At night I woke up out of need, was about to get up when she felt someone's hand on her waist. She almost screamed, but stopped her scream in time when she turned back. Apparently at night Princess Mina felt cold (the fire had completely extinguished by that time), she moved to me. Her nose nestled comfortably in my neck, her breath warmed my shoulder blades, her body is completely pressed against me, her hand firmly wraps around my waist.

She's so pretty when she sleeps. A lock of golden hair gently covered her peaceful face. Long eyelashes covered such beautiful eyes that sometimes they glow with deep sadness.

I noticed that I looked at her lips for a long time, gradually getting closer to her face.

What am I up to?

Princess Nayeon , did you just think that her pink lips are attractive for kissing? Aya-yay-ya, Princess Nayeon , Princess Nayeon.

Princess Mina took a shallow breath, smacked her lips, her lower lip, and moved even closer to me. Her lips moved closer to my neck, I felt her softness in the touch.

My heart sank, I didn't want to move, but my body let me down.

He demanded to get out of the warm cocoon and go to relieve himself.

Carefully, as soon as I could, I freed myself from her hands, hearing a sweet protest from Princess Mina in response, stood up.

Without stopping, I ran into the nearest bush, when I came back out of the corner of my eye I noticed a wild boar with cubs chewing something in the ground.

Morning breakfast - a thought flashed through. - I don't need an adult boar, only a baby. The one that lagged behind them. Still a baby, the youngest of the cubs.

It was necessary to find a weapon to kill. Run to the fire, take an arrow and run back, just wasted time. Therefore, I began to examine what was nearby. My eyes found a broken branch, a sharpened stone, and a long thin branch that could be wrapped around a stick.

Can be built like a weapon that can be used once.

Thank you, father, your lessons were not in vain. You made us learn all the basics of farming, farming, cooking and sewing. If not for you, I would be like Princess Mina.

A pretty sight of a sleeping girl flashed before my eyes.

We need to hurry, I don't want to miss her awakening.

Silently stepping over, I went to the place where the wild boar and cubs were grazing. I froze for a moment, merging with nature, watching every step of the hoof. We need to time the attack.

In my right hand I hold an improvised weapon, with my left hand I move the bent branches so that they do not interfere with me.

Frozen in anticipation, pricked up her ears.

My eyes watched the boar family, seeing how the boar cleared the ground, her nose finds some kind of acorn, then she rolls it out of the hole to the cub that grazes nearby. A happy grunt filled the forest. The same thing it has done and for his other children. The family idyll of animals somehow reminded me of family games with my sisters.

I remembered one funny incident when I was 9 years old, Jeongyeon 8 years old, DaHyun 6 years old. I took them on a fishing trip, decided to show them that I am an adult and can do everything like a priest.

“ Children's voices mingled with the murmur of the river, which skirted the rapids of the banks immediately beyond the village of the kingdom. A little girl with a black ponytail, laughing merrily, ran ahead, swinging a fishing rod. Her clean managed to get dirty, after playing with the chicken, they chased her around the inn. She only came out after seeing her sisters running out of the palace.

- Here, here - she waved her hands, calling to her .

She watched as Jeongyeon pulled small DaHyun along with her , which in turn dragged a large bucket along the ground. There they will put the caught fish. The very same Jeongyeoncarried a neatly folded handkerchief, which was supposed Nayeon were still hot cakes. Saliva flooded , she just swallowed them, overpowering herself. There will be time to eat.

Finally, they approached her, and went towards the river. I often saw my father fishing from that little mound, the fish was caught with a fishing rod, so I took the sisters there. It turned out that the mound was higher than I had expected. It took a long time to get ready for it, because our shoes were sliding on the grass all the time. Finally, we climbed up, sat on the edge, dangling our legs, took out fishing rods.

- Repeat after me - Nayeon said importantly , swinging the fishing rod and watching how the line outlined a line, flying past her head, sank down into the water. - Watch carefully, if you bite, you can pull it out. Only the father said that one should not fuss in this matter, carefully pull it out so that the fish would not be frightened. All clear? - she asked her sisters, they nodded enthusiastically, with open mouths, they began to follow the fishing rod.

Boring, it was terribly boring to wait, so Nayeon came up with a way to cheer up the sisters. She began to grimace, showing different grimaces, to imitate animals. Their loud laughter scattered all over the bank, scaring away the birds that chirped on the branches.

And then it took a bite. One, second, third time.

- Bite, bite - jumped on the spot, pointing to the float, DaHyun .

- Fine, pull it out, Nayeon ! - Jeongyeon was delighted , standing next to her, just in case, if she suddenly needed help.

- Hurray, our first catch! - shrieked happy Nayeon , forgetting all the instructions of the priest and abruptly pulling the line from the water, not calculating its strength.

Further, it is not difficult to guess what happened. The fish, calmly eating a worm, suddenly began to kick, twitching in fright, realizing that its habitat had changed. She began to pull the rod down with all her strength, back to the water.

Two forces pulling in different ways, in the end someone has to give up and of course Nayeon didn't want to be one of the losing sides.

- Jeongyeon , help! - she shouted, she immediately jumped up and began to drag her sister away from the edge, but this only made the situation worse. The fish made a sudden maneuver, pretended to surrender, hung, and when the line weakened, pulled down with all his might, forcing the two girls to follow her.

Bultyh.

- Oh, I can't swim! - screamed scared Nayeon , uhvatyvayas neck Jeongyeon and visnuv on it. - Jeongyeon , help!

- Leave me alone , Nayeon - Jeongyeon tried to free herself , calmly reaching with her feet to the bottom. - It's shallow here, you won't drown!

