Prince Andrei turned back towards his horse and continued attaching the saddle bags. He tightened some of the straps on the side and made sure the girth strap was securely fastened. Flora was worried he wouldn't respond to her before he said, "what is it princess? Don't waste my time, because we don't have all day."
The prince didn't even glance in her direction as she steeled herself to tell him of her premonition. Would he even believe her? The last time she had a prediction, it didn't go over well with him, but she didn't think that there was anyone she could speak to about this without creating any confusion. "I have reason to believe that something disastrous could happen to our party in the near future."
"And what reason is that?"
"I had a vision." This time he faced her, narrowing his brows and crossing his arms. Flora wanted to get this over with as soon as possible, so she continued, "Our party was going through a pass when an avalanche crashed down onto the road. I think that if this really happens we will not only be delayed, but there might be some injury."
His expression didn't change, but he didn't dismiss her right away. "How do you know it wasn't just a dream? There are quite a few passes through the mountains that we will be going through." The prince shifted on his feet, quickly getting irritated.
Flora chewed on her lip, contemplating how she was going to explain it. "I know it wasn't a dream, because it felt REAL. There were too many details that a dream wouldn't contain." She squeezed her eyes shut, picturing how the situation panned out. Flora held out a finger to tell the prince to give her a moment to visualize it. "So, I saw two sharp peaks on the left side of the pass. They were tall enough that there wasn't any vegetation on the top peaks. On the right side of the pass there was one more rounded mountain, but it stretched quite far out in the other direction.
"What color was the rock in the pass?"
She didn't open her eyes as she dug through the memory, trudging up as many details as possible. "It was kind of strange." Flora paused, making sure she remembered right. "The stone on the walls was almost the color of rusted iron."
Flora opened her eyes to Prince Andrei scratching his chin, contemplating whether or not to believe her. He dropped his hand and told her, "I know what pass you are referring to." The prince scowled as he looked at the sky above. "The iron deposits are pretty unique to the area, and I am well aware of the two sisters that hug the range." With a displeased look, he asked her, "are you sure about this?" Flora nodded assuredly, causing him to run a hand through his bed-tousled hair. "It will be a few days until we reach that road, but if we need to avoid it, it will add at least a day to our journey." Without even acknowledging Flora he walked towards one of the nobles, discussing their new route.
* * *
The next few days were about the same as the first. Waking up before the sun had risen, stopping for lunch, and then camping by the road at night. Strangely enough, even though the temperature dropped as they neared the mountain range, Flora didn't feel like it was too cold to sleep when they finally went to bed.
Most of the men were not aware of the full reason that the party had decided to go with a longer route. Everyone had been told that there were avalanche conditions rumored to be dangerous around that particular pass, but many believed that an unsure warning wasn't enough to warrant an extra two days of traveling, especially since the path they were taking was much more difficult than the original man made pass.
Going through the path winded through the mountains, forcing the people in the carriage to get out and walk around the more difficult parts. Flora was too exhausted at the end of the night to do much more than eat and pass out. Although they were spending almost all day together, Flora felt like she hadn't talked to Amelia in forever. Everything seemed to be rushed; there was no time to waste.
About two days after they had gotten back onto their original course, they passed a town where they decided to stay the night. For the first time in a week, Flora was able to sit at an actual table and have a halfway decent meal. The girls had been accompanied by Lord Garin and two guards to have an early dinner, while the rest of the men were guarding their belongings before heading to the inn for dinner. Flora didn't expect them to return until later in the night, using the village as an opportunity to down a few drinks.
Lord Garin sat across from Flora shoveling a hearty portion of lamb down his throat. The man must have been taking this opportunity to gobble down as much food as physically possible. In fact, when they entered the tavern, he had plopped a bag of coins into a servers hand saying, "I want to be filled to the brim tonight." After the server looked the scholar up and down, he knew that he would definitely be earning his pay tonight. He swallowed harshly, bringing a glass of ale up to his mouth and taking a large gulp. When he slammed it back down on the table, he let out a loud "ahhh."
