Sorry it's taken so long but here's a new chapter for you

Enjoy!

Kenna's POV

I watched from my place in the riggings as Arthur ran around the ship, excitedly exploring everything that was taking him away from his home. He seemed oddly happy to be leaving everyone he ever seemed to care about; even if they did beat him up they were still his classmates and maybe friends. That's more then I ever had.

I took this time to really watch him, taking in the way he moved, spoke and acted. My first impression of him was that he was a nice guy, nice enough to catch someone who clearly looked like an outcast in his school. My second impression was that he understood what it was like to be an outcast, seeing the way the school treated him when they thought Shrek was going to eat him. My last impression? Total dork…but cute and a sense of adolescent charm that I think all girls find attractive.

That did NOT mean that I like him, it's just something I noticed.

Finally Arthur stopped to lean on the rim of the port side, staring out across the sea towards his home. I took this moment to climb down from the riggings and walk over to him, hopping up onto the rim with my back to the ocean.

"So…what's it like? Knowing you're destined to be a king?" I asked, even though I knew it was never supposed to be his destiny. Arthur grinned at me, his blue eyes sparkling.

"It's…it's indescribable! I mean yesterday I was getting wedgies and getting stuffed into lockers…" he trailed off as a blush over took his features. He stood tall suddenly, his head level with mine. "But I was totally in control the whole time, ya know…all man," he said, swinging his arms. I think he was trying to subtly flex his muscles and I chuckled.

"Yeah…you're a regular Huntsman or Prince Charming," I said. Arthur blushed darkly, taking his spot back against the rim. "But come on Arthur, what's it like?" I asked, actually interested on what he had to say. He was silent for a while before he finally spoke up.

"It's like…being the frog from the story, but instead of being a princesses kiss to break my curse, it was an Ogre telling me I'm goanna be a king." I laughed at Arthur's unique way of describing it.

"That's a quite a way to put it Arthur," I said between laughs. There was a pause from Arthur.

"You know you can call me Artie right? in fact I'd prefer it," he said. I shrugged.

"Ok…Artie" I said with a smile. He grinned back before straitening up, stretching his back again with a deep sigh. At that moment the Ship Captain swerved the ship to the left, taking it further with the wind. The jerky movement caused me to rock backwards, falling towards the water.

"Ken!" Artie cried, his hand encircling my wrist and yanking me back towards him. I rocketed into his chest while my legs shot around his waist, clinging to him for dear life. I think if he had pulled me off the rim we would have crashed to the ground in an awkward teenage heap. "Uhh Ken?" I was still shaking as I clung to him, the thought of falling into that blue abyss of death rocking my nerves to the core.

Artie just continued to hold me, adding stroking my hair to the mix. Finally I calmed down enough to release him from my death grip before I slid off the rim. I managed to take a step before my legs gave out and I tumbled to the ground. Artie tried to catch me but the momentum was too much for him and he toppled down with me. I instantly backed away into the wall, curling up slightly. Artie sat and watched me, looking pretty confused.

"Are you alright Ken?" he asked. I gulped down the lump in my throat, determined not to cry.

"You know Ken's not my name right?" I said, attempting a smile. Artie's eyebrows furrowed.

"What?" he asked, chuckling confusedly.

"My name's Kenna. The jocks cut me off before I could finish," I explained. Artie paused before he started laughing, not chuckling but full on laughing. I started to giggle, something I hadn't done in years. When we finally calmed down I stood up. "Well I think I'm goanna get some sleep Artie," I said with a sigh, catching my breath. Artie cocked his head to the side, an action that set my heart racing.

"Why? It's barely sunset," he asked. I shrugged.

"I have stuff to do later on," I answered before disappearing down below deck.

At midnight on the dot I was up and out f my hammock. I tiptoed past all the guys, who were snoring their heads off. Surprisingly enough, Puss was the loudest and Artie was the quietest. I smiled at him, his blonde hair flopping in front of his eyes. Moving away from them, I climbed up onto the deck. Taking my familiar spot on the bow, the same spot that Artie and I had been crawled up in earlier, and sat down.

I took a breath of air as I pulled the familiar parchment from my top and spread it out in front of me. I then pulled out the pencil I had made from charcoal and wood and started to scribble incoherent words on the page.

