Nadine - The Beginning

18. Personal Guard

Tre takes my arm and leads me to where our parents are standing.

Mom looks at me and smiles. "How was the trip?"

"It was nice. I practiced making gloves and watched the scenery go by."

My dad looks at me. "Was it your carriage that had the wheel problem?"

"Yes I slipped but I was ok. The guard helped me out of there."

My dad looks at the guard. "Thank you. You have my gratitude."

"My pleasure sir."

"There's no castle here dad." Clay finally comes roaming over.

"No son there's not. Dracul is here to build it."

"Oh but where will we stay?"

"We will be staying in a house in the human village correct?" My dad looks at Dracul.

"Yes the humans had about 10 houses that were empty in their village. We have taken them over for the time being. Let's do a walking tour and then we can feast."

"Oh I'm hungry. Can we feast first?" Clay said what I was thinking.

The adults all laugh.

Dracul puts his hands out. "Ok I will do a quick standing tour. In that direction you can see the human village. Our wall is being built around it now. You can see parts of it already. Now right here will be the castle. The dungeon is being dug now so do be careful if you enter that area. Now on the other side of the castle will be the vampire village. As you can see several vampires have began building homes there already. Our walls will circle that as well." He turns and looks at Clay. "Was that fast enough?"

"That was perfect."

I smile at Clay. "This is perfect. Two different villages, one on each side of the castle and everyone living in peace. This is amazing." I stand there looking around for a minute at all land around us. "And so beautiful."

I look back at the adults and they are all smiling at me.

"You are growing into such a beautiful young woman Nadine." Asa gives me a big hug.

I hug her back. "Thank you ma'am."

"We will now head to the back wall area of the human village. Your home is there and is ready Miculai."

"Ah good good. Thank you Dracul."

We all follow the 2 men as they lead the way through the human village. I can hear people yelling faintly but I can't tell what they are saying. I'm trying to listen when Tre nudges me.

"It's the market area princess. I will take you to explore it later."

I smile at him. "Thank you Tre."

"My pleasure princess." He puts him arm around me and we continue walking.

"Here it is. This house is for the kings family. That one will be for the guards. The next one over is a servant house."

Mary turns to go to the servant house and I run to grab her hand. "Please stay with me."

"Of course princess."

I just smile. I feel better when she is with me.

My mom looks at me and Clay. "Children we will take a few moments to freshen up and then return for the feast."

"Ok momma."

Clay makes some weird noise.

My dad laughs. "Come on son. We will let the ladies freshen up. While we get the seats."

Mary guides me into the house we will be staying in for 3 nights. It is so cute and small. Nothing like a castle.

Mom yells from another room. "You can go find your room Nadine. Seems the rooms are made up partially with some beds and things."

"Yes momma."

Me and Mary walk up a set of stairs into the smallest hallway I have ever seen. I can touch both sides of it at the same time.

"This one is yours little miss."

I walk into my room and it is perfect. There is a bed in the corner. Actually a bigger bed than I have at the castle. There is some water on a table. A stool in the middle of the room. Another table with a pin on it. It's so pretty. It's a blue stone with other stones around it to make it look like a flower. I stand there holding it and looking at how pretty it is.

"Oh what a beautiful broach princess. Was that in here?"

"Yes it was on the table."

"Maybe someone sent it as a gift for you?"

"Do you think? It's so pretty."

"Yes I do." She takes it and starts playing with the pin part. "Wash up a bit and I will pin it on you before we go back outside."

I nod and get as cleaned up as I can without taking a bath.

"There you go. It looks pretty with the color of the dress too."

"Thank you Mary."

"My pleasure. Let's go back outside now."

I nod and follow her down the stairs.

Mom is standing there waiting on us. "All ready?"

"Yea ma'am."

"That is a beautiful broach Nadine."

"Thank you momma. It was in the room on my table."

She smiles. "Well that was probably from Tre but, do make sure so you can thank the correct person."

"I will."

We walk out the door and my guard is standing there ready to follow me around. The feast is in front of the house right beside ours. So it's really not a long walk. But there are a lot of people out and tables are set up everywhere. It's really crowded right here and loud.

"Momma where is daddy?"

"This way child."

I'm trying my best but I'm struggling to keep up. I feel the guard put his hand on my shoulder. I just stop moving and look up at him. "I can't see. Everyone is to tall and I've lost my mom and Mary."

