crossing the line AU

Chapter 3

Cassandra

"ok men. I need 4 of you to accompany the princess on this mission. This theif may be slick, but I have faith you'll catch him."

I'm over in a cubicle, changing into a spare uniform I was gifted, and overhear the captain talking to the other guards. As I change, he quickly picks out 4 men that will join me.
I try and ignore the groans and doubt they throw around the room.

"I'm ready sir." I announce as I exit the cupicle, dressed in my under armour and heavy metal plates, throwing on my matching helmet. Everyone stares me down, clearly doubting me but too scared to go against me.
I spin my sword in my hand before sliding into my sheath, feeling the final puzzle piece press into place.

"Right. Well. You all better get going. And men, we aren't to let anything happen to the princess-"
"

Cassandra." I cut in, correcting him.
"What?"
"you keep calling me 'princess', but I have a name, just like the others here. I think I'm allowed to request that I be addressed with my actual name, not my title." I point out bluntly, probably acting more confident than I should be. But I'm right, I deserve to be treated like a person, the least they could do is use my name.
"Right." His expression tightens. "well, Cassandra, you and the others better get going before the theif passes through the corona walls, you'll lose him like that once he's out of the kingdom" I nod my head, giving him a confident smile while I march out with my team.

Yes. I can sense the truth, the truth behind my teams laughs and whispers, the truth behind their stares and eye rolls, even the truth behind their smirks. I see it all, but I don't care if I'm dropped in the middle of the woods somewhere, or left to fend for myself when things even remotely start getting tough, I know I'll be able to get myself out of any bind.

I'm better than them. I'm capable.

***

Because of the time it took to prepare, we decided it was best to start looking for our theif around old corona, seeing as the chances of him still hanging around on the island are pretty slim, old corona and the forest around it was the best place to search. Specially if he is on his way to the wall, we'll be able to catch him better from here, rather than the opposite side of the water.
We all decided to split off into smaller groups to cover more ground, so a group of two cover one side and a group of three cover the other.
I end up in the group of three, consisting of me and two other men, who I eventually learn are called Blake and Noah, Blake being the one that I'd beaten earlier on and Noah being a fairly new face to me.

We wonder into the forest, our swords in hand and our minds only on our mission, but Blake decides the break the silent concentration.

"This clearly isn't working. We need to try something different." He complains, rolling his eyes at nothing in particular. I glare over at him, informing him that I'm not messing about.
"No. This will work, we need trust that waiting is our safest option." I remark sharply, refusing to drop my gaurd.
"Of course you'd go for the safer option." His snid comment starts pressing down on a button I tried so hard to keep clear.
"Blake, Cassandra is right, we shouldn't rush into an unnessassary battle. If we wait, we can catch him trying to leave the kingdom. It is the safest option, and that isn't a bad thing." Noah chips in. I'll admit, having someone out here actually agree with me felt nice.
"Thanks Noah. Now, we really need to get going, we need to get to the wall." I wave my hand in the direction of the wall, gesturing for them to follow behind me. Noah does so without another word, but Blake doesn't like the fact I'm taking charge.
But unfortunately, I'm not going to step back just to fuel his little ego.