Nereyda

Chapter 4 || White Escape

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Chapter 4 - White Escape

Nereyda

"Hi," I squeaked.

He kept his expression perfectly stoic but I was sure I could see a teasing glint in his eye. "Shall we?" He asked, holding out his arm for me to take.

I blinked a few times before going to him and linking my arm in his. My floor length sleeves made it slightly awkward but I remembered my manners and allowed him to take the lead.

We walked through the spacious ground floor of the castle, making our way out towards the balcony that would lead us to the gardens. I was trying to take even, measured steps but Oscar's strides were huge and I found myself having to skip unevenly to keep up with him. This meeting was not going well so far.

We reached the back of the castle and went out through the sliding glass doors. Oscar hadn't said anything yet and I had no idea what we were actually supposed to do in our time alone together. If Oscar didn't want to speak, which I could completely understand because conversation was unfashionable, then I had no idea how we were going to occupy ourselves.

My family had never seemed to see anything wrong with long, unfilled silences but I for one found them incredibly uncomfortable. When I was on my own it was fine but when I was with other people I always felt the need to say something to fill the silence. It was stupid really.

"Wow," Oscar expressed his admiration as he looked out on the towering mountains the balcony faced.

The castle was built high into the side of a mountain which loomed over the rest of Paladu. You had to climb hundreds of stairs to reach the castle entrance because of its position. The majority of the palace rooms had been hollowed out of the mountain's insides, the foyer being one of them. We'd now walked the whole way through the mountain and come to look over a deep, narrow valley which stretched on for miles towards the Tainted Sea.

There was a freshwater river that ran through the basement of the castle and from where we stood on the balcony, we could see the water crash thousands of feet into the valley river below. The gentle hammer of the waterfall was calming and the sprawling expanse of vegetation on the other side of the valley was unfettering.

"It's beautiful isn't it," I agreed softly. Oscar leaned against the railing of the balcony now and I stepped forwards so I stood next to him.

He turned his face towards me and my mouth fell open in shock; he was smiling. "You fit right in." His short reddish brown hair flew around erratically in the vigorous mountain breeze.

I didn't pick up on his implication immediately but when I did I felt my face heat. I had never been very good at concealing my emotions and, despite hours of tutoring, when the time came for me to be cool and collected all my emotions just bubbled up and out.

I realised that I was still blushing and looking over his shoulder, not meeting his eye. That was rude. When someone of status addressed you, you had to respectfully lower your gaze and reply.

Why did I have to forget all of my drilled in etiquette now?

"Thank you," I stared fixedly at the floor.

A long finger on my chin raised my face to be parallel with his. My eyes widened and my lips parted slightly in surprise.

"You are probably surprised by my countenance Nereyda." He smiled wryly at me, his eyes sparkly with mischief. "I'm sorry if my behaviour is shocking to you but you must know that I am not native to this city."