Rarer Than Gems

Chapter 10- Nature walk

Nkenna knocked on Antoine's door as she called out to him.

'Antoine?Antoine? Are you okay?'

He opened the door to talk to her. He was wearing a tee shirt and shorts with a pair of flip flops.

'Oh, um, hi', he said, as he rubbed his eyes.

'I just came to see if you were okay. You didn't come for breakfast and your eyes look kind of red'

'Yeah. I've been feeling a bit down so I thought I'd lay here for a bit and I ended up falling asleep'

'Oh, sorry about that. I kept your breakfast in a plate in the kitchen. You can eat it whenever you're feeling better'

'Thank you'

'No prob. I'm gonna go take a shower. See you later', she said.

Nkenna went to her room and took a shower. By the time she got back downstairs, she noticed that Antoine's plate was empty and cleaned.

She once again couldn't find him, then she heard something drop on the floor outside the house.

She opened the front door and found Antoine sitting on the stairs of the porch. He picked a pencil from the floor and continued sketching something on a piece of paper.

'Hey', she said.

'Hi', he replied, without looking up from the paper.

'So, what are you drawing?', she asked, as she sat down beside him.

'The landscape'

'It's beautiful', she said, as she looked at the drawing in admiration.

'What? The landscape or the drawing?', he asked, with his eyes wide open with expectation, finally looking away from the paper and looking at her.

She giggled. 'The drawing'

'Oh. Thanks. So, what do you plan on doing today?'

'I'm gonna go for a walk. Do you wanna come, or would you rather stay here and continue drawing?', she asked.

'I guess I'll come. It'll help me get some inspiration', he said, then stood up.

'Okay. Let me go get my camera'

'Camera?', he asked.

'Yeah. I'm into nature photography. Be right back', she said, then went into the house and got her camera then flung it over her neck.

She got back outside where she met Antoine holding a pencil, eraser and note pad.

'Let's go', she said, and they were off. They hadn't walked for too long when Nkenna noticed something in the sky.

'Look!', Nkenna said, pointing at a bird up in the sky. 'It's an Alpine swift. I gotta get this', she hurriedly grabbed her camera and took several pictures of it. 'Did you know that they can fly for nearly a year without stopping?', she asked Antoine.

'No I didn't. That's amazing', he replied, enthusiastically.

'Yeah. It is.'

'You seem to be really interested in nature', he said to her.

'Yeah. It feels so nice to just get out there, breathe in that fresh air and relax'

Antoine took a moment to look around and appreciate the natural colours and textures.

'I wish I could do this more often. Walking around and feeling free', he said.

'Well why can't you? Nature's always open to everyone'

'When you're a Prince it's not. Always having to go to specific places at specific times working with a specific schedule and even the few times that I get to go out and do something else, I'm constantly babied by my battalion of bodyguards'

'At least you're free now'

'Yeah, but I can't stop thinking about the palace and my family. They must be extremely worried about me and I'm worried about them too. I mean, what if..........', he said and turned to Nkenna as tears began to well up in his eyes. 'What if the attackers from the other night, whoever they are, go back to the palace and try to hurt or even worse, kill my family. I wish I could go back to the palace'

'Listen, Antoine. It was obvious from the other night that, for whatever reason, you were their main target. If you go back right now, that could just draw them back to the palace, endangering you and your entire family. I think you should just lay low for a little bit before figuring out what to do next'

'You're right. Thanks for having this talk with me. I really needed it', he said, and gave her a huge hug.

'Oh', he said, as he stepped back. 'I hope you don't mind. I kind of got caught up in the moment'

'No, it's fine. You smell nice'

He laughed. 'Wait, what?'

'Nothing!', she said.

'Wait a minute, why have you been helping me so much?', Antoine asked.

'It's nice to help people out and besides, it's a great way to make friends. I mean, we are friends now, right?', Nkenna asked.

'Yeah. Friends', Antoine said, and smiled, pleased.