Cal got back to the inn as soon as he could, and looked for Cleo. He found her eating something, with no message anywhere in sight. Someone had already gotten it. He swore to himself. Not that Cleo would have let him get close anyway- the bird was overprotective of Alex and often tried to keep Cal away from him. But still, at least if she had still had the message, he would know it was safe. Who could have gotten it from her?

Rosemary bit her lip. "I don't think you should do that. It's not right for us to have that message. We're stealing by keeping it." She said worriedly.

"It's not stealing. I'm just borrowing without permission." Lori smirked a little. "Come on." she headed upstairs and got to work on the message. "It's incredibly difficult." she blinked. The captain of the guard had taught her to code and decode messages of course with a key it would have been easier but he had shown her how to get the base message without one.

Cleo blinked at Cal and cawed happily before going back to her food.

Rosemary followed her sister and snatched the letter away from her. "Borrowing without permission is stealing, Lori. It's not your message to read, and you certainly shouldn't be trying to decode it! Whoever this is for obviously wants to communicate in private. How would you feel if you sent a coded message to Aurora and someone intercepted it like that? It's not right."

Cal sighed. "C'mon, Cleo...just this once, work with me. It's for Alex. I need to know who took that message." He pleaded, not really expecting a response from the crow.

"It's about us." Lori watched her sister. "Burn it." she held her hand out. "It's nothing good if it's about us."

Cleo have him a look that said she wasn't saying a word about it. She finished her food and cased at him wanting more.

Rosemary went pale. "N-no...I don't care if it's about us, you shouldn't have read it! That was wrong, Lori." She scolded. Even as she did so, she walked to the fireplace and tossed the letter into the fire. It was wrong, and she hated doing it, but they couldn't take chances. "...Someone is looking for us." She turned around. "You know who that message was for, don't you?"

Cal sighed. "You're no help at all..." He mumbled as he pulled some dried meat out of his pocket and tossed it to the crow. "That's all I've got. I'm going back to check on Alex...from now on, don't let anyone besides Alex take messages from you!" He said, and walked away.

"I have a feeling I do. We'll need to move on...I know it was wrong and I shouldn't have done it but we can't let anyone find us." Lori ran a hand threw her hair. "How anyone could have found us this soon is beyond me."

Cleo blinked at him and turned to her food effectively dismissing him.

Rosemary felt tears prick behind her eyes, but didn't let them fall. She didn't want to leave- she was just getting used to being there. She liked her job and the village and the people. "We're going to be running for the rest of our lives, aren't we?" She sighed. She had hoped they would find a safe place to settle down. "It's those boys. They're the ones, I just know it. They got here the same time as us, and they've been acting strangely. How will we tell Aurora?"

Cal sighed and headed off. He got back to the doctor's in record time to give Alex the news. But first, he had to know if his brother was alright. "Alex! Are you okay? What did the doctor say?"

"We don't." Lori shrugged. "The village she lives in is two days from here. We'll probably pass it...I don't want to move on either and I hope we don't have to run forever. That would be no life at all. Look why don't we wait a few days if they do anything else weird then we run."

"Define okay?" Alex groaned as the doctor looked him over.

Rosemary sighed and nodded. "Alright...that seems reasonable." She said tiredly. She hoped they wouldn't have to leave. "I need to go check on the horses, and I'm technically still working, so...I'll see you after work?"

Cal rolled his eyes. "Is he going to live? Any internal bleeding?" He directed his questions toward the doctor this time.

"Sounds like a deal." Lori hugged her sister then headed off back to her own job.

"Nothing yet but I've just began my examination." The doctor frowned softly at Cal. "I'll let you to talk while I get the things I need for my next test."

Rosemary smiled, hugged Lori back, then went out to the stables. She found the horses all worked up, probably nervous from the earlier commotion. She went about calming them, coming last to the large stallion that had done the kicking. It was clearly startled. She had to calm it down before even going near it, or she would end up kicked as well.

Cal sighed softly. "Alright. thank you, doctor." He said, waiting for the doctor to be out of hearing range. Once the coast was clear, he turned back to Alex. "The message was gone. Cleo was eating something- I think someone fed her and took the message while she was eating. The problem now is, I don't know who took it. If those two girls got it, we're in trouble."

"We'll figure it out." Alex smiled. "We always do. Just keep an eye on them...pain meds are great you know." he chuckled. "makes everything funnier." his eyes where dropping.

