This is what I get for relying on a family that barely talked or knew each other.

Groaning as I swam towards the dock, I was glad now that I had not filled my bag too much. My first, original, plan was to bring as much as I could with me. Thinking that we would be traveling in a cart or wagon, maybe even in a caravan. One large enough for all my books, and clothes and whatnot.

Instead all I had left the castle with was a small sack. One that was so worn and thin that even the most desperate thief would pass over, thanks to its appearance.

That and a chain around my ankle.

It had snapped and broken only a few links from the clasp around my ankle, so it wasn't very long or attached to anything heavy like it had been… but it was still heavy enough to make it difficult to swim.

Barely able to keep my head above water, I gasped a bit as I sunk and swam with all my might a bit. After a few moments I swam upward, barely breaching the surface and gasping for more air.

Why was this so hard! I was a phenomenal swimmer! Able to hold my breath for a long time, usually!

Maybe I was hurt. Or sick. I had to be. This didn't make sense.

As I neared the dock that I'd been swimming towards, I sunk a bit. As I swam in what was basically darkness, both thanks to the dark of the night and my closed eyes, I let out a loud scream while underwater.

It was a foolish thing to do, both since I wasn't swimming well enough to justify risking the lack of air, but also because my scream might get heard by my pursuers. But I couldn't help it. I screamed loud and long, so much that not only did I run out of breath I also felt my feet hit the bottom of the river. It was grimy and mushy.

Trying to kick off the bottom, but failing since it was so slick and mushy, I panicked as I realized how far I was beneath the surface now. I could just barely make out one of the dock's support pillars nearby, so I aimed for it and swam with all my might.

Thanks to my reckless screaming, my chest became tight and painful as I both ran out of air and began to desperately need some. A weird buzzing filled my ears as I reached the pillar, and tried to grab onto it. I pushed and kicked off it, hoping to propel me faster up towards the surface, but I felt oddly weak. I felt my own arms and legs slow in their kicking and swimming, and felt the current of the river grow stronger… even though it hadn't.

Oh no!

A new burst of energy filled me as I put even more effort into reaching the surface. I bit down hard on my cheeks and tongue, stopping my own body from trying to gasp for air and thus drown me as I swam.

There! The surface! And…!

Then, right before I breached the surface… something grabbed me.

I gasped for air, desperately, as I was lifted out of the water.

My shoulder hit something hard as I was lifted, and between the terrible pain and light-headedness I knew it had been the dock. I felt my clothes go tight around me, clinging and pinching me, as I was hefted and carried out of the water.

"Oh my gosh!" I heard a woman's voice through ringing ears, and then I felt the ground. Whoever had pulled me from the river had just placed me down, and I curled up and heaved as I grabbed at what felt like dirt and grass.

Land! Which meant I had been carried off the dock, which was a surprise. The dock had been rather large…

"Is she okay?" another voice. This time a man. A deeper one.

I listened for a moment to ruckus around me, and realized there were several people around me. I was facing downward, since I was still heaving and coughing up what little water I had swallowed. I hadn't almost drowned, but I had almost passed out from a lack of air. And I felt it still. My head was throbbing terribly, I felt weak and my stomach wanted to climb up out of me as if I'd eaten something terribly poisonous.

"By the dead gods, Vim, it's the princess."

My jaw clenched as my mind whirled.

They knew who I was!

My heart began to thump wildly as I tried to stay calm. My calm lasted for maybe half a moment, as I then shot up to my feet.

I was surrounded by people. There were at least half a dozen of them, and one of the men had kneeled down right next to me. I almost bumped into him as I ran forward, darting for the nearby tree-line.

Yet after a couple steps, I tumbled and fell. And not because one of them had grabbed at me, or tripped me.

Rolling on the ground, I eventually ended up on my back. Heaving desperately, I kept blinking blurry eyes as I tried to stop the world from spinning around me.

"I do believe she hit her head," someone said a little gently.

"No. She's just light-headed, she almost drowned," another corrected.

Wanting to groan at them, I bit back a sob… and tasted blood. Likely from either my fall, or my desperate attempts at not drowning earlier.

Someone sighed, and a new conversation started as some of the people around me stepped away. The idea of them just… leaving me alone was such an amazing thought I knew it was nothing but a dream.

Why would anyone leave me alone? Especially now.

Whether they were citizens of my family's kingdom, or members of the invaders, it didn't matter. Either would be more than happy to capture me. Or do who knows what else terrible things.

The chain on my ankle was proof of that.

