Night's Omen

Elke beamed, hugging her 'daughter' back. "Now, come close, look what I have," she said, pulling the sketches out from her sack and spreading them across the table Avalon used for drawing. "This is how the solarium is going to look - roughly, of course. I figured I could leave this for you and you could add on things you wanted. Do you like the rope ladder to the loft, or should we just do stairs?" she asked critically, looking around the tower.

She pulled out the apple juice she'd brought and set it down on the small nook where Avalon kept her supplies, pouring her a glass. "Here, try this! I've been working on it for a while now. This was a good harvest, I think, I finally found the right amount of soil for the trees."


From the woods, Adam couldn't really see very much of anything. All he could do was sit, and wait, and listen to the occasional voices in the tower as they went back and forth. That had to be her mother, anyways. They didn't look much alike, but then again, Adam couldn't really see either one of them spectacularly well. He sighed and bit into a carrot he'd found in his pack, halving it with his horse.

Avalon looked around herself as well - a ladder would give more room, but stairs might be nice too. Hm, decisions decisions. And then she examined the drawings a bit more carefully.

"It's beautiful," she said softly. And she could make suggestions? Oh, this would be a wonderful birthday.

"Here, try this!"

She then took the juice that Mother proffered and made appropriate sounds of approval. "That is good," she smiled. Mother was so kind.

Adam kicked around in the woods for a while longer, and then poked his head out from the clearing in time to see Elke climbing down from the tower. He couldn't hear what she was saying, but it wasn't nearly late enough for bedtime, so when he heard a 'good night' he was equal parts appalled and confused. Adam had a habit of staying awake until the sun rose, though, so there was definitely a conflict of interest, there.

Once she had gone, he sneaked around the side of the tower, and knocked on it. "Ava, let down your hair!" he called, doing his best 'old lady' impression. He was crossing his fingers, hoping she wouldn't look down and see that he clearly was NOT her mother.

Well, luckily for Adam, Avalon was somewhat preoccupied with the drawings that Mother had left her. Also, her hair was long and heavy enough that she couldn't really focus much on what was happening on the ground below her while piling it out the window. Nor would she have thought to check - Mother was the only who ever came to visit her and certainly the only one who ever asked for her braid.

Mother had probably just forgotten something which was why she was coming back so soon. Well, Avalon wouldn't complain. Of course, had she stopped to really think about things she would have realized that her voice also sounded quite strange. But she was, as mentioned, preoccupied with the drawings of the solarium. She'd been sketching out ideas softly on a blank sheet of paper - she didn't want to risk the ones that the actual diagram was on.

Avalon gathered an billowing armful of braid and then let it out the window where it tumbled to the ground - which also made it difficult to look directly below. Avalon had a strong head and neck but do you know how heavy that much hair could get? And what need had she to examine the ground? There was no reason (well, fine, except for the voice) to think that it wasn't Mother.

Give her a break. It was the first time in her life that it had been anyone but Mother, and she was eighteen in just a few days.

Before Avalon could react, Adam leaped onto the windowsill to steady himself, thankful that it was at least a foot wide. "I told you I'd come up here eventually," he said cheerfully. "Wow, this is a pretty interesting set up you have.. it looks almost like my room, actually.." he yattered on, blissfully unaware that Avalon might actually be utterly horrified at his presence.

"Hey, you draw?" he asked, jumping down off the sill and heading for her art table. Ah, Prince Adam. Not always the most... astute of men, but certainly he means well.

Horrified? Maybe not quite yet. Shocked? Oh yes, certainly. She'd turned towards him once the added weight was gone and then drawn back a pace, eyes wide, at who it WASN'T. And then he looked around her room and started chatting casually.

"I-" she said falteringly, but couldn't get much farther then that. In a way she kind of wanted to run away. Yes, despite thinking that more company would be nice she couldn't remember a time when 'company' had meant ANYTHING beyond her animals and Mother. Running away, however, wasn't really an option. She settled for backing up against the wall on the opposite side of the room from him. And then staring a bit more. He looked... different, up close.

Adam laughed a little at how stunned she was. She must not get a lot of visitors as forward as he was. He gave her a bow. "Forgive me. I am Prince Adam Valerius, at your service, m'lady." He straightened back up, and then continued his observations of the room/living quarters.

"So... you don't get out much, do you?" he asked finally in the awkward silence. She was probably the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, but she seemed almost frightened of him somehow, and he couldn't figure out why. Maybe that old lady had something to do with it. Hmm..

At her service? He was at her service? But what was he supposed to do? She blinked, not sure WHAT she was feeling anymore. Confusion was part of the mix, certainly, as well as feeling hesitant about... well, just about everything. Strange, that's what this was.

"So... you don't get out much, do you?"

Still hesitantly, still feeling confused, Avalon shook her head. "Of course I don't - I don't leave. Well, I-" she hesitated for a moment, seeming unsure as to what to say (and really, who could blame her?) "I do have other levels and Mother is going to build me a solarium, but I don't leave the tower."

... yea, she didn't leave. Which meant that Adam was the only man she'd seen, other then the occasional drawing in one of her books. Still, even if it hadn't been so she was sure she would have thought him handsome. He was, after all. Yes.

He sat down in a chair, looking up at her with a brow arched. "You don't leave the tower? Why not? It's really not so bad out in the world. My kingdom is nice, anyways. Lots of peace treaties and good trade allies, no war or famine or plague... the castle is huge, you should see it. And I have my own horse," he added stupidly.

"What do you do? What's your name?" Adam was persistent, but Avalon was pretty. In fact, she was, upon closer inspection, the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. That hair, those eyes - Adam was a little lovestruck.

