the daylily

[kamille]

Summer's feathers beat down on the entire country and enveloped it with sweat-stickening heat. Even as Kamille raced down the hill on his horse, the wind harshly whispering on his ears, beads of sweat were trickling down his temples. He quickly whipped up the reins when he felt his horse tumble for a second and forced it to finish its run downhill. Behind him, he could hear the thundering hooves of another horse quickly catching up to him. A line of shrubbery waited at the bottom. Kamille started to pull on the horse, slowing down and coming to a stop before his horse could get entangled in the bushes. When his horse stopped, so did the other with a neigh that was followed by the urgent cry of Kamille's servant.

“Young Master, are you all right?” Dedarie, a dark-skinned, middle-aged man with a staunch, square face, jumped off his horse and held the reins Kamille perfectly had control of. “Why did you – ”

“You're not going to lecture me, are you?” Kamille said between his teeth, narrowing his eyes at the servant.

Dedarie appeared taken aback. With a small frown, he recovered. “No,” he said quietly. Dedarie disappeaed from Kamille's sight as he bent down to inspect the horse's feet. “I merely wanted to ask why you had ran off suddenly in case something were wrong.”

“I would inform you if something were wrong. For example, the pony's left front leg was sprained. It would be dangerous if it suddenly collapsed under me on the rest of the gallop to our destination.”

Dedarie continued speaking by the horse's hooves. What was he trying to accomplish there? Kamille wondered if Dedarie would be able to dodge if Kamille had the horse kick its legs.

But Dedarie was able to rise to his feet without any injury. Kamille wasn't going to do it anyway. “It should be fine if we take it slowly. The villa isn't that far ahead.”

“It's exactly because it is close by that we should rush the rest of the way.” Kamille tugged on the reins. “The horse is still fresh with adrenaline. It's more merciful this way, correct?”

Without waiting for any respond, Kamille whipped on the reins and galloped toward the villa overlooking the ocean at the distance. He travelled through the golden floor laid by the morning sun, dark shadows occassionally falling upon him under the umbrella of giant clouds. It took almost half an hour to get there. By then, the sun became more prickly to his skin. It seemed like it had been a good choice to hurry.

Dedarie wasn't far behind from Kamille. He descended from his horse to help Kamille but Kamille decided to beat him to it and dropped a good three feet from the horse to the ground. The villa's servants who had appeared to greet them were halfway to hurriedly catching him before they were able to – uncomfortably – sigh in relief. Dedarie received all the judging glances, which he was admirably able to ignore.

“Who was it again?” Kamille asked, inspecting the stone, tall villa, the back of his equestrian shirt damped with sweat.

Carrying Kamille's belongings that included a bag consisting of his change of clothes, Dedarie looked at Kamille quizzically, “Who?”

“The woman,” he said as they proceeded inside the villa, the servants lined quietly by their sides.

“Lady Eden, Young Master,” Dedarie answered in a quiet voice. They entered the house and spoke as if he feared all things spoken inside would be heard by Lady Eden. Kamille didn't have that kind of reservation, or perhaps he simply lacked in thought.

“She shares the name as my wet nurse, who by the way died a year ago. This will be odd.”

Odder than the fact Lady Eden, daughter and only child of nobles his parents have recently acquainted in the other night's party, was six years his senior too, apparently.

Eden

[Eden]

The inside of the villa was actually quite extravagant. Surprisingly extravagant, given the conservative nature of Eden's parents. The person who was to be Eden's potential suitor would spot an enclosed, but open-air space in the center of the villa's grand ground floor. While it overlooked the sea, this part of the villa was actually reminiscent of an oasis, but more occupied by grass and some trees. Eden herself would be seated on the grass here, looking ahead, straight into the eyes of the younger boy, the one she only knew by the name of Kamille. Eden had requested the servants to give Kamille a good greeting, but she could tell from the look he wore on himself that he wasn't exactly thrilled about the meeting either.

Despite this, Eden tried to keep herself looking at least vaguely interested, whatever her inner feelings and misgivings might be. "Please, come have a seat with me." Eden said with a rather strong voice, such that she might be properly heard, that is. "I'm looking forward to getting to know you a bit better." she was sort of lying. She wanted to know more about this young boy to be sure, but she was also rather uncomfortable with the fact he was six years younger than her. Were her parents just not trying anymore, or were they trying to play the innocence game?

Heck, the young one's personal butler or some sort was there too. Eden tried to keep her cool and grace, but she would much rather be out on the field. The beach setting certainly wasn't impressing her either.

