"My daughter will be joining us again today, for those of you who were wondering." The queen continued, her voice filled with a knowing kind of humor as her eyes grazed momentarily over Aeric.
She went on to explain that they would have drinks ready back at the castle when they returned, and those that wanted to could go to a game room and play whatever games they found to their liking.
But Aeric was hardly listening to the rest of it. The princess would be joining them today, and that meant he was probably quite unlikely to avoid meeting her again. He could hardly believe that he'd been able to put it off for so long, but at this point, it was little more than sheer luck.
He shook his head and focused again on what the queen was saying.
"Of course, we won't be able to do any hunting until later in the summer, but it will be nice to get out of the castle." Murmurs of agreement followed her words. "We'll split up into our respective groups at the stables." The words were clearly her last, due to their ring of finality, and with a big grin, she sat down once more.
They were splitting up into groups? What exactly had he missed when he'd been fretting over meeting the princess? He kicked himself mentally. He was a real moron sometimes. One of these days he'd probably manage to miss something of life or death importance.
The conversation broke out again as people began to stand up and leave the room. And with that, he was finally able to pin exactly why everything seemed so strange. The thought clicked into place in his mind like a rusty gear, once more permitted to spin in its proper place.
There were no protocols whatsoever, and even when there were, they didn't seem strict or well defined. That had to be why things seemed so odd to him, and why nothing anyone did made any sense.
He followed the lead of everyone around him and stood up to head out. He didn't know where he was supposed to be going, so he simply followed along behind the three people who looked most like they knew what they were doing. They were trooping out the wide front doors, which now stood open.
He followed them down a cobbled road that twisted off to the right, past the castle, and down a hill towards a group of buildings nestled among low-growing trees.
The three in front of him were starting to talk and joke around loudly. They were probably the youngest he'd seen at the table, and he suddenly wondered if he should be following them or not.
As he got closer, it became clear that the buildings up ahead were stables. Or at least one of them was. There were five in total. He didn't know enough about stables and barns to know which was which or how many a palace would need.
He didn't know very much about anything that would be important to his present situation, now that he thought about it.
He sighed. He didn't think he knew anything at all that was important, actually.
But he wasn't dead yet, so he couldn't get too bogged down on the fact that he was probably the dumbest person in the city. If he had been a smarter man, he would have been able to figure out a way to get out of this when his mother first suggested it. He would have been able to prevent all of this.
But he hadn't been able to, so now he found himself in a strange place following three young nobles down to stables, where he would most likely meet the princess. And he knew that at least one person was trying to get them together.
He wished he could just pull up a drain plug in his mind and clear everything out. Maybe if he started over again things wouldn't be so awful. Maybe if the thoughts that clogged his mind like cotton were gone, he could really, truly think up a solid solution.
When he and the three laughing young lord and ladies arrived at the stables, they found a small group that had already made their way down. One of them was already leading a horse out into the spacious cobbled yard, and all of them were talking amongst themselves. Obviously, he felt like an outsider right away.
It seemed that most of the early birds were rather young. Either the elders of the group had opted to stay in the palace, or they hadn't made the trek down yet.
After a few minutes, more people started to trickle down the hill.
A servant started bringing out horses and dealing them out as if they were candies for little kids. Luckily, it didn't seem as though he was required to bring his own horse, because one of them was given to him without any questions asked. Perhaps none of the horses had a particular owner.
He still couldn't puzzle out why the capital of his own country seemed so foreign to him. Everything they did felt slightly to the left, and he didn't think he'd met a single person who took things completely seriously.
But all the thoughts were thrust from his mind rather forcefully when he suddenly found himself mounted atop the skinny bay they'd provided for him. He didn't know exactly what was happening, but there was a sour-faced stable hand that seemed to be coordinating things. He gave vague directions that were spoken too quickly to catch, and then a group of them split off to ride onto a narrow path carved into the mountainside.
They were headed vaguely towards the mountain's peak, skirting the top few houses and buildings in the kingdom below. The road beneath them looked seldom-traveled and narrow, angled up at a steep and potentially dangerous incline.
The trees seemed to get taller the further they went, while the trees they left behind shrank to fractions of their proper sizes. Birds were startled from their perches more and more often. Eventually, he could almost believe that they were in the middle of absolute nowhere.
He knew that the city was only a short ride away, but he couldn't see even the slightest trace of it anymore.
Then he began to hear a very faint, very distant noise that only got louder as they rode on. It started as a soft buzzing sound, but then grew into a deeper boom that more closely resembled thunder.
Towering green trees bordered the trail, but whenever there was a gap through which to peer, a beautiful vista was opened up, showing the foothills and county far beyond the mountain. But it was spoiled by the fact that they were way, way too high up. He felt dizzy every time he saw the ant-sized trees and the needle-thin, distant roads that carved their way across the land.
He closed his eyes and let the horse follow the others in front of him.
He could hear the distant thunder growing into a steady roar, and it finally clicked in his mind that it was the waterfall. They were headed for the waterfall.
He didn't dare open his eyes, but he could feel from the movements of his horse that they were now traveling downhill. He could hear laughing from ahead of him, but nothing would tempt him to open his eyes again until he was sure they were closer to the ground.
He knew he was being stupid, but he would probably end up losing his lunch if he tried to pretend it didn't bother him.
Eventually, almost all other sounds were drowned out in the deafening crash of water on rock. He was shocked into opening his eyes when he felt a cold spray of water on his face.
It seemed like it was a solid tower made of only water, starting so high above him that it seemed to be rushing out of a point little bigger than the eye of a pin. The water was whipped into a white, foamy color by the force of the fall. It tumbled down the blue cliff side, staining the places it touched to a darker shade of grayish-blue.
Below them, the water crashed and churned until it settled down to roil quietly into a deep, blue pool. They stood on a cliff that ended abruptly where the waterfall crossed its path. An aged wooden fence was the only thing that would prevent joining the water in its wild free-fall He dismounted and backed himself and his horse away from the edge. He was content to enjoy the tumbling roar of the water from a distance.
And besides, standing any closer would get him soaked. Those that had come with him seemed to think it was a big joke, and a couple of the men were dumb enough to lean against the fence in an effort to get as close as they could to the drenching spray. They reveled in the fact that the mist from the falls was gathering in their hair and running down their faces, and that their expensive shoes were getting hopelessly muddy.
He shook his head. Maybe it was best not to try and understand what was wrong with everyone. With any luck, he would be gone before he needed to.