Floating Away

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur Pendragon dragged his feet as he walked through the reeds on the edge of the river. His hands were stuffed deep into his pockets, his head buried deeper into his thoughts and his feet were practically glued into the thick mud that surrounded the bubbling river.

He rarely came down to the mill here. Avalon was a quiet village and it was unusual for anything to happen that required a princes attention, but when he did visit, he truly appreciated the beauty and peacefulness that the country side held.

Prying a sticky boot out of the mud, he struggled back up to the firmer ground where he could walk quicker. His boots were ruined- caked in mud, although Merlin might have some trick up his sleeve to clean them later. The firm ground felt strange and alien in comparison to the sludge he had been in and he hurried over to the little wooden jetty that stuck out into the rushing water.

A few coins and a minute or so later, Arthur was sitting in a tiny rowing boat, with an oar across his lap and another in his hands. Pushing out from the shore was no easy task, even with the muscles Arthur had from fighting. The river bed was made of the same sticky silt that made up the shoreline and the oar kept getting wedged tight. Eventually though he did manage to get out into the flow of the current and soon, with both oars in hand, he was rowing out down the Kinver.

[alexis]

Alexis sat high in the boughs of an old oak tree. She stared down at the ground, probably ten to twelve feet below her swinging feet. In the dirt around the tree, she could clearly see her own boot prints, as well as several other animal prints. Squirrel, there, and yes, that was a snake trail leading off into the scrubs. The river ran nearby, about a dozen yards away. It burbled and gurgled, a comforting sound that seemed to sing in Lexi's ears. She began humming quietly, a tune her mother had once sand while tending to the household chores.

She heard a slight disturbance in the sound of the water and glanced up from the ground. Someone was paddling a row boat downstream. Lexi's head cocked sideways as she wondered who it was what was wearing such fine clothes. Nobles didn't usually come this far out in the country by themselves. Silently, without disturbing the tree branches, she slipped down and hit the forest floor with a soft thump that was hardly heard over the river's murmur.

Intense curiosity tugging at her gut, she watched as the boat passed, then looked around. She grumbled to herself as she realized there wasn't anywhere to hide and track the boat. It would have been fun. Lexi always enjoyed games. Her eyes snagged on some bushes - thick, thorny things that provided cover enough for her small build.

Waiting until the boater's head was in the opposite direction, she moved quietly and swift to the thorn bushes and crouched behind them. The bushes had grown in a somewhat straight line, heading downstream, just out of the muddy place on the riverbanks. Crouching, head ducked, she trotted down the line, following the boat by ear. Her heart thumped in excitement in her breast. This game was already very fun.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Water splashed wildly as Arthur rowed. His thoughts of assassins and fighting was making him stressed and he paddled furiously down stream so fast that he sent a wave of ripples behind him. As his arms tired, he began to slow down and that mixed with he fact that he had exhausted all chains of thought related to Dante, meant he began to lighten up and enjoy where he was.

Despite the cold winter, the sun was shining hard, and beads of sweat decorated his forehead as he laid the oars in the boat. His back was wet through with the profits of hard work and he reached over his head and pulled off his tunic, sitting in the small vessel in just a short sleeved white shirt. It was an unusual outfit for a prince, and it was extremely rare to see Arthur without his red jacket or tunic.
He stretched his arms up, twisting his back until he reached that position where it clicks comfortably and then he laid back, eyes closed, basking in the warm glow of winter sun.

Unless one had met him before, not a soul would have recognised Arthur as he laid completely and utterly at peace with the world looking like a muscly farm hand on a break from his labours.

[alexis]

Lexi paused to watch as the boater seemed to tense, as if he knew she was there. Every muscle in her body stopped moving, and she seemed frozen as she crouched behind the thorn bushes. The meager, almost dead plants didn't seem to offer much in the way of cover, but it was surprising how people never seemed to look at something very closely. If you knew how to play the game, you knew how to win.

