'm wrong. Lying in the bed next to mine is Jasper who is sobbing into his pillow. I don't think he realises that I'm awake as he doesn't acknowledge me in anyway. Closing my eyes, I roll back over to my other side to give Jasper the privacy he needs. I know it's not much but it is the best I can give him at this moment in time.

To an extent, I can understand how he is feeling. There's not a day that goes by where I don't think about my mother. Ordinarily they are not always good thoughts, more like 'how will she be ruining the country today?' but there is still a part of me that misses her dearly. I also miss seeing Louis every day; I really hope his wife is getting the treatment that she needs and is recovering well. I also hope that Crystal is not getting punished to harshly for what she did, everything was my entire fault.

At least when I do decide to go home, I'll have all of these people to come home to. Jasper, on the other hand doesn't have anyone. His parents disowned him as soon as he came out and Anita is dead. And all of this is down to my stupid family. Now we do not know where Max is. He could be lying dead on a road while we are tucked nice and warm under a duvet. By the end of this, Jasper could be completely alone. He certainly has plenty of reasons to sit there and cry, I will not be stopping him.

For the rest of the night, I manage to sleep quite well, all things considering. I woke up to the sun streaming in through the window because of the lack of curtains. It must only be about seven in the morning but already I feel ready to start the day. The only problem is that curfew does not lift for another hour yet. Instead I go and sit by the window and watch the world go by.

There isn't much to see outside other than the sunrise. It shines over the buildings in the town, creating shadows along the streets. If I look closely enough I can see some movements in the other buildings, lights are being turned on or off, and people are opening curtains to let the new day into their houses and shops. I find it quite peaceful to watch.

The streets are deserted for the time being, I can't even see any guards from where I am but I know this room is along the back side of the building. There will definitely be some guards around the front of the building that I am certain of. Every now and then I do see a cat run down the street, probably chasing mice. How nice it must be to be that cat, or a bird sitting in a tree. They are truly free, able to roam around the streets when the rest of us cannot and they do not even have a single care in the world. How I envy them. I left the palace, a place I felt captured and trapped, to explore the real world and yet somehow I am still strapped but this time in a room that is so much worse than the one I have in the palace.

Jasper is still asleep in his bed; the sun apparently does not bother him. Or maybe it is the lack of sleep he had last night. Either way, I leave him to sleep because he looks like he needs it. Picking up some of my clothes off of the floor, I walk into the bathroom to get changed for the day. All I'm wearing is a simple top and some jeans because they are easier to move around in. Once I have finished I walk back out into the room to find Jasper awake.

"How are you feeling today?" I ask him although I can tell by his face that he does not seem that well.

"Sick to my stomach. What if something has happened to him Ria?" Jasper then asks me, his voice sounding like a child asking their mother a question.

I feel motherly as I walk over to his bed and sit down to try and reassure him that everything will be alright even though I don't know that for sure. "Max is not stupid. He will have found somewhere to hide if he was out after curfew. Hopefully he will be making his way back here now." I say, not believing a word of it myself.

Jasper grumbles something at me and then heads into the bathroom himself. Taking my seat back near the window, I pray that Max is out there somewhere safe. I honestly do not know how Jasper would cope if he lost him too. Would he even want to stay with me and carry on helping me or would that be the end of this journey for him if that happens. If he does decide to leave then I guess that would be the end for me too, there's no way that I would be to carry on with this without some help.

Evidently, it appears that he does not want to leave because as soon as he has finished in the bathroom, the first words that he says to me are "can we leave yet?" Somehow, in the last twenty-four hours, Jasper is now looking at me to be the one in charge. Throughout this journey I have depended on him and Max, mainly because they know their way around the country a lot better than I do. However, it now seems that my life in the palace has geared me up to be the leader now. No longer his friend Ria but the acting princess of Strongway.

"Jasper we should wait a few hours. What if Max has just had to spend the night in a forest? If he has he will be making his way back to us as we are speaking. Besides, out of the three of us, he is the safest. If it was me and you we would have been sent straight to the palace but no one is out searching for Max. He will be fine.

I'm going to go down and get us some breakfast; we still need to eat after all. You should wait up here just in case he does come back. I will not be too long, okay?" hesitantly I leave Jasper alone in the hotel room, hoping that he will be fine.

La Belle has a breakfast bar near the reception desk which is where I plan to get today's food. I've been hiding out long enough to know that I should get plenty of food. One reason is in case Max does turn up, the second, we do not know when we will get the chance to eat food like this again.

