Ylsa watched as Telen and Marlyn packed her things; she'd been relegated to the window seat after she'd tried to help and been turned away. She hated sitting idle, she'd never been told not to help with preparations before; back home in the Westerlands, she'd frequently been relegated to help the servants by her step-mother. Being waited on like this was so strange, she doubted she'd ever get used to it.
"I don't need so many dresses," she tried to protest, as Telen folded yet another into the trunk. "I can wash and rewear them, I don't need 20…."
"Well, why not bring them?" she countered, the white cotton dress she had in her arms being neatly folded into squares and tucked in with the others. "You won't need to carry any of this, that'll be the soldier's jobs. Might as well bring all you can."
"We'll only be at the Water Garden for a month."
"And in that month, Prince Doran will see you each and every day," Ellanna put in, emerging from the other room, her arms full of various other items to pack. "You may as well look more stunning each time he sees you."
"I don't much see the point," Ylsa mumbled, but it was no use, more and more things she knew she wouldn't need were packed into her trunks and she was powerless to stop it. That is, until Marlyn moved to slide the undecorated trunk from under her bed.
"And this one, My Lady?" she asked, surprised to see Ylsa leap up, shooing her away from it.
"No, no, don't take anything out of this one!" she said, a bit panicked. Standing in front of it, as if to shield it, she was quite flustered as all three women stopped what they were doing to look at her quizzically. "I-I mean….this one is special. I don't want anyone opening it up."
"Why, you have a dead body in there?" Telen snickered, before Ellanna elbowed her ribs suddenly.
"No it's….it's some of my mother's possessions," Ylsa admitted, checking to make sure the latch on the trunk was still firmly locked. Telen quieted down at that, looking suddenly sullen, if only slightly. "I just don't want anything sullied or lost….this is all I have left of her…." Shooting Telen a stern look, Ellanna cleared her throat, softening her gaze towards Ylsa.
"We don't have to repack it in another trunk, but would you like to take it with us? Just so you have it with you at all times?" she asked. Ylsa glanced down at the beat up old trunk wearily; she was sure it would survive the trip, but she was still worried. But, Ellanna had a point. She'd be worried about it being rifled through or stolen if she left it behind. She slowly nodded.
"If it's not too much trouble," she answered, shrugging. Ellanna laughed, approaching her and setting a hand on her shoulder kindly.
"Of course it's not! You act as if you're such an imposition." As Ylsa stepped away from the trunk, Ellanna bent to pick it up by the side handles; it wasn't an overly large trunk, but it was heavy enough that Ylsa had never been able to drag it around by herself. But as she watched the older woman carry it over to the others and set it down, Ylsa realized Ellanna was far stronger than she looked.
'Dornish women really do do whatever they like,' she thought to herself, slowly going back to fretting as Telen kept pulling more dresses out of the wardrobe and packing them.
It certainly felt like the better part of forever, watching others do her packing for her, but it was really only the better part of the early morning, and by the time the four of them, Ylsa, Marlyn, Telen and Ellanna all made their way down to the main foyer, escorted by Areo and a few other guards, the sun was still hardly risen over the horizon.
"Lady Ylsa." Prince Doran, against the better judgement of his guards, stood as Ylsa approached with her retinue, though he leaned on the high back of his chair as he did. He tended to resent the way he was treated, like a little old invalid man, just because of a little flare up of gout, of all things! Areo knew better than to insist otherwise, so as he accompanied Lady Payne to the foyer, all he did was sigh heavily as he watched the Prince rise.
"Prince, Doran," she greeted him politely, eyeing him up and down. "…Forgive me, my Prince, but….should you be standing?" She felt a little out of her place asking, but until now, she hadn't really seen him rise of his own volition. Just be wheeled around in that chair; she'd known he'd had an affliction of the foot, the 'Rich Man's Disease' as it was called in the west, but she'd been under the impression that he really couldn't stand on his own…? Her footsteps sped up just slightly, feeling a little nervous that he might be about to pitch forward due to some unbalance or something. But Doran let out an amused chuckle, shaking his head.