The little boat had drawn a few meters ahead of her. When the man in the boat lay back and started to rest, Lexi quickly moved forward to try to catch up. Suddenly, her left foot slipped on a patch of ice she'd hadn't seen in the shadows of the bushes. She fell hard on her back, the wind knocked out of her, while her leg got caught in the thorny bushes. She cursed loudly in her head, knowing her cover had been broken. She gasped for several moments to catch her breath, but it didn't really matter, because the guy in the boat had most likely already her or seen her foot that stuck out the other side of the thorn bushes.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

The noise that Lexi made as she crashed through the undergrowth made Arthur spin round in shock. It had been so peaceful laying in the warm sun and the sudden clamour seemed ten times louder than it normally would have. He was now laying on his front, peering over the edge of the wooden boat trying to spot the cause of the noise. All he could see was a rather delicate foot stuck out at an odd angle from a patch of particuarly thorny shrubs.

"Are you okay?" He called out, standing up in the boat and leaning forwards to try and see the leg's owner. As he did so he felt the vessel rock dangerously beneath him and he spread his own legs wider, trying to balance it out. The rocking finally eased and Arthur crouched lower trying to prevent it happening again. The lasy thing he needed now was to fall into the icy water and end up frozen.

[alexis]

Lexi finally got her breath back enough to call back. "Yeah, I'm fine!" She cursed herself. What a klutz! She should have seen that patch of ice! Well, she should have done a lot of thing. At the moment, she needed to get her foot out of the bushes in one piece. Sitting up, she drew her knife and started cutting as best she could at the thorny bushes.

It took a minute, but she was finally able to get her leg back. She'd lost most of her boot though. Her foot was just going to have to be cold until she got new boots. She plucked the thorns from her foot slowly. At least it wasn't so cold as her foot would freeze off. She raised her eyebrow accusingly at her foot. "Now why did you have to go and make me give up the game for?" As usual, though, her foot didn't reply. She wrapped her foot up with a piece of her cloak and stood.

She jogged a bit to catch up to the person and the boat. Slowing to walk parallel to the boat's course, she smiled over at him. "Hey there. What's up?" She carefully avoided the muddy of the river's bank, winding her way downstream, following the boat. She didn't have anything better to do, so what not have a chat with someone new?

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur folded his arms as he squatted in the boat looking at Lexi. An amused smile twisted onto his face as he watched her talk to her own foot, and then tie cloth around her bootless limb.
She caught up with the ever-moving boat quickly, despite the lack of shoe, and he was surprised that she started a conversation so freely- he was the prince afterall- but as he looked down at himself, it suddenly occurred to him that he actually looked nothing like himself at that point in time. His hair was tousled and stuck back with the sweat that had now dried in and set like a natural wax while his face was grimy from the mornings rowing. He also wasn't wearing his usual red tunic and the difference it made was really quite astounding.

Arthur smiled back at the girl and moved to a seated position rather than sitting on his haunches.
"Enjoying stalking me?" He asked playfully.

[alexis]

Lexi raised an eyebrow at the boy. He seemed to be in quite a good mood, considering that she'd just been caught following him. People are crazy she reminded herself. At least he wasn't yelling at her or something like that. But still, that would have been pretty fun too. The thrill of the game was not getting caught, and she'd been caught, all because some stupid patch of ice. Getting away from being caught was another fun part. Apparently, she wasn't having either fun this time.

"Quite a lot, actually," she replied with a sly grin. She wondered what she must look like right then. Wild and tangled hiar, dirty-faced, torn left pant leg, bandaged left foot. Yep, it certainly seemed that her day for looking weird had come early this week.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur raised an eyebrow with an intrigued expression that said he would have liked to know more, but he decided against asking. He was still smiling though and as he sailed down the river, and Lexi followed on foot, he decided to try and get out of the boat.

Using an oar, Arthur managed to guide the little rowing boat towards the bank slowly. It was no easy task as the river bed was mainly silt and the oar tended to keep sinking into it and getting stuck, but finally he sailed close enough that getting out was an option. The trouble was that the river stopped for no one, not even crown prince- and so the boat was still moving when Arthur stood up and got ready to jump.

The first part was simple. He placed one foot on the side of the boat and using it as a sort of leverage, leaped towards the bank. He reached it easily but here was when the problem arose. The bank was made up of the same sticky, thick clay that Arthur had been walking in earlier and his landing foot slipped backwards instantly, tilting him off balance as his other foot connected with the ground. It too slipped and Arthur was left face first in the stuff- not a good first impression to leave on the girl.

