Princess Snow and the Empress

3: The Silver Prince

Prince Erden, clad in a black hunting outfit, walked towards Snow with a look of astonishment on his bronzed face. With a bow in his hand, a leather quiver of arrows at his hip and tall riding boots – that made his long legs appear even longer – he looked even more dashing in her eyes.

"Is it really you, Snow?" His silver cuff gleamed in his long hair as he approached.

Don't just stand there with your mouth open! Say something! "Yes, it's me! Do I look like a handsome prince?" She laughed and twirled on the spot, her blue robes and her waist-long braid whirling around her.

"I didn't expect to see you here. I can't believe you managed to keep it a secret from me! I saw a red carriage. That was you, right? I knew it!"

"No, you did not, don't bluff!"

"I'm surprised the Empress let you attend; I think this is the first ti–" He stopped abruptly to look at her and when he continued, there was genuine concern in his voice. "Are you sure you can hunt with us?"

"Why? I've ridden a pony around the Palace, I'm sure I can ride as well as you lot."

"Ha! Don't take this the wrong way. We've been riding and shooting arrows since we were little boys, while you were busy embroidering like a proper princess," he teased good naturedly and deftly dodged her oncoming hand.

She would have smacked him on the arm if they had not been so rudely interrupted by a nasally voice behind them. "She probably can't even stay upright in her saddle."

The Crown Prince, sitting atop his ivory-white horse, was dressed in jade green robes with gold trimmings, although Snow thought only the emperor or empress could wear gold or yellow. Sunlight bounced off his bulbous forehead as he peered down his long nose at Snow.

"Hunting is a man's sport, Princess. You'd better not slow us down. I will be extremely displeased if we lose a target because of you." He gave Erden a withering look before trotting off, leaving the two of them to stare balefully at his receding back and the swishing of his horse's tail.

Snow stuck her tongue out at the Crown Prince's back. "I hope he falls off his horse into a pile of horse manure, that'll teach him."

"Snow! Mind your words lest they come true!" A devilish grin broke across Erden's face. He disliked the Crown Prince as much as she did. He nodded in the direction of the horses and led Snow through the hustle and bustle of soldiers hurrying about preparing for the hunt. "But I'm curious. How did you manage to get here unnoticed?"

"Oh, I snuck out when the guards weren't looking and stole aboard one of the food caravans. I ate all the grain like a little mouse." She smiled cheekily. "I'm just kidding!"

"How did you manage to convince the Empress to let you join?"

"I, err– hey, is this hat supposed to be this way or that?" She had been holding a black felt hunting cap and quickly pulled it onto her head the wrong way.

"Not that way, silly! You've got it backwards! Here, like this." He took off her hat and put it on her head the right way. "Now you look like a handsome prince."

His hands lingered on the sides of the hat as she gazed up at him, and her heart did flip flops when their eyes met. Why does he have to be so good looking! His eyes, his dimpled smile and his hair. His hair!

Her own hair, though thick and lustrous, had a tendency to frizz in the summer months, fly about everywhere and curl at the ends, no matter how many times her attendant combed it out. Lotus remarked before that her hair had a mind of its own. If she did not have her attendants at hand to help with her hair, she would have looked like a crazed woman every day. Erden's hair on the other hand, stayed straight and fell back neatly in place even after being blown by the wind.