- No, no, don't let me go! DaHyunie , run after Father! We're drowning! Ah-ah-ah, I don't want to die, I'm still so young!

DaHyun, who watched the entire flight of the sisters, only laughed, grabbing her hips with her small hands. The fear disappeared when it became clear that the landing in the water was soft.

- Father !!! - her ringing voice with laughter flew to the wide open window of the royal chambers. - Father, ha-ha-ha !!!

- Oh my god, children, what have you done again? - clutching his head, he asked, looking out of the window and looking at the river. The picture was funny and he burst out laughing. "

Yes, wonderful childhood memories. I then took revenge on the fish, still caught it, and made a delicious dinner out of it. But that's not what I need to think about now, I need to catch breakfast

The moment was perfect for hunting, the boar was distracted by a large tree, from where the berries fell, after a small breath of wind. Her cubs stayed in the same place, a great time. I was delighted and was about to go when I heard the crackle of a dry branch behind me. And not only I heard, all my prey too, they did not check or wait for what would happen next, just the boar called its offspring, they ran away headlong.

Here, the devil, who came there! Who prevented me from hunting ?!

I turned around.

Princess Mina herself, sweet, beautiful bathing in the morning sunshine, Princess Mina .

She didn’t ask what I was doing, she just stood at arm's length and looked at me.

I sighed once, then again, threw my weapon on the ground, wiped my dirty hands on my trouser legs, went up to her.

- Awoke? - nod. - There will be no breakfast, we will wash on the way, I heard a babbling stream, maybe we will catch a fish there, if we are lucky - I walked around it, went to our camp, without looking whether it was going or not.

She was silent, even when we collected meager things and covered the fire with earth. Mina did not say a word as we made our way through the thicket to the stream, which we began to hear clearly, getting closer and closer to it. The whole road to the stream took 15 minutes, and for 15 minutes we heard birds singing, lovingly humming serenades.

Romantic.

It would be romantic if my prospective fiancé was walking with me instead of Princess Mina.

I pushed back the curtain of leaves of a bent tree, revealing a beautiful view of a pretty meadow with small trees and a gaily murmuring stream.

I was the first to go up to him, squatted down, put my hand down to the water, a pleasant coolness touched my skin. She took some water in her palm, brought it to , drank it, and then rinsed her face, smiling happily .

- Princess Mina, the water is just great - I called, - come here - I wanted to make fun of her to see her morning smile, when she came, splashed on her.

Drops of silvery water, playing, flew in her direction, determinedly ready to join with warm skin, but met the cold ground. The girl scared away to the side, hiding her hands behind her back, fear flashed in her eyes.

- What are you doing? - I asked in surprise, seeing her dancing steps. - Hey, hey, I'm sorry, I didn't know that you don't like jokes like that.

- Just unexpectedly, I was not ready - her voice sounded quietly all morning. She timidly took a step closer to the water, still keeping her hands behind her.

- Do not be afraid, I will not joke like that, come closer - she called to me , she herself took out her flask (it was already almost empty), dipped it into the water, took it completely and put it back in my pocket. Princess Mina sat down next to me, carefully lowered her right hand into the water, bent over it, washed, took the rest in and drank. Then I repeated the procedure again, looking closely, I realized that she seemed to be performing a ceremony. I got curious, I asked:

- You worship water, have you been so accustomed from childhood?

- Yes, this is our tradition. After all, the water in a river or stream gives us food, and its water quenches our thirst - after rinsing her face and drinking water, Princess Mina answered, moving away from the shore, sitting down on a stump, crossing her legs.

She was completely in the shadow, and as if merged with the forest. For a moment, it seemed to me that I saw a completely different person, and not Princess Mina. More precisely, not even a man, but the image of a strange bird with black plumage and white , standing on two large flippers.

Brr, what the hell, shaking her head, covering her eyes, when she opened them again, she saw Princess Mina looking at me strangely.

- Some hallucinations from hunger - waved away the vision, quickly got up, threw the bag over her shoulder, walked along the shore, again delving into the forest. - We urgently need to get something.If you had not stepped on a branch, frightening the wild boar, we would have already feasted on delicious freshly fried meat.

- Sorry - shy voice again (I like it, of course, but I need to be bolder !)

- Okay, so there. We need to go out onto the road, maybe, thus, we will go to some village. There we will learn how we can get across the bay to get to your house. And as soon as I safely get rid of you, give it to your father, you will return me the arrow, and I will go to look for my betrothed.

- An arrow? So you walk with me for the arrow? Because of her? - I read all these questions on the face of Princess Mina, but not in her voice. The girl just kept silent, as usual. She tightened her grip on the arrow, firmly meeting my interested gaze.

- Eh, and why did this arrow decide to fall into your hands? - shook her head dejectedly, sighing heavily . - Then the deal. Your home to my arrow. Is it okay?

- I agree - stretched forward a thin hand, I shook in response, feeling how soft and tender it is. I didn't want to let her go. Never.

Um, Princess Nayeon , wake up! She's a girl, she's not your fiance! Stop holding her hand!

With great reluctance, I let go of her hand, frowned, hastily hid my flushed face, muttered:

- Let's go already, enough to breed sentiment. I don't like that.

How long, how short they walked, the time is not known, but the path led them to the crossroads of three roads, where in the middle there was a huge (about a man's size) stone. Coming closer, the princesses read out the words written :

If you go to the right, you will lose your horse .

(We have no horse, we are on foot!)

If you go to the left, you will lose your soul .

(Hmm, weird, maybe there?)

If you go straight, you will be rich (someone added finely: Glory, money, women! Freebie, not life!)

- And there are no more options? Let's go diagonally - I suggested, confidently walking past the stone and turning somewhere to the side.