"Don't tell me they've got you thinking I'm some helpless little man, too?" he asked good-naturedly, and although Ylsa's face flared red at the gentle chide, she smiled back, for once taking his gentle barbs as a joke, and not a criticism. She was so unused to the former, and so used to the latter, after all. "I can walk, trust me. I won't fall over like some wizened little miser."
"Do you intend to walk all the way to the Water Garden, then?" Ylsa asked, her sudden sarcasm slipping out before she could stop it. She froze then, chest tightening up slightly as Doran just stared at her, but almost simultaneously, the two of them burst out laughing; Doran for the fact that he would never have guessed this quaking little flower of a girl could have a witty tongue, and Ylsa because….well, she didn't quite know why. Perhaps it was just that Doran's laugh was so infectious.
"Shall we try?" he asked, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye as Ylsa closed the distance between them to stand beside him.
"Probably better not to," she admitted, watching horse-pulled carts bearing the company's packed trunks pull away from the main road out in front of the palace; they'd arrive way before the rest of the company, ready to be unpacked for when the Prince and the rest finally did arrive.
"You're most likely right, if I tried, it'd be a three-day trip as the entire retinue waited for me to catch up each time I lagged behind, instead of half a day." He smiled down at her, for once, and Ylsa suddenly realized; Doran was not all that much taller than her. It was pretty difficult to judge height when one person was always seated, but she'd assumed Doran would be at least as tall as Oberyn, or even taller. But he looked to be shorter; perhaps only 5'8 or 9 at most. Ylsa herself only stood a few inches shorter. "So, we'd better ride." As Doran nodded to a few guards, Ylsa suddenly felt a little nervous; ride, as in, horses? Could Prince Doran ride Horses in his condition? And more importantly….could Ylsa?
"Er…..I have to admit, my Prince….I don't have much experience riding horses. …Or any." Ylsa had never ridden, her Father had always said it was too dangerous for a little girl, and by the time he'd deemed her old enough, she just hadn't ever had much time to herself, her step-mother liked to run her ragged. Ylsa liked the idea of learning to ride, but in truth, she doubted if she'd ever learn at this point, and was a bit fearful of the prospect of a half-day's ride when she had no practice whatsoever. But Doran just shook his head, motioning her to follow him out of the foyer and to the main steps outside as Areo moved to wheel him along.
"In this heat, I'm afraid your fair skin would burn to a crisp on horseback through midday; I've arranged for a transport more suited to our individual handicaps." Ylsa let out an imperceptible sigh of relief as they were shown to an open-paneled carriage. She hadn't planned on making a complete fool of herself today, and she was glad she wouldn't have to. Areo and Ylsa held out an arm for the Prince to take at the same time as he rode again at the top of the main stairs, and the man just smiled at Areo, taking Ylsa's arm instead. "Thank you," he said, trying not to lean as heavily on her as he would have normally while she helped him down the stairs.
"Of course, Prince Doran," she replied, a little unsure how to best help him, but he was such a good sport about it. They only stumbled once, and Ylsa managed to keep them both from rolling down the stairs to the foot of the carriage, so she considered that a success. But Areo was waiting to help the both of them step up into the carriage, whose open sided windows were draped with fabric the same sheerness as was most fabric in Dorne, Ylsa thought. She understood, it was hot, but did everything have to be so light and see through? As Doran sat back in the cushioned bench across from Ylsa, he sighed, pleasantly shaded from the harsh rising sun by the covered canopy of the carriage.
"Truth be told, I've never been a big fan of horseback riding either," he said, smiling at his bride to be. "Horses and I….we don't seem to get along."
"I've never learned," Ylsa said, shrugging slightly, a bit startled as the carriage lurched forward as they began to move. "And now, I'd be a little….intimidated to."
