"I should be the one apologizing to you, my lady" Javaid said, backing away and giving a little bow, his face flushed with embarrassment. The woman's voice had a faint accent to it, undetectable to all but the most talented of ears. "I'm a klutz at the best of times. I wasn't looking." He smiled at her, although it was barely visible through his hood. "Are you okay?"
Eira nodded. “I’m fine, thank you,” she replied formally, before remembering that she was supposed to be a commoner. They probably were friendlier and more casual with each other from what little she’d seen. “I can be a klutz too, sometimes.” She laughed lightly.
"Good." Javaid gave a small sigh of relief. "I'm Jav, by the way." He thought that it was better to give himself a name that was close to his own, so that he wouldn't give himself away by not reacting to his fake name.
It took Eira a moment to figure out a fake name in response, but luckily her maid’s name came to mind before most people would even notice her hesitation. “My name is Kira,” she responded. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too, Miss Kira,” Javaid said with another bow. “I should let you go back to your business, then,” he said. “I don’t want you to have to talk to boring old me forever.”
Eira suddenly didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t have to go for another few minutes. She had time. “I don’t have much business to attend to,” she admitted. “And I don’t think you’re boring. Though, granted, we did just meet and all.”
“That’s true. Well, you’re the most interesting person I’ve met today, to say the least.” Jav cursed for a moment, and then realized that she wouldn’t have associated him with someone who had never been to the town before. “Well then, shall we walk together for now?” He offered his arm to her.
Eira smiled, taking his proffered arm gracefully. “We shall, thank you,” she responded. “It is refreshing to talk to someone who thinks I’m interesting. And you seem like quite the character yourself, if you don’t mind the observation.”
Javaid laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m always being told that I’m interesting…. although it meant something very different to those who said that to me.” He snorted.
“Have you ever been here before?” He asked. “I want to know beforehand if you’ll have heard of any of the places I want to show you.”
“Just in passing,” Eira admitted, telling the truth. “I’ve never spent much time here. I’m assuming you come here often, then?”
“I do.” While this wasn’t 100% true, it was true enough that it could be considered that. Javaid and Damen, his twin brother, had been here often enough, with their younger sister, Kainda. They had explored the town, although always under guard, but it had been fun.
He sighed slightly. He missed the old days.
“There are many beautiful places here,” he said, trying not to think about it. “But since it’s the winter, I should show you the Golden Leaf Bridge, first. It’s beautiful in the snow.”
Eira nodded, wondering what the sigh had been about. Probably nothing. She had to stop overthinking things so much. She’s heard of the Golden Leaf Bridge before, but had never seen it in the winter before. Of course, even the summers in Lumi were chilly, with the snow never quite leaving the mountains.
“I’ve heard that the Golden Leaf Bridge looks beautiful this time of year,” she admitted. “I’ve only seen it in the warmer months, though.”
“It’s one of the coolest places in the country. Or, this area, at least.” Jav laughed. “It’s the prettiest when at night, but I don’t think you want to stay up just to see it.”
He led her through the streets, until they arrived at a golden bridge. It was more brass than gold, and the snow covering it sparkled.
Eira took in a small gasp of awe when she saw it, having not been there in a while. Usually when her family was going somewhere, they just passed through this town in their gilded carriages. She hardly ever took the time to just explore the town, though it was said to have some interesting places.
“It is beautiful,” she exclaimed softly, with a smile.
"Isn't it?" Javaid smiled. A gust of wind tugged back his hood slightly, so his smile was shown for the slightest moment. "I have good memories of this place."
He motioned to the bridge. "When it's cold enough, sometimes my brother and I would try and skate down the stream. It never worked, we always got caught, but it was so much fun to try."
“It sounds fun,” Eira said wistfully, gazing out at the semi-frozen stream under the bridge. She could hear the soft burble of the parts that weren’t quite frozen as the water pushed downhill. “My sister and I would play games like that, too. One of our favorites was racing down a hill, when it was cold enough to have snow, of course, on baking sheets that we had stolen.”
“That sounds fun,” Javaid said. “I wish I could have done something like that. Unfortunately, I’m too big to do such a thing, and I’ve always been. I don’t think I could have gotten away with that.”
He laughed. ”Everyone knew what kind of tricks I play, so they knew to keep anything and everything out of my reach.”
Eira smiled. “Following the rules does come in handy, believe it or not,” she remarked teasingly. “Or at least, mostly following the rules. I’ve managed to get away with almost anything because I usually keep in line.”
“Well, following the rules is so boring” Javaid commented with a snort. “Why go to bed early when you could stay up and watch the Dancing Lights from your rooftop? Why eat healthy food when you could snack?”
“Why do all of that when people are watching inside after they’ve gone to sleep?” Eira retorted lightly, raising an eyebrow. “Then you can get what you want and no one is the wiser.” Of course, this was probably much more difficult than Jav’s strategy and required a lot of planning and discipline, but it was what Eira did (when she could get away, that was).
"But then you don't get to see their faces when they realize that they are absolutely helpless to stop you from doing these things." Javaid laughed.
He was faintly surprised that the woman, Kira, didn't try to leave. After all, he was a strange man in a dark cloak. But then again, these country people were much more trusting than those in the castle.
Eira wanted to say that some people had expectations to uphold, but stopped herself. A real commoner wouldn't say that, would she? She wouldn't have a kingdom on her shoulders if she weren't a princess. "I suppose you're right," she agreed reluctantly. "But consider this, making it look like someone else did that. Then you get the helpless expressions but not the blame." She grinned mischievously.
"That wouldn't work for me," Jav said with a snort. "I've already built up such a reputation that they just know that it was me, instinctively. Like they have a sixth Jav sense or something." He grinned. He wondered if she had realized who he was. It was long known that the eldest prince of the kingdom was a rogue, but she must not have. Maybe she just thought that he was just another mischievous guy.
Something about this guy seemed familiar, but Eira couldn’t quite place it. She shrugged it off. Jav probably reminded her of one of the stable boys. There were a few troublemakers, and it was well known around her family’s castle that most of the stable boys were somewhat rascals.
“You must have been making trouble your entire life, then,” she teased lightly. “You clearly deserve your reputation as a troublemaker. There are other joys in life besides stirring up trouble, you know.”
"There are?" Jav laughed. "Well, whatever they are, I have yet to discover them. I hope they have less consequences, though. I don't think I could bear to hear yet another lecture." He remembered his fiance's high pitched, shrill voice, scolding him, and winced. He really didn't want to see her ever again.
Eira giggled before seeing the look on his face. “Well, there’s good food, spending time with good people, good books…” she listed, trying to think of things. “Oh, and also, singing and dancing. Those are both heaps of fun and I can’t imagine you’d get in trouble for singing or dancing.”
"Dancing?!" Javaid shrieked, sounding horrified, although laughs started to explode from him. He managed to get ahold of himself and shook his head, chuckling. "I tried both singing and dancing. And I'm absolutely awful at them. And my dance instructor was a hag."