Hi! Welcome to my new book! I decided to try something new and each Chapter will have a song attributed to it. This chapter is Can't Tame Her by Zara Larson

I jump, my legs flailing in mid air, I feel the rush in my head as my boots hit the roof, and I run. I hear heavy shoes against the clay shingles of the roof below me.

  Ram has already crossed the rope. Now it's my turn. I grab the dagger that is attached to my pants with rope. I slide across the remaining shingles. Quickly hold on to the rope that was knotted on to a stray piece of metal on the roof, I saw at the rope. Darn it Ram, why did you use such a thick rope.

  Finally my dagger reaches the other end, the rope is cut.

  "So long suckers!" I yell at the guards who have almost reached me and then I slide off the roof.

  Wind in my long brown hair and horses neighing below me. I sail right over a ginormous busy street, filled with carriages, horses and bikes. Too wide to jump, so those soldiers will not follow us.

  I ungracefully land on the roof opposite of the soldiers, they look mad. Well serves them right, should have set up their own rope.

   I high-five Ram. "Good job." I tell him.

  "Thanks, you need to run faster though, you barely made it away from the soldiers." He comments.

  "And you should practice being quiet and actually pulling off a heist." I say. "We were almost caught because of you."

  Ram sighs and rolls his eyes. "Lilia, stop making it about me, I was just offering constructive criticism."

  "Yup, me too." I smile and sling my arm around his neck. "So what should we do with our new found riches."

  "You mean one emerald that we won't be able to sell and fifty gold coins?" Ram replies.

  "Yes, those riches." I say.

  "I don't know, food?" He suggests.

  I know he meant it lightheartedly but it just reminds us both of our hunger pangs.

  I smiled softly like I didn't notice his failed attempt of making me laugh and got to the edge of the roof and found our escape route that we used often. A small balcony that juts out of the wall and a small store metal roof of a store below it.

  Swinging my legs over the edge, I drop onto the balcony. My sturdy boots hit the stone.

I see the people looking up at the roof, crap that's exactly what I don't need.

I duck into the enclave where the door to the balcony is, hoping to be out of sight.

Ram drops down on the same balcony, I see people start to point up at us.

I stare daggers at him. He realizes the gravity of this situation and looks over at me.

  "Jump." I mouth.

  "Jump!" He mouths back worriedly.

  "Yes! To the balcony across from us. It has an open door." I mouth.

  "Oh." He says, then he jumps.

  I see the people ohhing and him flailing in the air, then he makes contact with the railing of that balcony and sticks the landing.

  Ram scrambled up and out of sight inside the house.

  Now. How do I get down?

  I see people start to disperse and I take my opportunity.

  Swinging my leg over the railing, I take a deep breath. I slide down the roof.

I hear a woman screaming, and then me falling to the concrete. I open my eyes, oops. I just knocked over a fruit seller.

"So sorry ma'am." I say, helping her up. I drop eight gold coins in her hand for the trouble.

Then I sprint. My boots hitting the cobblestone and my breath growing more frequent.

Ram could be rude but he was right, I really needed to practice my long distance stamina.

Slowly my surroundings get poorer and dirtier. Home Sweet Home. I slow down to a light jog, and then a fast walk.

  I see children running around, dirt masking their faces, picking up scraps of metal and paper, ohhing and ahhing at every find. My heart pangs, will this be the life they are condemned to live for the rest of their lives?

  I spot a familiar alley and turn, there is the hole in the bricks with Hartley and Marshall standing guard.

"Hey guys." I smile.

  "Password." Hartley says with a fake deep voice.

  "Is it peaches today?" I ask.

"Nope. Guess again." Marshall giggles.

  "Stop it." Hartley elbows his twin. "We have to sound tough."

  Hartley and Marshall are only eight, they don't need to act tough. My heart pangs again.

  "Then it must be macaroni!" I guess.

  "You may come in." Marshall says, copying his brother's voice.

  "Thank you kind sir." I say, handing him and Hartley each their own coin. "Now don't go spending it all in one place."

  Their eyes light up and they go running off to the nearest store.

  "Hey everyone! I think we need some new guards!" I call out as I step in the hole in the bricks.

  All of the kids come running towards me, I was the undeclared leader.

"Lilia! You're home!" They crowd around me.

  I hug and high five all of them.

  Once I get rid of the crowd, I spot Ram, leaning against the wall, looking grumpy.

  "Hey you, what's the problem?" I say, walking over to him.

  He glares at me and turns away.

  "Come on, what did I do." I sigh.

  "You left me to die in a random persons house." Ram whispers.

  "Come on, I did not leave you to die." I complain.

  "You did, I waited for a while in the persons house for you to join me." He humphs.

  "I assumed we were meeting up here, I'm sorry for 'abandoning you' but you cannot act like this, we are supposed to be friends and good examples for our family." I gesture to the kids who are gathering around us, they were the only family we had and we were theirs. "Now do you want to come with me to get food? Or should I take someone else?"

  "Fine, I'll come." Ram stops looking angry.

  "Ok! Leslie and Abram, watch the entrance and Susie, could you look after the young ones." I say, smiling. "Team on 3!"

  They all crowd around and put their hands in the middle. "1!" We all say together. "2! 3! Team!" We shout.

  Leslie, a nine year old girl with dark brown skin and  beautiful curls and Abram, a light skinned freckled boy with orange hair who was eight, followed us outside.

  Inside I could hear Susie telling the little kids a story, she was 12, one of our oldest.

  Hartley and Marshall were running back, arms full with pastries.

  "Make sure to share." I tell them.

  They grin back at me with chocolate covered mouths.

  Ram and I walk towards our favorite shop, it had all  our food necessities for cheap prices. It was right at the edge of the 'rich' part of the city.

  We zig zagged through alleys and crowded streets, politely declined money to beggars and pick pocketed from the rich.

   As we passed by a long abandoned road, I noticed a  
carriage wheel sticking out of place.

  "What's that?" I whispered to Ram.

  "I don't know." He said back.

  I carefully approached and discovered it was a carriage, and one of the fancy ones too. It had delicately painted details and cavings.

  The reins were broken though and the driver slumped. It appeared to have crashed, but where were the horses, did they escape. Was that why it crashed?

  I carefully climbed up on the carriage and put my fingers up to the pulse point of the driver, he was dead.

  My hand shot back.

  "How is he?" Ram called.

  "Dead." I said somberly.

  "Is there someone inside?" He asked.

  "I don't know?" I replied.

  He opened the carriage door, he gasped.

   "What is it?" I climbed down, and went over to where he was.

  "It's the Princess." He said.

  "What!" I said surprised.

   And he was right, a fallen over 16 year old girl dressed in lilac purple with short chocolate brown hair was inside. She was the same age as me, but the difference was she would never grow older, she was dead.

  "What do we do? Do we tell the police? Soldiers?" I said worriedly.

  "Um.." He said.

  I interrupted him. "I mean what do we do. We are already criminals and would we be put in jail? Or would they pardon us for finding her?"

  "Nobody else knows she's dead right?" He asked.

  "I'm assuming that nobody knows." I said.

  "Well what if we use this to our advantage?" He questions.

  "What do you mean?" I ask.

  "What if you become the Princess."

   First in story note!

Welcome to the end of the chapter!! Thx for reading, this reached almost 1500 words! Please vote or comment! And thanks to all of you who voted for this book to be published, and don't worry, the other ones will be published sometime too!

Xoxo,

     Lemon