The landscape of Danflow—and I still couldn’t believe that was the name of this kingdom—was, simply put, beautiful. The grass was greener than any grass on Earth. The sky was such an unnatural blue it was almost hard to look at. The flowers—the same yellow ones that were all over Denmark—shone like little suns in nearly every field we trotted through.

Colors weren’t going to have the same meaning after this.

Assuming there was going to be an after.

We traveled a whole day until we reached the edge of the kingdom, where we camped once more. This time, Leo wanted a training lesson… but he couldn’t quite understand the concept of not grasping the rapier too tightly, and not with both hands, so we didn’t get very far. He swung the sword around, looking like a toothpick next to his size. Poor sword. It required a more gentle touch. Not brute strength. I couldn’t imagine why this was the weapon of choice for Leo, of all people.

When morning came again, we headed towards The Magical Forest.

Pip, who always rode with a smile on his face, lagged behind as the first bits of forest appeared in the distance.

“Heyy! Sir Krystal, lady,” Pip squeaked as he pulled right beside Prince and matched our speed. “I was thinking. I’d really like to learn some of that cool sword stuff you’ve been teaching next time we rest. I haven’t been able to learn too much while making all the food and whatnot.”

“Oh, yeah… sure. Absolutely. I’d be happy to,” I said, honestly. If there was anyone I didn’t want to get hurt training, it was Pip. 

Not only would that lose us our delicious meals, but that child-like innocence… it would be sad to see it go.

“Gee! Thanks! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the killing at all,” Pip said. The adolescent tone in his voice made it very off putting, “but if I don’t have to kill my friends, I don’t want to. I like having friends. Lots of friends!”

“Yeah. Friends are great,” I said, not knowing how else to respond. This level of naivety didn’t exist in the real world outside of five year olds, and I didn’t know how to handle it.

Pip smiled and patted his horse on the head as we trotted. “Do you think… we’re friends?”

Not gonna lie, that threw me off-guard. I hadn’t thought about things in that way. These were characters. Could they even be my friends? 

The goal was to leave at the end…

 But Pip’s eyes sparkled in the sun, waiting for the answer with so much hope.

“Friends? Yeah. I supposed we are,” I said and Pip cheered and wiggled in his saddle.

“Yes!” he yelled with delight. “Since we’re friends now, can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Shoot? Shoot what? Is there an enemy around? I can bullseye anything from one-hundred meters away,” Blaze said, four horses away, like he had supersonic hearing, as he pulled a small crossbow out from a pocket on his horse’s saddle.

“No. That’s not—” I sighed. I’d never get into the habit of monitoring my own colloquialisms. “What’s your question, Pip?”

“I was just curious why you decided to be a knight! I love learning why everyone became one. Every knight has such an interesting, dark, horrible reason. It’s fun to hear them all,” Pip squeaked with far too much positivity.

“Oh… I, uh…” I thought back to the first day on the set. Scene 1; Take 1. 

There was a small girl, ogling over some knights’ armor as they took a victory march through the streets. That was all the set up I knew, because Scene 2 was my stunt. “I just really wanted to grow up to wear cool armor… I think.”

“Wow! That’s super cool. And not dark at all. Awesome!” Pip’s smile couldn’t possibly have stretched out further.

“What about you?” I asked Pip, partially because it looked like he wanted to keep talking… and partially because I was genuinely curious how this bag of child-like innocence became someone who could chop off a knight’s head without a second thought. 

“Oh me? Wow. I’ve never thought about it before,” Pip said, and for a moment, I thought he was going to have one of those malfunctions, like no one ever wrote him a backstory and his brain would fizzle and spark while trying to figure it out.

But… to my surprise, he eventually answered, “I saw some knights camping outside my hometown once. They looked lonely and hungry. Those guys were gnawing on raw wheat! Bleck. I offered to cook them food, and we hung out for hours. They told me it was the most fun they’d ever had on the job. So, I figured I could cook more food and have more fun with knights if I just became one!”

The longer Pip talked, the larger my grin formed. There was something about his energy that forced out a smile. “Sounds like your backstory isn’t so dark either, huh?”