Lori got to help bake when she got back and really enjoyed herself amazed that she could get so much fun out of kneading dough.

Cal sighed again and ruffled his brother's hair- an affectionate gesture he hadn't used since they were children. "Well I'm glad you're enjoying yourself, at least. Bonehead." He said.

Rosemary finally managed to calm the horse down enough that she could check him over. She concluded that he was alright, but in her search she found a single black feather caught in his mane. A crow's feather. She resolved to tell Lori about it later.

"I do have a bone head." Al chuckled and fell asleep. The doctor came in "oh good the pain killers worked." he set to work. "I'll let you know what's wrong if you want to head off."

Cal bit his lip, then shook his head. "I'd rather stay with him, if that's alright." He said, for once in his life actually showing his true emotions. Alex was all he had, and even though he acted tough, he cared about his brother very deeply.

The doctor shrugged finished what he was doing then left to check on his test results. "Well there's no internal bleeding but he's got a bruise. He'll be stuck in this bed for a while."

Cal nodded. "Alright." He looked at Alex and sighed. He couldn't stay with his brother all the time, especially if he wanted to make enough money to pay for an overnight doctor's visit. "I should get back to work now. I'll...come back to check on him later. If he wakes up, let him know I won't be gone long." It was important that Alex didn't think Cal had left him.

The doctor nodded and went to check on another patient.

Lori was busy delivering a cake when she noticed someone following her. He was still there when she headed back towards the inn. She swallowed then frowned when he vanished from sight as she turned back she walked into him. She gasped and went to move away. "I don't think so." he smirked. Lori blinked "Oh crap." she was staring at Prince Castiel.

Cal left the doctor's office and headed towards his next job. As he was walking, he noticed Lori walking as well, looking worried. Curious, he moved quietly to follow her and see what was going on. She ran into a man- literally- and didn't seem happy about it. He moved closer, still hidden, to listen.

Cas pulled Lori away just out of sight. "What are you going here?" he asked glaring at her. "Do you have any idea how worried your parents are about both of you? My parents are supporting them in trying to find you but there not going to do anything else till your found." Lori sighed "I got tired of living by there rules." "You wouldn't have had to if we had married." Cas frowned. "You didn't even give me a chance." Lori had the grace to blush in shame.

Although he could no longer see them, Cal could hear the conversation just fine. His eyes widened as he realized that the man was actually the prince Lori had been engaged to marry. But how had he found her? This could be a problem, especially if she decided to go back with him. Something about this guy made him angry, though. Something he said didn't sound right. Their parents were worried? About both of them? That made sense for the older princess, but it was no secret that there was no love lost between the king and queen and their younger daughter. If anything, they would have been happy to be rid of her. Either this man was lying, or just plain clueless.

"Its more then that." Lori sighed. "I can't leave my sister alone and my parents hate her." "That's not what they said." Cas frowned then shook his head. "How could anyone hate there child?" he took her hand. "I think your sister can handle herself anyways. I almost ran away as well but I know my duty. You have to grow up and accept your role." Lori flinches and looked away glaring at the ground. "Please come back. At last give me a chance."

Cal was really ticked off now. This guy was making assumptions about something he had no clue about. Steeling himself, he stepped around the corner. "And I think she knows her sister better than you do." He said. "You don't know this woman or her family well enough to make judgement. Of course their parents wouldn't tell you the truth. It would make them look bad to admit they hated their child. And don't give me that "how could anyone hate their child" bullshit. Plenty of children grow up without their parents love." He glared at the prince. "Whatever the duty is that you think this woman has to fulfil, clearly it is not more important than her freedom, or her sister. Maybe it should be her duty. Perhaps, just maybe, you shouldn't try to force her into a role she doesn't want."

Lori took Cas's hand. "If things where different I would go with but I promised myself I would stick it out for a week and then if I really need to I would go back. You should live your life and if I go back I'll find you. OK?" Cas smiled at her. "Alright...maybe I could stay? I'll help pay my way." "I'll ask my friend." Lori turned to Cal. "Why are you getting involved?" she frowned.

Cal looked away, not meeting her gaze. For some reason, he found himself...blushing? That was odd. Odder still was the unfamiliar feeling in his gut, similar to the protectiveness he felt towards his brother but also different. "It looked like he was bothering you. Like you didn't want him to be here. So I stepped in." For once, it was the complete truth. He could count on one hand the amount of times he'd spoken the truth to anyone besides Alex. "Sorry. I'll leave you alone."