The Dragon Prince's Bride
Chapter 52. In a boat.

Chapter 52: 52. In a boat.

Neriah’s excitement knew no bounds. But she knew she had no time. No time at all. Since by the time she reached the castle gates, the swap magic had worn out, and her face had returned back to normal, it meant Aria too was back to her normal face. It also meant by the time she made it out of the gates, Lady Bretton had realized she was dealing with a fake princess.

And knowing Lady Bretton she would have alerted the guards and her parents. So they would have been sent to get her.

Calculating the time she had and the distance she was to cover, she hailed a carriage as soon as she stepped out of the gate and told them to hurry to Gilliard port. She was supposed to walk there, but she had no time. And hailing a carriage was safer for even though she had assured Aria that she remembered the path to the port, she wasn’t sure her current state of panic and fear would allow her to navigate through on her own.

"Can you not go any faster? I mu_must not miss my appointment." Neriah carefully stuck her head out of the window and asked the coachman.

"Aye, hold on tight then." The man cheerfully said but did not give her a chance to even do as he asked her to before nudging the horses to move faster, causing Neriah to almost slam her head against the window as she bounced inside the carriage.

"How irresponsible of you! Are you trying to take off my head!!" She screamed as she found her balance and held on to the seat for dear life.

"You cannot have everything, my beautiful lady. It is either a slow and comfy ride or a fast and bumpy one." The man yelled over the sounds of the stomping horse’s hoofs and the rolling carriage wheels. "So which will it be? You want to make that appointment?" He asked.

Neriah realized that neither was this man a royal coachman, nor was she a princess right now. So she was not supposed to expect special treatment. But still he almost removed her teeth just now with his rough riding. Well, she was the one who did ask him to go faster. And any slower, she feared she’d be caught.

"Milady?" The man called again.

"K_keep going faster. But be a little gentle." She simply said. She could not afford to slow down but she still loved her neck and was not ready to lose it inside a carriage.

...

Barak reached the gates quick enough to see her enter a carriage and heard her order the coachman to head to Gilliard port. The little witch, she was really trying to run away.

But he was not planning to let her run from him. At least not after she tried to take his neck in such a cruel manner. At first he wanted to stop the carriage and drag her out of it. But then a thought hit him.

Seeing that she was running away, she was probably going to meet her lover at the port. He was suddenly curious. Curious about the man she had called beautiful. She had bluntly told him that night to his face that he was not handsome, but she had called her lover beautiful so he was curious to see the face of the man who seemed to hold her heart.

The beautiful elf who claimed to love her but could not ask for her hand the right way. He wanted to see how great a man he was to keep such a mesmerizing feisty woman hanging and not just marry her the right way. He needed to see for himself the almighty prince from only the gods knew where, who was toying with her while claiming to love her.

He hailed a horse from a stable that rented horses near the palace and calmly followed her at a reasonable distance.

...

Neriah reached the port quicker than she had expected, but she was not in a normal physical condition. At all. She had never felt sick from a carriage ride before. She was certain she would puke when she got atop the boat to Bilgota, so she wanted to rest for a bit but once again she was scared she had no time to waste.

"Bilgota! Leban! Ariza!!" She heard the call for the boat she wanted to get on. "Come on! Get on board. No free rides, ey!" The boatman emphasized as he called more passengers.

"Bilgota and Leban are two coins, Ariza is three coins. Better not to try to cheat me, ey! If yah get onboard without no money, I’ll toss yah out the boat. Yes I will." He warned and Neriah quickly checked her side for her coin pouch to ensure it was still by her side. It was still there.

"Bilgota." She said to the man and he pointed her in the direction of the ’boat’. Only it was not the kind of boat she had in mind! It was a measly canoe!!!

She could easily fall out of it. She could swim yes, but she was already feeling sick, she was not confident of swimming.

"You call that a boat? How many people can that thing take? Five?" She scoffed angrily.

"Lady yah uniform says yah from the palace, if yah wanted a private big boat then yah should have told the king to get yah one!!" The man retorted, and Neriah flinched back as every word he spoke was a spit-ball!. "If yah don’t like it, yah don’t have to get on it. Simple!!" Neriah was short of words. Who was this nobody to talk about the king!

"Oh and this boat takes a lot more than five. It carries sixteen people, Aye." He cheerfully laughed as he saw the horror on Neriah’s face.

She stared at the boat and stared at the man, the back at the boat. The thing was not even supposed to be allowed to go to sea! She could see patches everywhere on the ’boat’.

And what? Sixteen people? No way! There was no way she was getting on that. She was going to search for another better boat.

Or so she thought. After walking and asking around and finding out that there was really nothing like a "better boat" she returned back to where she started and now she was cramped between two old men, who were the size of oxes.

The smell was bad, the place was cramped, she wanted to complain but she feared that if she even tried to open her mouth, she’d spill out everything she did and had and had not eaten that day.

"Last call to Bilgota, Lebanon and Ariza! There is still room for one more, ey!" the boatman called and Neriah could not hold it any longer. She was sure she had counted the people in the boat.

She had counted them over and over again, wondering why the boat was not moving yet when it was already full with sixteen people and now what! Room for one more?

"But you said it was only sixteen!" She spoke up and she could feel it coming, the gag. "Can you not count? Have you no eyes?" she heaved and gagged and hic-cupped again and again as she spoke. "It is already sixteen, you included makes it seventeen! What room for one more do you talk of?" She cried out and yes, finally she could not hold it back.

"Ahh, why you little grasshopper! You just puked all over me!" The fat passenger beside her yelled and reached for her clothes to wipe the puke from her body. The other passengers were already shouting and complaining of the foul smell, "are you drunk young lady? In the brightness of the afternoon? You are something." people were saying.

"How dare you!" She gagged and they all flinched and shifted, "Who do you think you are speaking to? Me? Drunk! The nerve of you all. And stop touching my clothes! You disgusting pig!" She yelled at the fat man beside her trying to wipe her vomit from his body with her clothes.

"Pig! Pig! Young Lady, who is the one puking? You’re the one going around drunk in broad daylight and you call me a pig!"

"You are a pig! And I am not drunk! You should be honored that I puked upon you! You fat swine!" She gagged and puked all over him again and this time the man rose to his feet in anger, causing the boat to shake. He was ready to strike the life out of her.

Neriah saw his hand coming closer and she flinched and closed her eyes, but the hand never reached her. She waited for some seconds before opening her eyes again.

And she realized the pig man was in the water struggling to swim to the surface. And she looked up and she saw him. Her mouth and eyes opened wide as she muttered to herself, "Dear goddess."