is it fate that we meet?

a start of something new

Lumine pulled herself higher up the tree, her hands gripping the rough bark as she moved through the leafy foliage.

She managed to reach the branch she had in mind and crawled on all fours until she was in the middle of the sturdy branch, the branch swaying slightly as she did so, the leaves rustling.

She enjoyed the view from that height, the expanses of green grassland stretching infinitely into the horizon. Sure it was all a cool trick developed by the Abyss scientists, something to make grass grow in the underground, an illusion of the world above, emphasised by the cold dark stone walls encompassing the whole space, their presence seemingly closing in on her despite being so far away.

She enjoyed these moments of peace, of quiet bliss, where she could leave her royal heritage far behind, leave the busy yet dull royal life, hiding in the bushy leaves of her favourite tree.

Many people dream of being a royal, but Lumine dreamt of being a commoner. Even at 9 years of age, she has to go through so many things in preparation for when she would rule, so many boring meetings and classes of etiquette, politics, and much more. As the crown princess, she had to be well-versed in everything, from the arts to most Teyvatian languages. Everything was just a mundane chore, nothing interested her, and all her actions felt so robotic, just doing it for the sake of her country.

She spotted a head of tousled bright orange hair as she peered down. There was a boy around her age leaning against the tree, he was quite well-dressed, and he was fiddling with something in his hands.

How she wished she had a friend.

She never had a friend before. The royal abyss court, and the royal advisor, who were in charge of her life, kept her far away from any other children her age, saying they were not worth her time, and that she had better things to do.

She wondered how it'll feel like having a friend.

She had seen children playing in the streets of the Abyss city, as she watched on in envy and loneliness.

A white butterfly flitted around her face and she flinched back, caught by surprise as the butterfly seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

And then she realised that she couldn't flinch back as behind her was just air, and she fell.

As her body dropped through the air, she let out a small squeal, something she had never done before in her stiff life of proper behaviour.

But instead of meeting the hard ground, she landed on something comfier and softer.

She got up and turned around in surprise, finding the boy underneath her. He must have cushioned her fall.

Seeing that the boy was not moving, she got off him and immediately started shaking his shoulders. "Hey are you okay?" Her voice became more high pitched as she started to really worry. "Hey! I don't want to have killed someone with my butt! I'm so sorry!"

A chuckle bubbled out of the boy as he sat up. "I'm fine, falling angel." He chuckled even harder as her eyebrows lifted in surprise at his flirting. "Although, you are quite heavy."

She gasped, somewhat in mock hurt, and crossed her arms. "How dare you. I'll have you know I'm on a strict diet. Maybe it's you that's weak."

Since he doesn't seem to know she's the princess, she might as well take a break from her manners.

"Well, I'll have you know that I train everyday. There's no way I'm weak."

He had piercing ocean blue eyes, the blues swirling around like ocean currents.

"Why were you up on the tree though?"

"Why not?"

"Can you please just answer my question?"