It was strange, for her, how at home he was making himself. Also confusing, what he was saying.

"But the world is out there," she said, sounding rather lost, "and it will hurt me if I let it - that's why I'm here. Mother built the tower and put me here to protect me."

Adam went on, extolling the various virtues of the world Outside, and he was making her somewhat curious. Of course, there was only so much that he could do with the things he was talking about. Never having had experience with anything like peace treaties or trade allies or war or famine or plauge they only made her curious, and huge was all relative. Most places would probably seem huge to her, but because of that they were equally difficult to envision. There was the tower, which was small and safe, and the outside, which was large and dangerous. It was difficult to imagine some place that was sort of in between. Of course, it would be nice to see.

Avalon came closer and sat down herself, looking up at him. "Is it very much bigger then here? There are two other levels below, you know."

She was so innocent, so sheltered. But despite the fact that she still didn't really know what was going on, she wasn't really afraid of him anymore. His eyes were a large part of the reason - they looked so deep and so kind. Warm, somehow - warmer even then Mother's eyes, it seemed.

"I draw and I read and I look at the clouds," she said when he asked what she did. "I sew and I take care of my hair. I write some things sometimes, but they're never much good." And then she shook her head and laughed a little when he asked for her name. "Oh I'm sorry - I'm Avalon. Mother calls me Ava, sometimes."

"I could protect you," Adam said, puffing up a little bit. "I'm pretty good with a sword. And a crossbow. And a dagger, and a shield... and most weapons, actually. When you're a prince, you have to be." He smiled a little. "But I don't think anyone would want to hurt someone as pretty as you." He just threw that out there, to see.

"The world? Big? It's... bigger than anything I can describe. It's like... " he sighed, and turned towards her more fully. "You look at the sky a lot, right? Well, it's as big as the sky. The sky covers the world, basically. Wherever you see sky, there is something underneath. And the sky goes on for a long time."

He wondered if he'd explained that right.

"Avalon. That's a pretty name."

She smiled at him when he said he would protect her, and she had such a warm smile. "Thank you," she said, then blushed when he said that she was pretty. She blushed prettily too, the look somehow complimented by her coloring.

Well, Mother had told her that many times but then Mother was a bit different then a stranger telling her so. Or maybe not a stranger; after all, she knew his name. But she didn't know him nearly as well as she knew Mother. It made sense - she had only just met him a little while ago. "Really?" she asked, feeling shy. She liked the way that his lips curled when he smiled. It made her want to smile back and so she did - though more shyly then he had.

And then he went on, trying to explain the scale of things. "But... but the sky goes on forever," she said softly, looking instinctively out the window at it. A field of blue. She shook her head a little and turned back. "How big is your castle?" Which had been the original question, really. Not that it mattered, knowing ho much of everything there was was also interesting. Of course, just how BIG he'd said the outside world was... it was difficult to wrap her mind around.

"Thank you," she said again when he mentioned that he liked her name. "I like yours."

"Well, it's a lot bigger than this, I can assure you," he said. "Even if you have other levels. We have spires on the castle sort of like this, but I don't think anyone uses them for rooms. I think they're watchtowers, or storage rooms, or a combination of both. My mother is slightly unorganized, and she tends to stash things there, thinking my father doesn't know about it, when he actually does. It's funny to see. She's got oodles of fabrics and things there - things she saw that she bought and meant to have made into anything from dresses to draperies, and then totally forgot about." He laughed a little when he thought of her - Queen Calista was notorious for being scatter-brained, but she was a kind and just queen, and the people loved her all the same.

"I'll take you there," he said. "I can bring back some rope, and we can climb down. We can come back before your mother notices," he suggested. He somehow felt like asking for her permission was a one-way ticket for trouble.

When she blushed, she looked like an angel, and Adam had to look away for a minute, because she had made him blush. He looked back, and then scooted a little closer to her. Not to be creepy, but because she had a sort of... something about her. He'd never met a girl that was so genuine. The women of the court were very catty and tended to be a bit... fake.

It was a bit difficult to picture: there was here and there was the world, what else could there be? Avalon looked around the room, feeling remarkably uncertain. And how much bigger was a lot bigger? Three times this size? Four? Even that seemed a bit odd, though it was imaginable. But what if it was bigger?

Avalon went distracted for a moment as she tried to decide what he'd meant.

And then he offered - take her there. Her head jerked up, as though she'd been startled, and she stared at him, her head tilted a bit to the side and her gold eyes wide and wondering. "I... but Mother wouldn't like it. I don't think so anyway; she always told me that I should stay here." Even if she did sometimes want to leave. "I... I'm not...." Her voice trailed off when he scooted a little closer, blushing. She moved a little closer herself and then raised her hand - pale, but in a golden way - to touch his cheek.

"I think I might like seeing it," she finally said softly. Adam... she'd never met anyone like him before. Well of course she hadn't, she'd hardly met anyone. But she'd imagined people, out of her books, and none of them were ever like him either.

Adam resisted the urge to grab her and kiss her when she touched him. She was like heaven, and he wondered if this was how his father felt about his mother when they'd first met. Their marriage hadn't been arranged, and so they hadn't been trying to force one on him, of which he was very thankful. He'd had friends who'd been betrothed, and it had never worked out well.

"I can come get you tomorrow, if you want," he said, his voice low. "We won't tell your mother. Does she ever visit more than once a day? If she doesn't, than as soon as she leaves, we can go and I'll have you back before dark. I can try, anyways. I promise I won't let anything happen to you," he said, taking her hands lightly in his own. They were so delicate in his large hands, and yet, it felt so right.

"I promise, Avalon. Won't you come with me?"