Prince Eric Allen's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Prince Eric Allen ducked behind a tall glowing lantern and held his breath. His royal escort marched past without seeing him. He grinned. For one afternoon, he wanted to be no one — just a boy in the market, hunting the girl who had laughed at him from a tree branch yesterday. He straightened his collar and stepped into the crowd. Fairies haggled over berries. Children chased a beetle. Eric tried to walk like a commoner, which mostly meant swinging his arms too much. Then he saw her. She stood behind a stall built from a huge red-capped mushroom, stacking jars on a bark trunk laced with vines. A small carving knife hung at her belt, the handle worn smooth from years of work. Eric froze. He opened his mouth to say something clever. Nothing came out. She looked up, smirked, and said, "You walk like someone who's never paid for bread, Your Highness." The crowd kept moving. Eric did not. His disguise was gone in one sentence, and he had never wanted to stay somewhere so badly in his life.