“Hey! I guess it isn’t!” Pip squeaked once more. “That feels good to know. Thanks Sir Krystal, lady!”

I took notice of the strange wording, of ‘good to know,’ but The Magical Forest was approaching, and I had to make sure things went according to the book’s plan. 

We reached the start of the forest… and then just kept trotting along beside it.

No one turned toward the forest, and no one even pointed out that it was there.

Weird.

Worse yet was when Sir Zantar turned the group down a dirt path that led directly opposite and away from the forest.

“Um. Hey. Aren’t we going into the forest?” I asked, pointing over my shoulder to the clump of trees that stretched further than I could see.

Sir Zantar pulled his horse to a halt and looked at me. “And why would you think that?”

“Because… that’s what we agreed on?” I pointed out. That hadn’t been a dream, right? 

“That doesn’t seem like the most efficient path,” Vincent said, once again pulling out his map. “If we enter The Magical Forest from this side, we risk running into the rock gnomes.”

“Rock gnomes?” Leo shouted, full of all the glee in the world. “The Rock Gnomes of The Sacred Meadow are lovely!” I’d heard him say that once before, hadn’t I?

“These gnomes are not of The Sacred Meadows, Sir Leo,” Vincent said with a darker tone to his voice. “We don’t want to run into these.”

Why had no one mentioned this when we were discussing it last night?

It didn’t matter. No one ran into rock gnomes in the book, so neither would we. 

“No! We have to go into the forest first!” I yelled with passion I didn’t even know I had. “And quickly!”

The whole squad blinked at me. I’d broken character too heavily again, hadn’t I?

“Oh… I mean…I—I  th-think, uhm, th—there i—is, uh, going to be a, uuuuh, storm. We better hurry to The Magical Forest for cover!” I said as I pointed to the bright blue sky with not even a cloud in sight.

“And why would you think that?” Sir Zantar asked…again. But he still sounded honestly curious.

“Be—because I can feel the— eh—” and I hated to say this out loud, but, “...vibes. The weather vibes, to be more specific.” 

Fuck it, if I can’t act like Tiara, I can at least act like the most pompous, most arrogant, most confident person I know.

Arri fucking Ryker.

“The weather vibes are totally off. I’m not feeling sun vibes at all. It’s going to rain and it’s going to rain hard, because the weather needs to be authentic. It’s art.” I said, more confident than I had felt since the moment I first got here.

“I believe you Sir Krystal, lady!” Pip squeaked up before Sir Zantar had the time to react.

“Thank you, Pip,” I said, trying not to cry. I felt so guilty for making this poor innocent soul believe in a fake like me. However, the moment only lasted long enough for me to, once again, remember the sight of him decapitating the head yesterday, and it made me feel a little bit better about it.

“Of course, I believe in you Sir Krystal, lady! You’re my friend! I’d go through fire for you! But please don’t make me do that, fire hurts. But I would!”

“... Thank you, Pip,” I said. Though, I wasn’t sure I wanted him to risk burning in a horrible fire for me.

“Anything for you, Sir Krystal, lady!” Pip got more excited the more he talked, and I was a bit worried that he would fall flat off his horse if he was allowed to talk any more.

Okay. Pip was behind me. I could convince the rest of them. 

Be Tiara.

“Knight Commander Zantar, I know the weather is going to change soon. Let’s hurry.” I said, not a lie in sight and no acting needed.

“Yea, let’s do as Sir Krystal lady says, she sounds like she knows what she’s talking about.” Pip supported.

“Sir Vincent, what do you think?” Sir Zantar asked. I found it a bit weird he would ask Vincent. I was technically his Second in Command, Tiara or not.

“I think that weather is unpredictable, and if Pip says Sir Krystal might have a point, we should believe in him,” Vincent said.

Well fuck.

They’d believe in Pip but not in me? Was this a book thing Tiara had to go through, too, or was this because they knew somewhere deep down that they couldn’t trust who I was?

Either way, Pip got my back in Matty’s absence, and I would take that for now.

“Let us gallop to The Magical Forest,” Sir Zantar yelled. Everyone pulled their horses into a gallop and we went as fast as we could to escape the still very clear blue sky.

The Magical Forest, here we came.

Everything was going according to plan.