This time, the princess was already seated at the breakfast table when I arrived. 

She smugly looked at me from her stolen spot which was actually mine. “Better hurry before I eat all the food.” 

Did she forget her proper seating place or was she trying to get back at me? 

For a moment, I only stood and stared at her as I tried to keep myself from yelling. Instead of a harsh order, my temper gripped the chair and scooted it over with her still in it. Unexpectedly, she only giggled back. 

Moving a new chair to my spot, I sat and ate. Elbows on table, she rested her head on her hands and stared at me, amused. 

I refused to look back at her. “Finish your food.” Half the night I had spent thinking of ways to keep her entertained, but now I almost regretted it. By the time I finished eating, I let all the bitterness dissipate. “I have a surprise for you.”

Her eyes lit up in excitement. “What is it?”

“Come and see.” Getting up, I walked away and she followed. 

I wasn’t sure what she would like, but she seemed easily amused. As we made our way past some guards to go outside, her curiosity and excitement seemed to grow. 

“Here we are,” I said as we entered the stables. 

As we turned the corner, the princess flinched at the sight of a black horse tied up to a post. Her eyes widely studied it in wonder. 

“Have you never seen a horse before?” 

“No. But I heard about them.” She slowly approached it. “Be careful, Ellia, you shouldn’t pet wild animals, it might bite.” Despite her own self warning, she reached up her hand gently to the horse’s head. 

My face scowled at the strange mutterings she spoke to herself. But then I saw her smile widen, and my own face instantly softened. 

However, her smile soon faded to something almost sad. “Chemy used to always say that to me. But I never would listen.”

My eyes followed her hand which kept stroking the horse’s mane. There were indeed scars of bite marks on them. I guessed Chemy was one of the gnomes. If she didn’t even listen to them, how did I have any hope?

I sighed, hoping she would stop bringing the gnomes up. Though in her mind, she must have thought them to be good, but surely they couldn’t be. The gnomes and fairies have always been enemies, and the fairies were good, of course, and always helped us when in need.

“Would you like to go on a ride?”

Her eyes widened excitedly. “Ride the horses!?”  

I nodded. 

“Can I ride this one?”

“We can ride it, yes.”

Her face wilted. “We?”

“Of course you can’t ride on your own. You would need training, and also you can’t be trusted to not run off.”

She stuck her tongue out. Ungrateful brat. I was doing all this for her. 

Once a servant saddled the horse, the princess stared at it strangely. “Why is it shaped so weird?”

“It is made for two people to ride. More specifically, a man and a woman. But women ride side-saddle because of their dresses, thus why it’s not symmetrical.”

She made a face. “I don’t want to ride like that.”

“I’m sorry, Princess, but you don’t have a choice.” My hands started to reach for her. 

She immediately recoiled back. “What are you doing!?”

“I’m helping you up.”

“I can get up myself, thank you very much.”

Folding my arms, I stood back and watched. “Go ahead and try.”

She grunted at her many failed attempts. “If I had something to stand on, I could do it just fine.”

This time, as she attempted another jump, I swiftly secured my hands around her waist and pushed her up. “You shouldn’t have chosen such a large horse.”

Her glare dug deeper into me. “This horse actually chose me. I can tell she likes me. And much better than you!”

I got in the saddle behind her, and she instantly quieted as my arms went around her to hold the reins. 

“Hold on tight,” I warned before kicking the horse into full speed, hoping the fright would punch the smugness out of her. But when I tilted over to see her face, I only saw the biggest smile. 

After crossing the field, I slowed the horse as we rode by the river. Many trees on the other side were in full bloom with rich red flowers. As the princess turned to see them, I got a better look at her face which still glowed with delight. I didn’t want to admit it, but her smile was rather nice. It was also astounding that she could have such deep joy at simple things, especially when she had seemed so angry before.  

I could feel her back relax against my chest which surprised me. A smug smile found its way to my face. Perhaps I wasn’t so bad at this after all. 

“Chemy and the others would have loved this. But gnomes are so short.” She giggled. “I’m not sure they could ride a horse.”

The moment was perfect until she had to bring that up again. 

“You really shouldn’t talk about the gnomes anymore. That part of your life is over. And they aren’t as innocent as you think.”

She turned to face me with a look of spite. “Have you ever even met a gnome before?”