About to weep, I was glad I was already heaving from my earlier struggle for air. Maybe they'd not realize I was crying, and instead think I was still trying to gasp for air.

I didn't want to cry. I was tired of crying.

My kingdom had fallen.

I had escaped with some other family members, but it ended up being a plot. We had been captured, and had been about to be executed.

And now, after having miraculously escaped, I was lying in the mud barely able to breathe and surrounded by who knows who and what and…!

"Been a hard day, huh?"

After a few blinks the world came back into focus. I glanced up a little, at the man who was staring down at me.

It was the same man from before. Crouching next to me.

I didn't recognize him. And although he didn't look like the citizens of my kingdom, his hair a tad too dark and skin a little too light in shade, he wasn't unique enough for me to confidently say he wasn't a citizen. Plus he had no discernible accent that I could tell. Many of the invaders, such as the ones who had captured us, had spoken with a noticeable tonal difference in certain words.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Did you lose your tongue in the river? I'm rather surprised at how close you came to drowning, what with being an otter and all," the man said with a smirk.

My eyes narrowed at the man as my brain suddenly started thinking differently.

I no longer thought of the pain and discomfort I was feeling. I didn't notice the cold, which was quickly seeping into my bones. I didn't even think of the chain and ankle bracelet, or the implications behind them… instead I only thought of one thing.

Otter.

"Who are you?" I asked, and hated how weak my voice sounded. I sounded like a little girl who had just went through something horrible, and was about to cry. And I hated that it was so close to the truth.

"My name is Vim. Luckily for you one of our members has a keen eye and noticed you flailing in the river," he said with a small gesture to our left.

I didn't glance at the person he pointed at, even though they had stepped closer. "You're welcome!" a younger woman's voice said.

Taking a small breath, I slowly rolled over and got my left arm under me. With more focus than it should have taken, I got myself to sit up.

The man remained crouched next to me as I sat up and looked around. I found quite a few people, and even some horses a bit ways away. There was a packed road not far from the tree-line I had just moments ago tried to run towards. There were half a dozen horses, all fully packed and loaded, with a few people around them. They were talking lightly while staring over at us. At me.

"Deserters?" I whispered as I tried to understand.

"Not really. Tosh, would you check on her please?" the man who had somehow known what I was stood away from me. I watched him for a moment as he turned, heading for the group near the horses. As he left a few of the others nearby left with him, while a few others came closer.

I tried not to let my worry show as another man knelt down next to me. One with very short hair, and something sticking out of his mouth. Was that a stick? It was really thin and tiny, why was he chewing on it?

"My name is Tosh. You look exhausted and cold, but I don't really see any wounds or injuries…" he introduced himself as he glanced me up and down. Thanks to how thin my clothes were, and how some of them were rolled upward thanks to the turmoil in the river, it likely wasn't too hard for him to check most of me.

"I'm… not hurt, I don't think…" I said softly.

The people who had caught me and my family, and the few others who had been with us, had beaten me a little but nothing too severe. A single backhand to the face was all it had taken for me to not really act out or struggle, and so they had focused on others.

"And this?" Tosh asked as he reached down to grab the thing on my ankle.

"A lock and chain, of course?" I said stiffly as he tugged it a little, which hurt. It was so tight on my leg that it didn't even have the room to budge or spin.

"As far as I'm aware the soldiers had been given strict orders of not capturing or pillaging anything or anyone. So… is this because of what you are?" Tosh asked as he glanced at me.

Frowning at him, I wondered how to answer that.

Did he mean that I was an otter, a non-human, or the fact I was… or had been, the princess of his nation?

"That was kind of on the nose, wasn't it? What if Vim's wrong?"

Turning my head, I found the woman from earlier. The one who had supposedly heard and seen me in the river, drowning. She had a rather heavy jacket on, which made me jealous. I shivered a little at the sight of it.

"Vim's never wrong about this kind of stuff. Plus, look," the man then reached over and brushed aside some of my clumped up hair. Likely to reveal the back of my neck.

"Ah… I see," the woman nodded and smiled in a way that told me she fully understood what the bit of hair running down my neck and back meant.

Sniffing, I shifted away from the man's touch as I slowly got to my feet. The small chain left attached to my ankle clanked as I did. "Who are you people?" I asked.

"We're sufferers of your father's hubris," the woman said.

My heart thumped at the confirmation they knew who I was… not just what I was. Yet even though it had been said aloud, no one seemed to care. The rest of the group were now heading back towards the road, to the horses and others, talking quietly amongst themselves.

Only this man and woman seemed to have any interest in me.