"A B C D…" I trailed off, my mind drawing a blank. I shook my head, starting again. "A B C D E? E F…Damn!" I threw my pencil on the deck, watching it roll away. I put my face in my hands, rubbing my eyes.

I hated this! Learning to read and write at a higher level sucked! It's too hard! I don't even know why I'm doing it. Ok, so maybe I do. I had always been trying to get better at my reading and writing, but, while walking about in that school today, getting looked at my all those kids and judged, it made me want to get better, just so they would stop looking.

"Drop something?" my head whipped up to see Arthur, hair scruffy from sleep and eyes heavy from exhaustion as he held my pencil out to me with one hand, rubbing his eyes with the other.

"A-Arthur!" I stuttered. No one was supposed to know about this.

"I thought we were at Artie," he said with a small smile as he came and slumped down in front of me. Gingerly I took the pencil back, giving him a small nod. I didn't say anything for a while, staring down at the parchment in my hands in shame. "Are you going to tell me what's up or do I have to guess?" he asked after a little while. I stayed quiet. "Ok, then I'll have to guess," he said before clearing his throat. I expected him to be smirking and sound smug. Instead he looked at me with his kind blue eyes and said softly. "I think you're out here because you can't read or write and feel too ashamed to ask for help in learning." I ducked my head, hiding my eyes. "And," Artie continued, taking my hand in his. "I think you need to know that if you have troubles, you should come to me," he said, giving me a comforting smile. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Alright, teach me to read," I said, holding out the pencil. Artie grinned, taking my hand and wrapping the fingers around the pencil.

"Well first of all you need to hold the pencil correctly," he said, adjusting my fingers then resting his hand against mine, guiding it along the parchment. "There see, A B C D E F G…" he trailed off, looking at me.

"Uhh…H?" Artie nodded, edging me on. "I J K," I carried on, getting all the way to R before I had to stop.

"That was great Kenna, now let me show you the rest." we spent nearly all night working on the parchment. By the end of it I could spell my name! After that Artie decided that we should stop. We spent an hour just talking, Artie telling me about his life at the school and me telling him what being a rouge is like. Finally, as he was recounting one of his tales of being on the jousting team, I slipped into a peaceful sleep.

"Kenna? Artie?" my eyes were heavy as they opened, instantly blinded by the suns rays. I groaned, burying my head into my pillow. Said pillow groaned, firm arms holding me tightly. Instantly my eyes snapped open, meeting a pair of calm groggy blues.

Artie was holding me tightly against his chest, his back against the wooden wall of the ship while he cradled me against him. He was staring down at me, eyes soft.

"Morning you," Artie said, his nose brushing mine. I fought to contain myself, my body not quite working at the same speed my heart was going at.

"You: Y O U," I said dumbly. Artie smiled, letting his arms drop from around me.

"Very good," he said before standing up and walking off. I watched him go before getting up and stretching out my sore muscles. Although sleeping out on the deck in an awkward position wasn't a good idea, it was definitely one of my best.

Picking up my writing stuff, I headed back down below deck and over to my hammock. I stopped, looking into my bed to see a box wrapped in a red ribbon. There was a piece of paper sitting on it and I picked it up.

"Kenna, I have made this sim…ple for you to read. I am pro…ud of you for learn…ing to read and write so qu-quickly. Here is a lit…tle gift to keep you go-ing," I read with a bit of trouble. Putting the piece of paper down, I picked up the box and opened it, feeling myself smile as it revealed a piece of crisp white parchment, an orange, gold and red quill made from a griffin feather and an ink pot.

I took the feather, stroking the golden tips softly with my finger before placing it behind my ear, a spot I knew would keep it safe. Closing the box and tying it shut, I placed it the satchel I always keep at my side before heading back up stairs. Artie was back at his spot, looking out over the ocean. I joined him, hopping back onto the side like yesterday. He gave me a cautious look.

"Are you sure you wanna do that, you nearly had a heart attack yesterday," he said, looking ready to grab me. I shrugged.

"I'll take it if it comes," I said. His eyebrows furrowed.

"What? Aren't you afraid?" he asked and I shrugged again.

"To me, fear is pointless. Like emotion it can be pushed away by willpower and forced down." Artie looked almost horrified.