Before me is a rather basic spread of food. There is bread to make toast with along with some rashes of bacon, sausages and blueberry muffins. I grab about half a loaf of bread without even toasting it, a handful of sausages and bacon and then finally a couple of muffins. I would have liked to have gotten more but I just don't have the room to carry it all. I am struggling at the moment.

I get back to my hotel room to find Jasper still moping around. "Here, hopefully some food will make you feel better. Do not eat too much at once though because we need to save the rest for later.

Also the latest we have to check out at is twelve so I say we leave at eleven. That gives us another couple of hours to wait for Max." I do not bother asking him if that is alright with him because that is what is happening. The princess in me is coming out.

"You're reminding me of when we first met and you 'ordered' me to tell you who I was. You have mellowed out since then Ria."

"Yes, well you could have been a psychopath."

"Who's to say I'm not? There's still time." I smile back at Jasper, he is acting more like the man that I know him to be.

We carry on with conversations like this, reminiscing about when we first met which seems like years ago but in reality it was only a matter of weeks since. Soon enough, the time draws closer and we have to leave. When I tell Jasper this, I see his face change from being quite happy to disappointed.

"We'll find him." I say to him.

Just before we are about to leave the room, there is a knock on the door. Both Jasper and I freeze in our spot, not really knowing what to do.

"We were just leaving, I thought check out wasn't for another hour yet." I say loud enough so the person behind the door can hear.

"Just open the door." A hushed male voice answers back. Relief floods all over my body and I can't imagine how Jasper is feeling as we open the door to see Max standing there.

"Where have you been?" Jasper asks, beating me to the question.

"I lost track of the time... wait were you guys about to leave without me?" Max then asks us in return.

Rolling my eyes at him I explain that we had waited and that we would have gone out to find him. That seems to settle Max for a while.

"So as I was saying, I had lost track of the time but that was because I was talking to someone. I had been to quite a few shops to get us food along with some more wigs. I got you a short red one Alexandria and then here is a dark haired one for you Jaz. I had to tell one of the guards that I was getting those wigs for my 'daughter' to play with. I think they bought it.

Speaking of guards, there are even more of them on the street now. They just keep increasing daily. I didn't know that there were so many of them." Neither did I if I am perfectly honest. "Anyway, that is beside the point. I found a way for us to make it to the Eastern Zone. There is a train line which travels all the way there. It will take a while though as it goes all the way through The Cold Land. I think we should get that." Max tells us and I agree with him completely. This is what we have needed.

"If we are going to get a train then we should on travel for short journeys, otherwise we run the risk of being caught." I dampen the mood by saying.

"That is true but at least now we have a way of getting to where we want to go and by the looks of things, we have plenty of food between the three of us. I say we go today, find the local train station and buy the next tickets that we can." Max replies back and I agree with him.

After that we decide to finally check out. Jasper and I leave Max to do it and we wait outside for him. It doesn't take him long for him to check out so before we know we are looking for the train station. Max had gotten some directions from the lady behind the desk but they have not been much help as we are still lost.

It takes us over an hour to reach the small train station which is packed with people. The electronic boards show so many different trains and times that we don't know which one we should get. In the end we decide on one that travels to The Cold Land but has stops in The Wolf Land, another zone within our country.

Luckily we have enough money to pay for the ticket and it also allows us to keep travelling to The Cold Land even if we do get off at The Wolf Land. Money is getting tighter so it looks like that after all the food we have now has been eaten that we will be living off of berries again. I'm sure that Jasper will be delighted with that.

Our train arrives in the middle of the afternoon and it seems to be quite a quiet train. The three of us manage to get a compartment all to ourselves. There are guards that are walking down the corridors of the train but as long as we don't look at them then we should be fine. I know that most of them are not the brightest people on the planet.

It takes us around two hours to reach our station in The Wolf Land and again, we have no bother leaving the train. No one pays attention to us as they are all busy getting to or leaving work. Who cares about three young misfits when they have their own troubles in the world?

Leaving the station, we find that our surroundings are completely different to what we have seen before. There are mountains in every direction with small villages and towns built upon them. The peaks are covered in snow and with the blue sky behind it all; it looks like it has come straight out of a fairy-tale.

"It is beautiful." I say under my breath.

"Now we just have to find somewhere to stay for the night." Max says next to me.

Hopefully tonight will be less stressful than last night. That is all we can ask for.

A/N: welcome to another #RoyalWednesday. I hope you all are well.

What do you think is going to happen next?
Did you like this chapter?

I can tell you that I am so close to actually finishing writing this book, I only have two chapters left to write. Don't worry though, you still have more than half of the book to read to read.

I am also thinking of doing another cover contest but for my other book, Fingerprints. Let me know if you would be interested in doing that.

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