Travels
They would spend months at a time out in the wild together. She would come out to the mountains with her sketch books in hand and delve the deepest caves searching for quartz and crystals or other rare minerals to cut and shape in her studio back home. He had been fascinated by this when he heard her speak of it and met with her as she traveled; something he insisted had happened completely by chance although as they grew older she began to believe otherwise. And so she took him to the vast caves and dark crevasses in the mountains, showing him the wonders that lay beneath the earth that glittered and shone bright by candle light. It was not long before he began his own collection of stones and crystals although what he created with them was unknown to her for much of his work he kept secret. She welcomed his company though and was grateful for the bond of friendship that was born. And he would relax when he accompanied her, discovering that he did not have to concern himself with the propriety expected from a High Prince while in the villages of the north, or with her. They had reached such a level of comfort that at times when they camped they would lay around scantily clad, unconcerned with the lack of clothing on the other. They laughed freely and thrived off of a friendship built out of equality and mutual respect. And when they returned from their travels always they parted with an embrace and she would dole out a playful punch to his arm.
She was not sure exactly when her feelings had changed. Just that one day his smile began to look different and his eyes seem to be brighter. The most banal gestures became almost hypnotizing and she would find herself mesmerized by the way he would push his hair behind his ears or tap his fingers against his thigh when lost in thought. It had begun to make journeys with him difficult and she would keep to herself by making it appear as if she were lost in her sketches, pad and pencil in hand, scribbling furiously.
Once she had sketched him in secret only to have him discover it when he had crept up behind her as she worked, peeking over her shoulder and almost giggling when she swatted him away. He had grinned and offered to pose to which she rolled her eyes and replied that would not be necessary since he constantly ran around barely clothed, leaving very little to the imagination. He just smiled and shrugged and went back to preparing whatever he had caught to eat or inspecting whatever they had found within the mountains that day. She had begun to wear more clothing around him, suddenly feeling embarrassed by her bodies obvious flaws when next to his perfection and avoided his eyes so he could not see her insecurities. But in the rare quiet moments in which he slept, she would study his face, memorizing the line of his jaw and soft curve of his mouth as she committed the images to paper again and again.
When they delved into the caves, they would squeeze close to each other in certain passages and she would curse the pounding of her heart and pray he would not be witness to her foolishness. Sometimes she would imagine that he would hold her to him for just a second to long at times or that he would grip her hand through certain tunnels when it was not necessary. But these were just the fancies of a young girl infatuated and she would always brush them off as such. A child's imagination, nothing more and she resolved that she would not accompany him as much in the future, becoming painfully aware of the inappropriateness of their casual behavior.
And when they returned from what she had decided would be the last of their travels together she could not help holding him in their customary parting embrace for just a second longer than usual as she breathed in the scent of his hair and her cheek gently brushed against his. As she pulled away she thought that for a moment he resisted releasing her as his face turned towards hers and they were so close she thought they might kiss. But she brushed this off as a silly girl's fantasy and kept her head lowered as she turned and left him standing there in the night.
