You run as fast as you can.
You run as fast as you can, but your long skirts keep making you
stumble and trip. And Hua is only little and is getting tired already,
with her panting.
"Hua, jump on my back!" you say to her.
"I can't!" she said. "You're running too fast."
"Well the palace official is going to catch up to us soon if you
don't." I told her. "Just jump!"
I heard her sigh and then suddenly I felt a load on my back. It hit me
so suddenly that my knees buckled and I almost fell over.
"Keep running, keep running!" yelled Hua. "I'll look
behind us!"
So I kept running, with Hua bumping along on my back like a sack of
potatoes.
"Stop!" the palace official yelled from behind us.
"Somebody stop the Princess Man Yue!"
Suddenly, the people on the street around us seemed to realise that
there was a royal chase going on and they tried to obey the palace
official by getting in my way.
"MOVE!" I shrieked at them. "I am the Princess, get out
of my way!"
Then they tried to obey me too, so it was havoc, with people trying to
get in my way and people trying to get out of my way simultaneously.
"I'm getting tired, Hua", I told her. "He will catch us
soon."
"Sorry Miss," she said sadly. "Am I very heavy?"
"You're pretty heavy," I told her. "But it's not your
fault. You're very thin already."
"So are you," she pointed out. "Maybe that's why you're
tired."
"Is he catching up?"
"Yes, he's quite close now."
"We'll have to face him then," I said, and I turned around
suddenly so that the palace official who had been very close behind
couldn't stop himself and rammed right into me.
Hua fell off my back.
"YOU IDIOT!" I screamed at him, and I turned around to help
Hua up. Luckily she had landed on one of the people on the street so
she hadn't been injured.
"S-sorry, Your Majesty," the palace official said, suddenly
nervous.
I hadn't looked at his face yet, so I did now and I almost died. He
was... GORGEOUS!