"I'd say I would teach you, but I'm not the most qualified teacher. Besides, if there's one good thing about gout, it's that I have a pretty good excuse to not ride horses again." He winked at her at this, and Ylsa tried to hide an amused smile; she probably shouldn't laugh at that, but it was a ridiculous notion. But Doran wasn't offended, in fact, he couldn't keep the smile off his own face. Ylsa was so shy, that now that she was starting to warm up and smile more around him, he could hardly keep his eyes off her. She really was lovely.
"I'd rather take a carriage," Ylsa admitted, glancing out of the window as they made their way through the streets of Sunspear. "Or walk, even if it did take us three days."
"Hah, now that's saying something!" If there was any one striking feature about Doran, it was that smile of his. It was such an easy, comforting smile, not the strained, forced smiles Ylsa was so used to. She had begun to notice it everywhere in Dorne, but on Doran, it felt a little…deeper. It was his eyes, she realized, averting her own when she realized she'd been staring for just a bit too long at him. He always looked as if he were deep in thought with those eyes. Like there was so much going on behind that easy smile.
The two of them fell into a comfortable silence as they rode on, Ylsa watching as the city was left behind them, farther and farther, until the palace itself looked like a speck on the horizon. Bumping along the coastal road, high beach grass sprung up all around them with the occasional spindly, stunted tree, the only sounds came from the horses occasional whiny, their hooves, and the gulls and bugs that flitted about in the heavy morning breeze. Even the temperature wasn't yet too warm, pleasant yet arid, and with the gentle rock of the carriage coupled with how early Ylsa had arisen to pack, everything came together in a perfect storm to lull her off to a light sleep as they rode along.
As she dozed, Doran's smile quirked up at one corner. She was leaning her cheek in one hand as her elbow rested on the sill of the open sided window, her lips pursed slightly and her eyelashes resting against her cheeks. Doran wasn't the type to feel abashed by staring, though out of courtesy to Ylsa, whom he knew was a bit uncomfortable with it, he usually kept his glances short. But now that he could take in the sight of her freely, he thought to himself that he rather liked the way she looked like this. Her hair was down loose by her shoulders again, just enough curl to it to bounce and sway with the motion of the carriage, and the way she was draped in sleep in the seat across from him struck him as almost portrait-like.
'If I were a painter,' he thought, 'she would make such a lovely subject.' He had always envied artistic men, now more so than ever. What a muse this girl was.
"Lady Ylsa?" Ylsa jerked awake as a hand was set lightly on her shoulder, eyes startling open. She blinked several times, her vision unblurring slowly, and just as she realized it was Prince Doran who had shaken her awake with an amused chuckle, her cheeks flared up pink, feeling flustered at being caught dozing off.
"Oh!" she squeaked, in her sudden shock and embarrassment, standing up suddenly, but forgetting where she was; her head collided painfully with the top of the carriage, and she fell back down into her seat, wincing heavily as she held her head. "Ah! ….Owww…" Doran hadn't meant to, but as she bumped her head and fell back, a sudden laugh burst forth, which he quickly stifled, getting up from his seat (with a little difficulty) and switching to sit beside Ylsa as she covered her face in one hand, turning away.
"Ylsa, are you alright?" he asked, setting his hand on her shoulder once more, still highly amused but putting on a serious face; it was rude enough that he'd laughed!
"I'm sorry!" she apologized, but even in her embarrassment, Doran thought he heard a slight edge of laughter in her voice. "Oh….gosh I shouldn't have fallen asleep, and now….I'm a mess today…."
"Please, think nothing of it, I would have fallen asleep as well if we weren't already here!" Just as he said this, the carriage came to a halt, and peeking an eye open and through her fingers, Ylsa saw that they had been delivered to the front gates of the Water Garden. "How is your head, you didn't hit it too hard, did you?"
"Ah….no, no, it's….mostly my pride that's been bruised," she admitted, smiling sheepishly as she let her hand drop from her face. The gates were opened then, and the carriage moved once more, to bring them right into the main courtyard. Inside the walls, Ylsa could see the servants and soldiers taking in the last of the luggage, that had arrived much before Doran and her.