Someone bumps me from behind and pushes me into the guard. I stand there super close to him just looking around. It's so loud. I can see the house I just came out of. I guess I could go back there. I could get another servant to get me some food.

I grab a handful of the guards robe and try to pull him towards the house. I get bumped by someone else and nearly fall over. I feel my guard lean down behind me and pick me up. He's got one hand under my knees and one around my waste. "Hold on to my neck princess. I am going to get you out of here."

I wrap my arms around him. I bury my face and just close my eyes.

I feel him push a couple of people and hear someone hit a table. I just hold on tighter.

I'm holding on as tight as I can with my eyes closed. I feel him lean down. "Bit of a crowd issue sir." He squeezes my knee and I open my eyes. I look around and we're standing in front of my parents and Tre's parents. Tre is sitting in a chair giving the meanest look to the guard.

"Oh." He puts my feet back on the ground and waits until I get my balance before he let's go. "Are you ok princess?"

"I look at my dress. I think so. Thank you so much. That was so scary. Did you knock someone over?"

"A couple someone's ma'am."

I hear my dad and Dracul c***k up laughing.

My dad takes a drink. "Well that's one way to do it I guess."

Dracul chokes on his drink. "Might as well call him Dipak 2. He'll get it done but it'll be the oddest way possible."

Dad hits the table and laughs harder. "And he's going to look good doing it."

"Not one hair out of place." Dracul pretends to touch up his hair.

These 2 men are nearly in tears laughing so hard.

"Gentlemen!" My mom yells over all their laughter.

Dad looks up and fixes his face. "What's your name guard?"

"Gunner sir."

"Thank you for helping my daughter again Gunner. You have my gratitude. Please stay as her personal guard for the time being."

"Yes sir. My pleasure sir."

My mom gives him a funny look and I run over to sit by Tre.

"Did you leave this for me sir?" I gesture to the broach pinned to my dress.

"Yes."

"Thank you. It's very beautiful. I love the blue stone."

He finally looks at me. "You're welcome princess." Then he looks away and starts to eat.

When we get done eating I break the silence. "Are you mad at me Tre?"

"No. Would you like to take a walk princess?"

I look at the crowd and shudder.

"We can stay away from the crowds. Just walk down an empty path."

"I would like that Tre."

He stands up and I take his arm. We walk out and around the crowd. We start walking down random paths in the village. "Are you sure you're not mad at me Tre? You're not saying much."

"It's nothing princess."

"It's something. Please tell me."

He takes a deep breath. "I didn't like seeing a man hold you like that."

"I tried to walk myself but I almost got knocked down a couple times. I gave up and tried to go back to the house but still kept getting run into. I was getting scared."

He puts his arm around my waist. "You did the right thing princess. I don't want you to get hurt. But I just didn't like seeing it. I was a bit jealous. But I'm not mad."

I turn towards him and throw my arms around his neck and bury my face on his chest. "Is this better?"

He wraps his arms around my waist and gives me the biggest hug. "Very much better princess. Thank you."

We just stand there for a minute hugging.

We start walking again. This time with his arm around me. "So what do you want to do while your here princess?"

"I would really like to see the market spot and watch the humans go about there days. Have you been to the sea? Mary said it's not far from here."

"Yes I've been there once now. It is very pretty. Lots of water for sure. We could go see it tomorrow after lunch if you would like. It's not to far."

"I would love to Tre."

"As for the market it's quite late to go there now. There probably won't be many there. We can go tomorrow morning or the next day."

I nod. "Do they trade different stuff than back home?"

"A lot of the same but a few things are different. They trade a lot of sea fish here."

"Oh that's interesting." I can't help but yawn. I look over my shoulder and the guard is still back there following me around.

"You getting sleepy princess?"

"Yes a bit. It was a lot of traveling to get here. And then the big party." I yawn again.

"Ok let's start walking back around to your house."

"But I like this and I missed you Tre."

"I missed you too. But you need sleep."

I start to pout. "No. I want"

"I'll go home and go to sleep to. Then we can get up at the same time and start our day together. That sound ok?"

I smile and nod. "That does sound nice."

We walk down a few more paths with our arms around each other and end up my house. I look up at it. "It's so cute and so much smaller than the castle. I really love it."

He smiles and gives me a hug. I feel him kiss the top of my head. "Good night princess."

"Good night Tre."