Lavender & Lilies

Frustration

Dimitri stood stock-still in awe when they arrived at their new dwelling. Hrym was known for its generally rural villages and towns, certainly not for its architecture. Because of this, Dimitri knew they had been walking to a castle, but he hadn't known it would be a castle castle.

And oh, what a castle it was.

Smack in the middle of an open and sunny field, its sandstone walls reached high into the sky like tongues of flames grasping at the sun as it stretched across the land unoccupied by the forest. Light wooden beams, inlaid with elegant carvings of flora and fauna, interspersed with the vines and flowers that crawled along the dull tan brick boasting vibrant colors. Though seemingly out of place, even the cobwebs lacing the windows retained an air of vividness through the light reflecting off dewdrops in rainbow patterns.

Beside him, Lilliana's face lit up just as brightly as the sun smiling down on them from above.

"I know this place," she breathed, clasping her hands together eagerly while she drank in the view. "I've been here before."

"You have?" Dimitri asked dumbly, unable to pull his eyes away from such a lovely scene.

She nodded, turning at last to smile at him. "Mother and Father took us here one summer. Faye was just a baby, but we had so much fun!"

"Ah." With great effort, he shook his head. "I hope you understand that you're a captive, though, and you're not here for fun."

"Oh, I know that," she covered a giggle with her knuckle, then reached out and took hold of his far shoulder, pointing to the uppermost window of the castle. "Here, do you see that? If you climb out from the right angle you can spring onto the viga just off to the side, then keep going with that until you can get onto the platform on the rooftop. The best part is the balcony-sort-of thing underneath it so you don't fall all the way down,"

Dimitri's jaw dropped. "Your parents really allowed you to do that when you were fifteen?" He stared at her incredulously, forgetting about the hand on his shoulder.

"Father was always fine with it, and Mom never really came outside anyway so she never checked. I only got in trouble once when I was up on the roof at some ridiculous hour of the morning." She gave him a strange look. "Are you telling me you never did anything dangerous when you were that age? It sounds kind of boring for a prince, if you ask me."

He crossed his arms. "I am not boring," he protested loftily. "I was left on a mountainside in deep winter when I was fourteen. It's much more dangerous than climbing up on a roof, in case you think otherwise."

"Ah, and there's the difference," Lilliana held up her index finger. "I climbed up there of my own free will. From the way you phrase it, you got ditched by someone unceremoniously. Therefore, I was doing the more dangerous thing voluntarily, and you're still boring."

Dimitri bristled, struggling to think of a response. "Well... my retainer did it as a practical joke. He woke me up sometime at night and told me to grab my bow, then shoved me outside on the mountain and told me not to come back until I had caught a deer. It... it was fun, just I don't think someone should do that to a child of that age."

She studied him for a brief moment. "So you were tricked?"

Frowning, he answered, "Yes... what about it?"

"I guess I was wrong about you having a boring life for a prince," she said, with a sly tone. "You're not really that boring. I just think you're gullible now."

His cheeks went red with embarrassment. "I am not... I am not gullible! I was a child, and we've all made mistakes. Especially since I trusted my retainer."