"I figured," Doran replied, relieved. "I shouldn't have laughed, I'm sorry, My Lady. You just surprised me, that was all!"
"I would have laughed too," Ylsa said, shrugging her shoulders, glancing at the hand the Prince kept there. "Not at you, I mean, at me!"
"Laugh at me whenever you wish, Lady Ylsa," he assured her, as the carriage once again halted, and Areo seemed to appear out of thin air outside the carriage to help Doran into his chair in the courtyard. "But come now, I'm sure you're feeling rather stiff from sleeping upright, you must be dying to stretch properly outside this damn carriage." Following him out of the carriage and out onto the lawn, Ylsa was surprised at how green the palace here seemed. The walls were cloaked in ivies of varying breeds, most sporting blooms this time of year, though underneath it wasn't merely sandstone walls. As Areo wheeled Doran through the arched entryway and into the open foyer corridor, Ylsa followed, noticing the colored tiles set into the stonework of the walls; had the ivy not been present, she would have been greeted by a finely made mother-of-pearl mosaic. And the interior walls likewise were as finely set and crafted. The ivy hanging down over the windows shaded the interior corridors more than at the palace at Sunspear, so the air inside was much cooler than she expected.
Doran noticed Ylsa's eye caught on the details of the stonework as they made their way through the palace, and he chuckled.
"Wait until you see the inner courtyards," he mused, smiling up at her.
"Courtyards is probably not the best work to describe it," Areo put in, and the two men shared a laugh that Ylsa wasn't privy to, though it wasn't long before they came upon exactly what they'd been referring to. As they crossed the vast property, coming upon a wide balcony, Ylsa realized the palace here was built into the hillside, and below stretched the inner courtyards. Oh, and what a beautiful property it was; long, tiled pools of lilied water flowed from fountains set into the ground, long rectangles that stretched inbetween the high-growing hedges and vined trellises. Farther on much higher hedges grew; a maze of them, she realized, looking down on them, and on and on the garden swept, more greenery and flowers and burbling pools of sparkling blue water than she would have thought would be brought together in one big collection. It was beautiful, more so than she'd been expecting!
Doran watched as the surprised smile spread across her features, her eyes shining brighter than sapphires as she took in the sight. Her hands had been clasped together in front of her, but as she glanced down at her betrothed, she reached out, grabbing his upper arm for a moment, as if excitedly turning to show him exactly what she was seeing, but she realized he knew exactly what this place looked like; he'd grown up here, after all. Taking her hand away quickly, she turned back to the balcony view, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"It's beautiful," she said, sighing as she spoke, reaching out to lean over the railing slightly. "I can't believe I'm really seeing the famous Water Gardens…"
"See them, play in them, swim in them," Doran listed off, remembering running through the aisles the vined trellises made as kids, running after his siblings. But Ylsa just laughed as if he were making a joke, smoothing out the crepe skirts of her soft bronze gauzy gown.
"Oh, I'm too old to play in them," she said, shaking her head, her soft brunette curls swinging at her shoulders. "But I would love to walk through them."
"You're never too old to play," Doran said, amused at her attempts to appear like a sophisticated woman; it was no doubt a trait ingrained in men and women alike up North. In Dorne, it was not such a crime to remain a bit of whimsy.
"What games would I play?" she asked incredulously, her laugh like a bashful chime, just scarcely louder than a whisper on the wind. "I don't even know any games."
"Maybe I'll teach you some of mine," Doran said, and then he did a peculiar thing. Reaching for her hand, he took it gently, but that wasn't so much weird as it was flustering. But as Ylsa bashfully glanced at him, her raised his eyebrows at her, and then winked quickly. Then, without any more warning, he turned to Areo, clearing his throat. "Let's go down to the inner courtyards, shall we?" he said, nodding as Areo started to push him back down the corridor, Ylsa in quick tow, her hand still in Doran's. She was led down a peculiar little ramp; it was newly carved sandstone, which she realized must have only been carved recently, for Doran's wheeled chair to go up and down the stairs that no doubt used to stand in their place. Areo was not exchanging knowing glances with Doran, so Ylsa got the feeling that whatever the Prince was thinking, the thought was not shared with his Captain.