Amelia sat next to Flora, quietly munching on a bit of lamb. She didn't bring her eyes up towards the other side of the table where Lord Garin was sitting. Quite frankly, Flora shared Amelia's discomfort with the situation. Not only was Garin eating an uncomfortable amount of food, but he was also drinking alcohol. Normally, this wouldn't faze Flora, but taverns were not a place of propriety. Never in a million years would Flora have guessed that she would be in a place of delinquency with strangers getting drunk off of their stools. However, maybe this was just Flora being too sensitive. She was a princess, but apparently the others thought it fit to bring her here, so Flora was going to enjoy her meal as much as possible.
The serving girl brought out a bowl of thick stew for the scholar to inhale. Her presence made Flora a bit more comfortable, since her and Amelia weren't the only ladies in the tavern. The server gave them both a soft smile, trying to instigate chat before she was whistled at by the drunkards across the room. "How are ya enjoying your meal ladies." She eyed the clothes that Flora was wearing. While they were only simple traveling clothes, they were made with quite fine materials. "I haven't seen ya around these parts."
Garin answered for Flora, getting a sharp flash from the servers eyes, "we are just passing through miss."
The servant girl wasn't about to show any annoyance at a customer, but Flora guessed she wasn't too pleased with the man addressing her over the ladies. The girl's accent was thick and slow as she spoke, "which a way are ya comin' from?"
"East"
Again the server cast a quick look at Lord Garin. She hadn't turned in his direction since she addressed Flora. Still she smiled, showing a gap in her front teeth. "Oh, so near the capitol?" Flora nodded tentatively, not wanting to divulge too much information. The girls face widened in shock and curiosity. "Oh! Did ya come a way from the two sisters pass?"
Garin was too busy chewing to answer this time, so Flora responded slowly, "no, we went around."
The server clutched the apron around her chest, sighing dramatically, "wow, you guys jus' barely missed the avalanche!" Her eyes were wide as if she were personally invested. "Thank the mother tha' no one was there or else theys would've died."
Swallowing another mouthful and washing it down with ale, Garin asked, "how long ago was this?"
The girl wiped her hands on her apron and picked up the empty glass from in front of Lord Garin. "Well, I reckon' about four days ago?"
"That was when we were supposed to go through there!" Garin exclaimed, slamming his hand down on the table.
The server jumped back a bit from the clatter, a confused look on her face. "Why did ya decide to go a different way?"
Flora looked down at the table top, not wanting to make eye contact lest she give herself away. To no surprise, Garin answered, "well we had heard talk of an avalanche warning, so we went the more sensible route, considering the circumstances." He puffed out his chest in pride, a blush covering his face from his third drink.
"Wow," the girl mused as she cleaned the plates in front of Flora and Amelia, "ya must be the luckiest people if ya knew that. I didn' hear nothin' about no avalanches." With plates and glasses in hand, she turned and headed back to the kitchen, but not before Garin was able to ask for another drink and bowl of stew.
It was getting past the point that Flora could stand being in such a place. She wasn't used to being around so many commoners, especially ones that were beginning to get rowdier with each drink. So, Flora politely excused herself and motioned for the guards to take them back to the campsite. The scholar, of course, mentioned that he was going to stay and have a 'bit' more to eat. Flora guessed based on the rate that he was downing ale, that he was also planning to drink himself a 'bit' silly.
While she was slightly bummed that she wasn't going to be sleeping in a real building, it didn't bother her much when she pictured what could have happened to them if they went through that pass. She couldn't help but smile when she thought about how her vision had helped them stay safe. It was maybe the first time that she was able to use her powers to accomplish something good. Even better, she had found someone other than her family to take her ability seriously as something that wasn't terrifying. Unfortunately, that someone was that prick of a prince, but it didn't negate the amazing feeling building inside her. She spent the rest of the night hopeful that others might feel the same way some day.