Order of Aria

Chapter One: A Picnic in the Gardens

    It was a warm, spring afternoon. A lovely day for a picnic in the castle gardens. The flowers were blooming, insects were awake and flying about, and the birds were serenading the plants. A young elven girl was waiting at the base of the willow tree for her companion. Leaning against the tree, she twirled her green pieces of hair. Upon hearing footsteps she looked up to see her friend had arrived.

    "I see you've adjusted the green. Makes me kinda sad because you don't look as 'wizard-y' as you did with a full head of it."

   "Really you miss the green?" Aslocke nods with a smile, "Makes me sad that Esme made me fix it. But... I can always give you some colored hair!" Ronwynn slides up to Aslocke and puts her hands out, wiggling her fingers as if she's going to cast a spell. "Do you want some cool colored hair too? I can make it pink!"

    Backing away, putting his hands on hers to lower them Aslocke replies, "No not really, I'm pretty sure it's against Royal Guard Protocol anyway." He lets go of her hands to sit underneath the tree. He pulls the basket she had placed there onto his lap to make room for her to sit beside him.

    "Aw come on! You're, like, their favorite! I'm pretty sure they would let you dye your hair."

    "I highly doubt that. Being the favorite amongst knights is different than being the favorite amongst mages." Ronwynn flops onto the ground beside him. "So what do we have today? Some fruits and cakes or sandwiches?"

    "We have some sandwiches and I was able to snag two miniature cakes!" He opens the basket to investigate the sandwiches and cakes for himself. He pulls out the pink cake and investigates it as though it is something strange.

    "Why are you looking at the cake weirdly? If it's because it's pink, it's supposed to be strawberry. At least that's what Esme told me." She takes the basket from him and grabs the other cake for herself.

    "No no, it's not that. I just highly doubt that you would've been able to snag two cakes. Even with magic just snatching stuff isn't all that easy."

    "How dare you doubt my skills! I'm highly disappointed in you. Why would I enchant cakes anyway? I'm going to be eating them."

    "I never said anything about you enchanting them." He puts the cake down as though it's a fragile glass. She tilts her head at him with an offended look on her face.

    "Just because you didn't say the word 'enchant' doesn't mean you're not insinuating it. If you don't want the cake then fine, I'll eat both cakes and you can have both sandwiches." She reaches for the cake he set down, only for him to snatch it.

    "Just because I find it strange doesn't mean I'm not going to eat it. Besides, if it is enchanted, you're just going to give it to someone else and force them to go through whatever effects you've made."

    "Aw, you do care. If you need any more reassurance there are a bunch of them just sitting out. I think there might be a big council meeting or something today."

    Aslocke paused mid-chew, a bite already taken out of the cake. His eyes widen as he swallows the bite he took. "You took special cakes from the kitchen!? Oh by Ros, if they find out about this we'll be punished for sure. How would we make this up to them? Make two large cakes in return? I don't even know how to bake! And you can't bake unless you use magic. They definitely won't allow your magic. Why did I-"

    "Calm down! These were in the 'discard pile' or whatever. They were the ugly cassoboks of the bunch." She takes a bite of her cake after waving her hand at him.

    "Are you sure? These still look really nice..."

    "I swear to Medeis if you don't finish it, I will."