kingdom ; minishaw

six.

jide stared at the empty bed.

he had only wanted to see if the other boy was awake, because he couldn't sleep. all in all, he was completely baffled as to the whereabouts of his new friend. they had completed so many chores and simon looked exhausted, so why was he not in his bed?

adding to that, the bed was made; it appeared he hadn't even been in it. he knew this for a fact, because simon minter was a mess and his room suited that. one of the maids fixed his bed, out of pity for the youngest servant. he knew simon had wandered off before, but where exactly did he go?

jide knew simon had the whole day off tomorrow, he had even told him that he would most likely be visiting his family. surely, he would want to get a good night in preparation.

jide sighed, closing simon's door and walking back to his room. there was something odd about the boy.

he never sat still, in fact he preferred to stand even when a seat was being offered to him. when jide was instructing him on how things worked he almost always slipped into a daydream, not even realising what was going on around him. he was a good worker, though- jide would give him that.

so, if he was not in his room; where was he?

-

"i see lights!" harry shouted, shaking simon aggressively and then apologising profusely over and over again when simon was startled by the contact.

"this is the village," simon said after reassuring harry that it was okay, "where i grew up."

"oh." harry gasped, trying to look at every detail at once.

"do you know, everything is even better than i thought it would be."

"like what?" simon probed.

"the trees! they're so tall, from my window they always looked smaller." he burst out.

simon halted the horse, giving harry quite a shock.

"what are you doing?" he asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

"you like the trees?" simon said, more of a statement than a question but harry still nodded in reply.

simon leant forward and hoisted a leg over the horse, jumping neatly onto the ground. he then held out a hand and helped harry off the horse, literally catching him as he was shorter- that meant a bigger distance from the ground.

simon turned and walked towards a pretty tree, where the leaves seemed to hang around it like a curtain.

"this is a willow tree." simon showed him.

"pretty." harry nodded, clasping his hands together.

simon chuckled and led harry gently by the arm, ducking under the curtain of leaves right to the centre where the tree branches were concealed.

"it's like a hiding place." harry said, skipping around the little place.

"you wanna climb it?" simon asked, looking up at the widespread branches and deciding it was safe.

"climb it?" harry's eyes widened, "you can do that?"

"of course," simon replied, "-do you want-"

"yes!" harry interrupted with a squeal, running towards the middle where the actual tree was.

koko was content to stay there, chewing on the leaves as the two boys clambered up the tree, simon always behind harry so if he fell it would hurt less. simon had been climbing trees ever since he could walk but harry had never even seen a tree up close. somehow, he was a nimble climber and that made simon giggle.