Have a Heart

"Causing trouble even then?" asked Daniel with a smirk.

"Wandered off on her own. I found her and brought her back, and the king hired me on to keep an eye on her." Kasey stated

"He was my nanny." Ellona smirked.

"Tutor, Nanny, just about anything she needed."

"And in return you get a place to stay and some status," Daniel guessed.

"A place to stay at first. The better I watched after her, the better the perks became." Kasey stated.

"I'm like a badge of honor."

"I see," Daniel replied.

"She grew on me." Kasey stated.

"She seems to grow on a lot of people," Daniel replied with a smile. "It doesn't surprise me."

"If you're referring to the portrait Gregory showed you, allow me to explain to you in private while she picks another victim." Kasey stated solemnly.

Ellona shrugged and walked over to the sidelines to harrass the others.

"Alright," Daniel replied more seriously.

Kasey walked off back towards the inside of the castle. "The two of them were betrothed at Ellona's birth" he started simply, crossing his arms. "But they weren't properly introduced until she was five."

"Babies are hard to introduce to each other," remarked Daniel.

"You would think, wouldn't you" Kasey chuckled. "But no, they're really not. Babies don't discriminate and really don't care at all. Babies get along with anything that doesn't scare them. By waiting so long, The king didn't take into account the fact that a boy raised on a farm with older sisters would take an aversion to girls and that a princess raised around snotty noble boys would develop a loathing for boys."

"So they didn't get along at first?" asked Daniel. It seemed strange to hear after everything else he knew about Ellona and Seirra.

"Like cats and dogs." Kasey confirmed. "They were at each other's throats until Seirra made a false move and Ellona put him on his ass for it."

"As in combat?" asked Daniel. "Or something else?"

"Something else. I tend to apply combat terms to life." Kasey apologized.

"Ah," Daniel replied. "So he respected her more after that then?"

"No. Next time he was ready for it." Kasey replied. "They kept at it. knocked each other on their asses more times than I could count. It wasn't until someone else put Ellona on her ass, and Seirra put them on their ass for doing it did they actually start to get along. After that it was inevitable that they became friends."

"I see," Daniel replied. "So how many months or years did that take?"

"Around three years. Ellona was eight and Seirra was...twelve."

"I see," Daniel replied. "I'm used to having lots of siblings around, so I'm used to having people I kinda-sorta get around with."

"Ellona was used to having a recluse of a brother and Seirra was used to having no privacy, living with all of his sisters." Kasey stated. "But they adapted to each other after a while."

"Sometimes opposites really do work out," Daniel mused.

"Well, they were less opposites as they got older. Ellona became more focused on becoming a hero and Seirra split his focus on becoming a knight and helping her become a hero. Not many women make it as far as she has."

"Yeah," Daniel replied. He had to admit that he was impressed. Wannabe warrior princesses were unusually common. Actual warrior princesses were rare.