"That's an awful way of looking at it," he said.

"Well it keeps me from getting attached or hurt so it works for me," I answered. Although looking a little disappointed at my answer, Artie smiled.

"Well for what it's worth, I think you look very nice with the quill in your hair," he said and I blushed. I don't often get comments like that.

"Thanks. So are you excited?" I asked, quickly changing the subject. Artie chuckled, ducking his head.

"Yeah, but I just can't believe it…me a king?" I shot him a confused look. Surly he must have been told a little about his blood line. "I mean sure I knew I cam from royalty and all but I just figured everyone forgot about me," he explained.

"Oh…well that sucks," I mumbled awkwardly. I was never any good at giving comfort or words of encouragement (Helping Shrek with his father issues was a bit of a fluke) luckily at that moment the big guy came over to save me from the situation.

"Oh no, in fact, the king asked for you personally," he said with a fake smile. I raised a judging eyebrow at him from behind Artie but he only glared at me. I smirked at him from over Artie's shoulder before hopping off the rail.

I walked away, catching Artie's excited smile as he turned to Shrek. Taking my usual spot in the riggings, I watched as Shrek spoke about how great it was being a king, lying through his teeth. I couldn't hear everything they were saying but I sometimes caught little snippets.

"Whoa this is goanna be huge! Parties! Princesses! Castles! Princesses!" I rolled my eyes. Of course he would want a princess, everyone wants a princess. Not that I cared or anything, soon Artie would just be another subject under Charming's reign and another job for me to complete.

After that comment I stopped listening, placing my gaze on the open ocean. We were coming up on an island on our port side. We would pass it with no problems and be further on our way to Far Far Awa-

The boat rocked dangerously to the side, causing me to fall from the riggings. Luckily I wasn't that high up so the crash wasn't too painful. After picking myself up I looked around to see the cause.

Artie and Shrek were currently battling it out over the wheel of the ship, spinning it this way and that, causing the ship to lurch wildly.

"What are you doing?" Shrek shouted, spinning the wheel so the ship was back on course. Artie was flung away, a shuffleboard stick sliding next to him. I was having trouble standing up but I managed to grab the rim of the ship and haul myself up.

Artie also managed to stand (more then Puss and Donkey could handle) and grabbed the shuffleboard stick, jamming it into the ship wheel.

"What does it look like?" he yelled back as the boat lurched.

"This isn't really up to you!" Shrek shouted, regaining control of the wheel.

"But I don't know anything about being king!" Artie argued, grabbing the wheel again.

"You'll learn on the job!" Shrek yelled, pushing Artie away.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm going back!" Artie yelled, firmly grabbing the spokes of the wheel and pulling.

By this point I had had enough of this. Staggering over to the ship wheel, I grabbed it from the front, grabbing the attention of both boys.

"Back to what? Being a loser?" I shouted at Artie, praying it would be enough to make him stop. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I knew I had gone to far, especially after he helped me last night. His anger dropped from his face and he let go of the wheel, glaring at me.

Unfortunately this caused Shrek's hold on the wheel to become to much and the wheel broke away form the ship.

"Now look what you did!" Shrek yelled at him. Artie was broken from his glare at me, turning back to Shrek.

"Look what I did? Look who's holding the wheel chief!" he snapped back. I was stating to feel a bit ill, the swaying of the ship getting to me.

"Shrek!" we all turned to see Donkey pointing out towards where the ship was headed; what could be called a mini island of sharp jagged rocks that could slice this ship in two.

I felt all the strength leave my legs and I staggered over to Arthur, grabbing his arm. His head snapped down to me, his eyes burning with anger.

"Artie…water," I chocked out, gripping him tightly. All anger was replaced by confusion.

"So?" he asked with a sharp voice, even though he moved closer.

"Remember yesterday when I freaked out when I nearly fell over board?" I asked and he nodded. "I can't swim." I just managed to catch the fear flash across his face before a crashing filled my hearing and water consumed all of my other senses.

Flailing madly in the water I tried to push myself to the surface. My head managed to break the surface for a moment. In those few seconds before I sank below the surface I heard one thing above the thrashing of the water and the screams of the others.

"KENNA!"

"Artie…" I cried weakly in response before I sank below the waves.

ohhhh, what's goanna happen next?

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