"Oh…" As soon as the passed through a high arched entry into the ground level gardens, Doran began to pat at his jacket pockets, seemingly looking for something. "Damn. I can't find my watch. I know I had it with me when we arrived….You saw me check it when I got off the carriage, didn't you Areo?"
"You did," the Captain said, seeming surprised that the Prince was without the watch. "Maybe you dropped it?"
"If I did it was an accident; would you go back up and see if it's on the ground anywhere?" Ylsa glanced back the way they had come as Areo nodded, moving away to retrace their steps, and look for the golden trinket. As soon as he rounded the corner and was out of sight, Doran glanced back at Ylsa.
"Perhaps it's in a pocket you haven't checked?" Ylsa offered, trying to be helpful, and Doran just chuckled, motioning for her to bend closer. As she did, he spoke quietly.
"I dropped it," he said, a mischievous look in his eye, and when she leaned back to glance at him quizzically, he pointed upwards. Craning her neck back to see what he was pointing at, she noticed they were directly below the balcony they had been at not moments before. "I dropped it there, before we started coming down here."
"Why?" she asked, confused, as he'd seemed genuinely upset at it's loss; why had he purposefully left it, only to have to send Areo back for it? But as soon as Doran saw Areo appear on the balcony, he snatched Ylsa's hand once more, and turning the wheels of his chair manually, he pulled her along as they ducked into the aisles of hedges and flowers, just slow enough for Areo to see them. "Doran, what are we doing?" Despite her confusion, Ylsa still laughed, utterly amused and mystified by the Prince's strange behavior.
"We're playing my favorite game from when I was younger," he said, and Ylsa realized this man was far more nimble in this chair than she'd previously assumed; she had to keep a decent trot to keep up with him as he pushed the wheels forward on his arm strength alone.
"Tag?" she asked incredulously, giggling when the other grinned at her.
"Doran!" Areo called to them as they turned a corner, not angry, more exasperated than anything, and the two of them broke into laughter as the Captain started back down towards the gardens, and at the thought of truly being chased, Ylsa let out a laugh that was a bit more akin to a shriek, something she hadn't done since she was a child!
"I hope I'm not being too presumptuous," Doran said, pulling on Ylsa's hand, spinning her around front of him, only to pull her into his lap. "But I think we'll have an easier time avoiding him if we're moving at the same speed, no?" Under any other circumstances, Ylsa would have been a terrible stuttering mess at this; how improper, to sit in a man's lap! But currently, all she could think was 'this makes perfect sense!' and just nodded, grinning as she wrapped an arm around Doran's shoulders to keep from falling as they took another corner, Doran just surprisingly adept at maneuvering this chair as well as he was!
Areo couldn't run as fast as Doran could push the wheels of the chair, and especially in places where he went rolling downhill, but it wasn't hard to keep track of the two as they played the most childish game of tag with the Captain of the Guard; their laughter was unmistakable, and incredibly infectious; Areo couldn't help but laugh along every time he heard "No, no, turn Doran, look out!" followed by the sounds of a hedge being hit and jostled, and more laughing.
Ylsa let out a bubble of laughter as one of her slippers came off as her legs dangled off one side of Doran's lap, the silky shoe fluttering to the ground, left in the dust behind them.
"I'll buy you another," Doran promised, hanging another hard turn, downhill again this time, letting the forward momentum carry them without having to push the wheels forward. But as they picked up speed, Ylsa holding onto him by the shoulders, he realized he wasn't exactly where he thought they were in the garden; ahead of them, right beyond the hedge aisle they were sailing through now was a rectangular pool of water he hadn't thought would be there, and he realized in such a narrow aisle, there was no room to turn sideways to halt their forward movement, and even as he tried to grab the wheels to keep them from careening towards the water, he couldn't stop them, not in time.
