#humanoid!cas

Dean and Charlie’s mission had been simple, find a princess for the Come-of-Age Heir of the Dragon Nation. Simple.  Open and closed book.  Wipe your hands of it and be off.

And it would have been, if they’d made it just 15 more hours.

“Oh, this is bad, Dean. This is bad.”  Charlie was pacing in the limited fire light.  As she wrung her hands, her armor ground together in ways that made Dean cringe where he sat on the other side of the clearing.

Poking at the fire, Dean sighed.  “What is it?”

Charlie wasn’t usually the anxious sort.  She was usually the ‘let’s get it done before I start to think about it too much’ type, which meant that she actively made sure that she didn’t get anxious.  Dean liked that about her.  It reminded him of himself and that was probably why he had become such good friends with her.  As the Crown Prince, he hadn’t been given much choice in his life, but, when it came to Charlie, he never budged.

Now, after her training and a few years as his second, she was his best, most loyal knight.  Of course, women aren’t ‘supposed’ to be knights, but, once she was in her full suit of armor, no one could tell anyway.  So, they broke the rules a little bit.  No one batted an eye at their close interaction while suited up.  Most of the people who saw their closeness outside of their armor thought she was a mistress or consort.  Little did they know.

And less still because Dean didn’t correct them.  It kept people off his case about marriage and children and lineage and honor and fuck them.

“I may have fallen in love with her.”

“I’m going to say we’re lost.”  Dean, plagued with nightmares the night before, was almost falling off his horse from fatigue.  “How about we look for a place to water our horses?”

Gilda pulled her horse’s reins, coming to an immediate stop.  “In that case, lead the way.  I’m not sure what your adviser meant when he said that those chosen for the heir would find their way.  I’m afraid I’m doing a poor job, Your Highness.”

Rolling his eyes, Dean flopped forward on his horse.  No matter how many times he told Gilda to drop the titles and pleasantries, she didn’t seem to listen.  “Yeah, okay. I’ll take the lead.”  He let his horse meander up in front of Charlie’s and Gilda’s.

“Hermes!  Will you stop with the wild berries and just listen to me?”  Charlie growled.

Charlie’s horse kept losing interest in their trek and trying to munch on various plants that lined the path.  She kept having to redirect his nose to the direction they were heading.  Served her right though, since she cursed Dean’s sleep.

Dean snickered from his half-passed out state on his horse.

He honestly wasn’t very sure what he was doing.  Supposedly, he was looking for a water for their horses, but he wasn’t actively doing much of anything.  He was just steering his horse blindly, which wouldn’t actually find water.  His eyes were closing on their own and he really didn’t want to be there.

After what Charlie had said the night before, he was a bit worried that meeting the Dragon Heir would go even more terribly than he’d already expected.