[kamille]

Lady Eden spoke from her seat on the grass by the centre of an indoor beach – an oasis? There was the distinct lack of sand for either descriptions, but the salty breeze brought by the sea came along with a vivid image of a beach to make up for what the decorations lacked. Kamille's brown eyes stared back into Lady Eden's, the displeased tint on them slinking to the back and making way to the wide-eyed innocence that studied the world feverishly.

So this was Lady Eden? He was careful not to look at her from head to toe like a product that needed to be evaluated. It was important to take into detail a fellow noble's appearance, yet it was rude to be forthcoming about it. Kamille did know that she was at least good-looking. At least he wouldn't have to lie with a bile on his throat once he started dropping the prerequisite compliments. What was she doing on the grass though? Kamille had not met a lady who did not prefer a comfy chair in a glaringly bright and expansive room of expensive fur, satin curtain, and self-abosrbed portraits. He didn't think it was particularly odd. As a child whose experience had not reached culmination, what might be considered different to an adult was simply new to him.

Calculating his pause, Kamille opened his mouth to respond but Dedarie seemed to have something more important to say to cut him before he could utter a word. He looked up at the man behind his shoulder, who bent over to whisper privately to him.

“Young Master, you'll have to change clothes first. The wind here will make you ill.”

Kamille had ran around forests hunting and galloping with the horse before. He was quite used to the dampness of sweat on his neck and back and yet never get sick, but today was not his day and his body chose to cut him off too and respond with the squeak of a sneeze.

“See what I mean?” Dedarie looked at him pityingly and appeared as if he wanted to dry Kamille with a towel and replace him with fresh set of clothes right there and then. Fortunately, he didn't, but he was definitely urgent about it. Dedarie bowed to Eden. “Excuse me, my Lady, the Young Master had travelled on horseback. He needs to have a moment to freshen up.”

“Dedarie!” Kamille hissed. He didn't know what need there was to hiss at Dedarie as it did nothing but worsen the embarrassment. The urge just jumped out along with the faint pink blush across his cheeks.

Eden

[Eden]

Eden simply sat and watched the scene unfold before her. Her expression was unchanging - she was not so judging of Kamille despite the doting behavior of his attendant. It looked like Kamille had worked up quite a sweat on the way here, but Eden was not so sure of why this could be the case. Regardless, she simply nodded in response to their approach. "Friends, please take your time, and make yourself at home," Eden simply said. She tried hard not to let her disinterest at the whole matter show too much nor too obviously. She could still be friendly and accommodating despite the uninterest in love for the most part, anyway. Being hospitable was the least she could do for being set up like this. And he HAD come all the way here, after all. It was only just. "The attendants will provide food and drink if you are, perchance, hungry or thirsty. ...Or perhaps a combination of both." Eden continued, as the servants stood in the wings, waiting for the command.

"You may simply inform them, and they will be happy to serve" Eden ruffled her hair and waited. Truth to be told, Eden was not exactly raised up the same way as other nobles. She was treated with more discipline than most, and was taught to respect nature and to love it. She did not rather consider most things dirty, aside from perhaps the sport of martial combat in mud, which she was unusually averse to (though her parents insisted it would assist in 'toughening her up') and so she was perfectly content with sitting here on the grass like this. Hopefully, Eden would present some positive image towards the fellow boy, but... She was not really expecting too much.

[kamille]

The dignity of a ten-year-old was a highly pressing matter and any mockery from Lady Eden would be just giving voice to the humiliation Kamille felt. He might have failed to take note of her merciful response; it would have not consoled him either way for a damage that was done. Kamille was not used to being treated like this.

Kamille's tongue was pressed by his jaw to the ceiling of his mouth. What was worse was he couldn't come up with a way to gracefully rise from the incident. What was more than worse was that the arrogant, snotty faces of certain children a few years older of him popped inside his head instantly and they would probably know how to deal with a mishap like this better than Kamille. His arms were painfully heavy on his sides and the muscles of his forehead were as stiff as a rock as the urge to cross them and glare overwhelmed him.

But he had to resist. He couldn't let those faces show up again. Kamille expelled all emotions and very carefully slid a sigh out with his breathing. Dedarie had already taken the cue to continue speaking on his behalf. Trying to backpedal on it now would only acknowledge Kamille's embarrassment further. While Dedarie talked, he took this chance to take a good look at Lady Eden.

“Thank you, my Lady,” Dedarie said. “You are very accomodating. The Young Master need only a moment of privacy. He will be returning in a couple of minutes.”