Pausing, I had no words. First, because I actually hadn’t, and second, because she was now rather close to me. With the full lighting of the sun, the brilliance of her eyes was unmistakable.

“Well, have you?” She prodded. 

“I have not. But I know all the past history with the gnomes. And the very fact that they took you from the fairies proves the truth. What were they doing with you anyway? Did they know who you were? They probably were trying to destroy our kingdoms by taking you.”

“What? No! Broom shrooms, they would never. They don’t care about the stupid, human kingdoms. The gnomes were only trying to protect themselves from fairy attacks when they happened to find me. Like I said, they saved me. And they took care of me. They must be so worried about me right now. So…please…let me see them again.” 

With her practically in my arms and those eyes so filled with sorrow, it was almost hard to deny her wish. But I had to act rationally. It was true that I knew little of the gnomes, but surely she had only been misled by fake acts of kindness. But unless I had proof, it would be impossible to reason with her. A compromise would be best. 

“If you learn to read and write the proper way, I will let you send a letter to them.”

She quickly turned away to face the front again. Without knowing a single clue to what she was thinking, we finished our ride in uneasy silence. 

~*~

That night, my ponderings kept me up. What if she had been right about the gnomes? Was it possible they weren’t as bad as they were made out to be? But why would the fairies lie about that when they had only been helpful to our kingdoms? 

I forced my eyes shut again. This all mattered not. The gnomes, good or bad, weren’t my concern. The princess had her new life here and needed to move on. But if she loved the gnomes so much, was that possible for her? 

The next morning, the princess ate even faster than usual. 

She stood up even with food still in her mouth. “I’m finished. Can I have my lessons now?”

Though I was glad she finally was eager to comply, I wish her reasoning wasn’t because of the gnomes. “Swallow before speaking. And no. I need to find you a proper tutor first.”

“You teach me.”

“Of course not. I am a king not a teacher.”

“Why? Do you think you aren’t smart enough to?”

She was clearly trying to play into my pride. Unfortunately, it was going to work. But if she wanted to play that game…I could jab back too. 

Leaving the rest of my food unfinished, I grabbed her wrist and started yanking her away. “Fine, let’s go.” 

In the library, I found paper and wrote the alphabet. “Here, now write it for yourself 100 times.” 

She must have known what game I was playing too and only smiled smugly back. “Sure, no problem, Sir Teacher.”

But what I didn’t expect was her to actually do it. When I got tired of sitting around watching her, I wandered about, looking at books. Perhaps there was one on translating. 

In a far, abandoned, corner shelf, a strange book caught my attention. Picking it up, I immediately recognized the writing as gnomic. Why would we even have such a book here? As much as I wanted to know what it said, I wasn’t about to ask the princess to read it for me. For now, I set it back and kept looking. 

At last, I found a book on translating. It wasn’t till the very last chapter for it to mention gnomic at all. There wasn’t much on it as it seemed quite simple to translate. Now I could learn gnomic for myself and read that book. But now wasn’t the time. 

After studying it a while, I walked back to where the princess was still copying the alphabet. 

She tossed another finished paper on the ground. “Why are there extra letters?”

I paced confidently in front of her. “Because the gnomes took out two of the letters they deemed  unnecessary. They made their own written language because they thought ours was more complicated and wanted to simplify things. So aside from some slight spelling differences, the languages are almost identical with the characters only looking different.”

A bit confused, she stared at me, who had suddenly become the expert. 

I bent over the desk next to her and took the writing quill. “Here let me show you.” With one hand behind her back, I held the book where she couldn’t see, and the other copied the matching gnomic characters by the others. “Now all you have to do is remember what matches with what.”

Standing straight again, I hid the book behind my back. 

She eyed me suspiciously. “You know gnomic?”

I grinned smugly back. “Of course. How do you think I read the notes you had left?”

She looked down, slightly defeated. “Figured you had to find someone else who could read it. Or why else did it take you so long to find me? I almost lived and died a whole lifetime waiting.”

“Maybe you should think first before hiding in a giant castle.”

“Is my lesson over?”

“Sure. We may take our walk in the garden now.”

“Um…no… I’m a bit busy today.” She grabbed some blank papers with a quill and ink. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

And with that, she rushed off, leaving me in the quiet library, alone. Without having to entertain her, now what was I to do? 

I picked the scattered papers she had written on and ripped each and every one.