"Doran!" Ylsa gasped, realizing just a little too late that they were going too fast to stop in time. "The water, the water! Doran, turn!"
"I can't-" he managed to say, just before jerking the chair sideways, only for the forward momentum they carried to cause the chair to tip sideways, just as they came right up to the edge of the pool.
"No, no, no!-" Ylsa cried, grabbing onto Doran, as if that could save her; they were both thrown from the chair into the water with a splash, the impact greatly disoriented. Doran was able to get his bearings quickly, but as he surfaced, sputtering slightly, he realized Ylsa was not so quick. Ducking his head back under the surface, he realized Ylsa was pretty much lost in a cloud of her own gauzy dress under the water, desperately trying to snatch the material away from her face to see which way was up. Her eyes were squeezed shut under the water, and as Doran reached for her outstretched hand, her mouth opened, nothing but a cloud of bubbles coming out.
Yanking her up, her head broke the surface as she gasped for hair, hair in her face, reaching for Doran in her disorientation. Doran wrapped an arm around her as she clung to him, sputtering up a lungful of water as he held onto the side of the pool with one arm. He was coughing up a few breaths worth of water as well, and as Ylsa calmed down in his arms, still holding onto him for the life of her, hair covering her face, her shoulders began to shake slightly. At first, Doran thought she was crying, and immediately he felt terrible; she'd told him she was too old for shit like this, and he'd basically forced her! He was about to start apologizing, just as soon as he found his voice again, but before he could, he realized; she wasn't crying, she was laughing.
Ylsa's laugh bubbled up louder this time, filling the tense air around them as she shoved her wet hair back out of her face, grinning at Doran through wet lashes. He couldn't help but slowly join in, exuberated by their little misfortune, wet and half-drowned as they clung to each other, but still they laughed even as Areo ran up, perplexed by this turn of events.
"…..What happened!?" he asked finally, as Ylsa finally calmed down enough and wiped the tears from her eyes. He reached down to take her outstretched hand, to pull her up out of the water.
"A little accident," Doran said, hand lingering on her back, before she was pulled from the water. "We got derailed…" His smile turned into an awkward thin line across his face as he averted his eyes when his betrothed was finally free of the water; her sheer dress was not at all modest now that it was soaked. In Ylsa's good mood, she didn't immediately realize; it wasn't until Areo helped pull Doran from the water, and he peeled off his likewise soaked but much more opaque jacket from his shoulders, offering it to Ylsa did she look down at her gown, realizing with a start that it was clinging to her like a damn second skin! Grabbing the jacket offered to her, she slipped it over her shoulders, thanking the Gods that Dornishmen's jackets were so long.
"Thank you," she squeaked, clearing her throat awkwardly.
"It's the least I can do, after nearly drowning you," Doran replied, offering a lopsided smile. Ylsa returned it, endeared to this playful side of the Prince that she would have never predicted he had; he was so intense usually, so serious. Who would have known?
"Lady Ylsa!" Marlyn tuttered up suddenly, having been alerted to Doran and Ylsa's antics by a certain pair of Dornish handmaidens, who now stood leaning over the balcony railing above the gardens, observing everything below. Nearly getting herself lost, she was finally able to catch up to Ylsa, Ushering her to follow her to the quarters that had been set up for her across the palace. "Look at you, you're soaked! We have to run a warm bath for you before you catch a cold!" she fretted, wrapping an arm around Ylsa's shoulders, trying to pull her away. But before she let herself be led back up into the palace, Ylsa ducked away from Marlyn quickly, and bent, kissing Doran on the temple as he was sat back in his chair, dripping wet. The older man seemed surprised, eyebrows high on his forehead as he watched Ylsa be led away, until she was out of sight. He sat in silence for a moment, before it was broken by his old friend.
"Nearly drown a girl and she kisses you," Areo said, baffled. "Is it because you're a Prince, or are you a witch?"