That was it. Kamille hesitated. While Dedarie had the irritating tendency of treating Kamille like a child, he still recognized Kamille as his master. He wouldn't just take his hand and lead him to a room to change. Kamille needed to give a cue of whether he was going to just go and walk away - in which Dedarie would obedientiy follow - or add something else to Eden, whom he had not said a word to yet.

Kamille was usually more confident in these formalities but he suddenly felt more disorganized. Even if Eden were not a good actor to effectively hide her disinterest, Kamille's thoughts were a bit on a jumble to notice. He met her eyes, this time more conscious of the image that reflected on them and the image they were expecting to see.

When he was looking at Eden, one thing he noticed was that she didn't smile. Neither did Kamille, but women were usually the first to smile when introduced. He didn't know why exactly, but it made him a bit nervous.

Eden

[Eden]

"It's fine. Do as you please," Eden simply said. She noticed that Kamille wasn't smiling (but then again neither was she) and soon the young lady sighed and nodded. "Don't worry about it. Just try to take it easy for now. If I'm to be most truthful with you, I can't say I was really the most excited about this... Date. But you seem decent, so let's make the most of the occasion and take spend some moments to try and recoup from the daily toils of life, hmm?" Eden finally said, in an attempt to seem remotely hospitable and respectable despite literally confessing that she was not at all excited about this setup. She eyed the young boy's butler, noticing his tendency to dote on the fellow. Eden idly wondered if he was trained to do that, ordered to do that, or if he genuinely felt the need to behave that way towards his master. She was curious - as a baby, Eden had many attendants, but she never had a single one that stood out to her. It was certainly interesting, a fascinating experience to see that.

But never mind that irrelevant prattle. Eden tried to collect herself again as she found herself fidgeting in place, almost a bit impatiently. "So, whenever you're ready, you may have a seat with me, and some refreshments could be served for you at your leisure."

[kamille]

Decent. The word reminded Kamille straight-out what he came here for.

He came here following his parents' instructions, but his parents' will were not pure whim. During an amiable discussion with the Tyrael couple, Eden's parents, in a noble's party the other night before, the talk between them and the Ordins had progressed far enough to make a follow-up. See how their kids get along. Oh, for sure, they were aware of the age gap, but they'd seen stranger things. Their expectations wasn't high; it was rare for things to go spectacularly well on the first meeting.

But Kamille was more than just an average noble, more than just a child. He could not possibly be decent. He failed and he had failed pitifully.

He didn't need Lady Eden's mercy after all. Though it was her attempt to make Kamille comfortable with a bit of honesty, it created a different effect and pumped courage back into Kamille.

It didn't matter whether Kamille liked this 'date.' Lady Eden wasn't taking him seriously because he was a boy. It wasn't the first time.

Kamille cleared his throat.

“Actually, it seems like a waste, doesn't it?” Kamille stepped forward, moving closer to Lady Eden and abandoning his servant's side. “It's partly cloudy and the breeze is always blowing. Perhaps I can take you for a ride, Lady Eden? From what I understand, you are unhappy – I take no offense, I assure you, but we have the power to change that, don't we? Let's make the most out of this!”

Kamille didn't know how Lady Eden was going to react. He talked like he knew exactly what she was like but Kamille did not. He wasn't that good at reading people but he had to take a leap of faith. Taking a risk was the only way for him to get back up.

He awaited for the life-and-death sweet 'yes' of a woman.

Eden

[Eden]

Eden looked at Kamille for a moment but before Eden could say anything further she was taken slightly aback from the boy's clearing of his throat. Suddenly, he stepped closer to her and left the side of his servant, in a display of forwardness that had genuinely surprised her, she blinked and her eyes widened thereafter. Kamille then offered to give her a ride under the pretense that she was unhappy. Well, Eden kind of was unhappy, but she most certainly could not put the blame on Kamille. It was not his fault, after all her parents had talked with the Ordwins and arranged for this 'date' of sorts. Eden was more disappointed in them than she was with Kamille. In any case, she wasn't entirely sure of how to respond to this sudden show of confidence. He was only ten, after all. It sent mixed signals towards Eden. "Uh... A ride, you say? Well... I suppose it would not hurt? You are right; the weather is fair enough, that it shouldn't hurt for some good old fashioned riding." Eden swallowed her pride and decided to bite on the bait.

She was usually averse to this sort of thing, after all. She didn't want to be seen being taken on a ride, she would much rather be independent. Alas, Eden seemed to be more concerned with not letting Kamille go empty-handed rather than let her own sense and beliefs get in the way of that. She hoped her irritation would not show too much.