The woman smiled at me, and then reached over to pat me on the shoulder. I stiffly stood still, even as she tried to lightly guide me away from where I was standing. Towards the group, with the rest.

"Come on. Let's get you dried off and into something warm. And get that thing off you," she said.

"Yes. That's much too tight, it will impact blood flow before long," Tosh added as he too stepped over to join us.

Although a part of me knew there was no chance I could argue, since I had not the strength or even the willpower anymore to fight or run… the rest of me felt nothing but relief as I allowed them to guide me away from the dock and river I had almost drowned in.

"So… which princess were you? Eleven of you, hadn't there been?" the woman asked.

"The fifth. Brandy," I said softly.

"Ah! I missed something as interesting as this! You have to be joking!" a new voice entered the group, one that was loud… and young.

Watching someone more my size run towards us, I went still as I watched the girl run past the group and horses and head straight towards me.

I wreaked my mind for any memories of the girl, since she was smiling and approaching me as if we were long lost friends or something, but couldn't remember her. At all.

"Oplar…" Tosh greeted the girl, who ignored him completely, as she stepped right up to me and reached out to grab my hands.

I let her take them, since she was moving so quickly that I didn't know if I could stop her even if I wanted to, and she shook them happily.

"Princess! Of a fallen kingdom! Abandoned by a tyrant of a father, oh the story! And look at you! Found in a river to boot! Without boots!" Oplar shouted, beginning to ramble wildly as she looked me up and down as if I was some kind of fascinating toy or something.

"Come on, she needs to get out of her soaked clothes. Talk to her while we do so, Oplar," Tosh said with a sigh, pushing me a bit on my back as to force my feet into motion.

I barely got a few feet away before Oplar dropped my hands and then grabbed my arm as she looked down at my feet.

"A lock and chain! Aha! So you had been captured! The rest of your family is being beheaded as we speak, oh…!" Oplar stopped talking, flinching as she realized what she had said, and others groaned and sighed at her.

Although it hurt to hear the truth, I knew better than to blame her or expect anything different. I too had been about to be taken to that execution stand, after all.

"I… got lucky," I said simply. There was no point in telling her, or any of them, that the only reason I had escaped was because I had broken the chain and ran off when no one was looking. I not only didn't want to admit that I was strong enough to do such a thing, as to keep it a secret incase I needed to do the same thing again, but also because it'd mean I'd have to admit that I could have done the same for others.

I had left brothers and sisters. Uncles and aunts. Servants and close friends of the family. I had not saved any of them.

Though if I would have actually been able to or not was an entirely different topic…

"Lucky! Luck is half the story! Oh, she can have my clothes we look about the same size," Oplar happily said as we neared the group of horses.

Feeling a little… stunned, I blankly watched as the girl went to a horse. As to dig out some clothes for me. As she did, Tosh and the woman gestured for the man from earlier, Vim, to come over and take the thing off my ankle.

Watching him as he bent down, I frowned at him as he went ahead and grabbed it gently with both hands.

What…? Where was the tool he'd use? Surely you'd need some kind of clamp or saw, or…

Then the man simple twisted his wrists a bit, and the piece snapped in two. I jumped a bit, half-expecting to feel some kind of shock of pain or something, but instead felt nothing but relief over the thing being removed from my leg.

I shifted my foot and leg a bit as the man tossed the bits of metal away, over to the nearby forest.

"Did I hurt you?" Vim asked as I moved my foot a bit.

"No… I don't think so. Thank you," I said.

"Hm." He nodded, and looked like he had been about to say something but the other young girl returned. She had a bundle of clothes in her arms as she pushed aside Vim to step up to me.

"Hurry up! And nobody look!" she shouted with her loud voice. It made me flinch a bit, since my head still hurt.

She and the woman whose name I still didn't know helped me get out of my soaked clothes, and after a quick wipe-down I got re-dressed.

Oplar had been right. Her clothes fit me rather well.

"Looking good!" Oplar happily said as she confirmed it too with a glance.

"Yes… thank you," I said softly, feeling strangely humbled.

They knew who I was. What I was. And yet…

Now that I was dried off, the group readied to leave. People re-packed what few bags they had messed with during the commotion, horses that had been allowed to graze or drink from the river had been gathered up, and everyone started to walk down the path.

At first I almost expected them to just… leave me here. While another part of me expected to be forced along, as if some kind of captured slave or something that they had only tendered to so they could profit from me later…

Yet, oddly, another part of me didn't end up surprised at all when they allowed me to accompany them… as if I'd been a member of their group from the very beginning.

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