" I’D CATCH UP EVENTUALLY, my legs are far longer than yours. “ she gestured downwards as she made note of their obvious height difference, not that it was unusual the norwegian princess was quite used to towering over most people she met. “ two steps and i’d probably be ahead of you too. “ she teased with a light laugh, now if there was one thing aria enjoyed about the village it was interacting with different faces — even if some of those interactions went south because of her lack of ‘ russian ‘ for the most part the princess couldn’t complain, many people seemed to want to accommodate them and that had been one of the reasons why she’d looked for any way she could help and having heard that spending money buying local things was one way to do so… well she’d taken it to an extreme. she had a feeling that as many russian trinkets as she’d bought… she could fill a closet or several.
a light frown was still apparent on the blonde’s features but she pushed herself to smile. “ well.. how about this… “ her voice trailed as she took her book back. “ i was looking to have lunch and given the fact that i’m the one who’s RUINED something, i say it’s more than necessary for me to invite you. “ and she didn’t mind, the company was something she could use. not to mention she was curious about the ‘ day old stuff ‘ comment, she had wondered what happened to things that didn’t sell and allowing employees to take them home made sense, it was at the very least much better than throwing things out. food should never go to waste, that was a motto she lived by. looking down at her book the princess nodded. “ the queen of spades, it’s russian. “ she mused with a scrunch of her nose. “ it’s by alexander pushkin and it’s… quite entertaining, it’s about a german officer in the imperial army, there’s a love story.. you know one of those. but i’ve challenged myself to read it in it’s NATIVE language. “ which she thought was a good way to learn to be more fluent, the people who had accommodated her and her friends deserved that at last. “ but now i’m not so sure it was the best idea, i haven’t gotten very far. “ she added with a snort. “ but alas.. sacrifices must be made in the name of learning no? “
“Good to know then. I’ll let you catch up, then I’ll stop, and you can keep going.” Rebel winked at Arianna. She had been one of the more pleasant royals to visit the village on a regular basis, and those were the twenty-four year old’s favorite. She didn’t take kindly to rudeness, and when she did encounter someone with a pension for snark, she sent it right back at them in the most sickeningly sweet way that sometimes verged on that fine line of ‘bless your heart’ and ‘fuck you’. Thankfully Aria wasn’t someone she had to work that special magic on.
“Wait. Invite me to lunch?” Rebel was somewhat surprised. Were villagers allowed to accept offers like that. She glanced over to the guard standing back a few feet giving the princess ‘space’, “Am I even aloud to go to lunch? Your friend over there doesn’t seem to pleased with the idea.” She looked back to woman. Besides, what would her family say if she said yes? Alexi already despised the royals with a passion, and if he had gotten word that Rebel had went to lunch and accepted a handout, would he give her a good talking to about how wrong it was and how she had disappointed the family, blah, blah, blah? “You know what. If it’s okay, then consider me in.” Alexi doesn’t have to know. And if he finds out, then so what. He can’t go around hating everybody forever, including his baby sister.
She put her attention back on Arianna, who was now deep into describing the book and how it was in Russian, “It sounds interesting. I’m more of a horror novel type person, when I do read. Have you heard of that Stephen King guy? He was from many years ago, but I find his books interesting. As if ghosts and zombie pets could even exist.” She laughed. “But I do respect you for putting in the effort to learn Russian. I know the villagers around here will especially respect you more coming in and having a conversation with them in their native tongue.” It was technically her’s too, but Rebel had also been fluent in English and Spanish; respectively for her birth parents and adoptive parents.