[alexis]

Lexi stopped to watch curiously as Arthur started to get out of the boat. Of course, the river would not stop, and something told her that this was about to get quite funny very soon. She outright laughed as he face planted. It wasn't meant to be offensive, but it was just funny. She ran over and offered him a hand, stifling laughter that came out as bursts of giggles. "Smooth!" she cried sarcastically. "Really smooth there." She sobered up as she realized that he might be offended. "Oh, erm, are you alright?" She tried to act off her laughter by appearing concerned, and failed. She slapped her other hand to her mouth to muffle the sound, or at least try to.

OOC: sorry for short post! gotta lotta posts to post! xD

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur unplugged himself from the sticky ooze that he had landed in and spat out as much of it as he could.
"Sorry!" He mumbled through the gunge. It probably wasn't very polite to be coughing up mud in front of a lady you hardly knew. Soon his throat was free of the stuff though, and that just left his eyes to clear.
As he hastily scraped the mud away, he was aware that his new aquaintance seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh. It seemed he also had mud in his ears as he certainly hadnt heard her outburst before- probably a good thing.

Even though he had not seen or heard her laughter and sarcasm, Arthur instantly felt embarrassed. His mud coloured cheeks flushed red and he stormed off in the direction of Camelot.

[alexis]

Lexi watched in confusion as Arthur stormed off. What had his breeches all in a bunch? Falling down in mud wasn't something to get frustrated over! Lexi fell down all the time! It wasn't a big deal.

She remembered suddenly that her first impression of him was that he was a noble. Of course. A noble probably would hate it if they fell down in front of anybody, least of all, a mere servant.

Lexi almost decided to let him walk away, to go back to that oak tree and resume her peaceful thinking. But a sudden urge to try to heal what appeared to be a hurt ego overcame her and she jogged after Arthur, slowing down to his pace once she was side by side with him.

"You know, if you're embarrassed, you shouldn't be. I won't tell anyone. I didn't mean anything by laughing." And yet, as she said it, there was no remorse in her voice. No matter how hard she had tried, Lexi had never gotten the hang of being 'remorseful' because she didn't necessarily feel remorse about anything.

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

Arthur sighed haughtily.
"I am not embarrassed. I simply do not appreciate the cruel laughter of a teenage girl!" He glared down at her and tried to stomp off further. Unfortunately his nemesis on the ground glued his feet down more than he would have liked and he only managed a couple of very unbalanced steps.
He turned back and glared at the girl again. As he looked at Lexi though, he began to wonder if she was as young as he had first thought. Her wild behaviour and little care for common courtesy certainly suggested she was young and carefree, but the more he looked the more he thought she may perhaps be older.

She was thin and wiry, agile looking one could have said. He imagined she would be the sort of girl perfect for running or dancing. She was dressed as a servant and maybe that was what embarrassed him when he fell, but in general class was becoming less of an issue in Arthur's mind. No she certainly looked...fun? She had sparkling eyes and a permant smile etched into her face. Arthur could not imagine her ever being solemn with eyes like that- permanently smiling.

"Are you going to stand there all day?" He asked, folding his arms and narrowing his eyes until they were blue slits in his pale face.

[alexis]

Lexi paused in confusion for a moment. Well, if he wasn't embarrassed, then why was he so... ticked off? It was quite odd. Maybe he had issues. And cruel laughter? Where had that come from? She hadn't meant to offend him, she had just thought it was funny. After all, to her, anybody, including herself, falling face first into the mud was pretty funny. Ah well. If he was going to be moody, so be it.

When he asked if she was going to stand there all day, she realized that she had just stopped and gone off into her own mind, completely away from what was around her. Quickly, she resumed her pace to catch up to him.

"Sorry," she said, smiling brightly. Those narrowed blue eyes watching her made her still a bit more confused. But making her confused wasn't such a hard task, she reminded herself. So, she pushed her confusion back down. "We didn't get off to a good start, eh?" She laughed quietly at that. "My name's Alexis Gadia, but just call me Lexi." She offered her hand to shake in a habit she'd long ago fallen into. "I'm a gardener at the castle."

[Prince Arthur Pendragon]

"Mhmmm," He replied absent mindedly, too engrossed in brushing mud from his clothes to really notice what she was saying. He too held out a hand before clocking her words and snatching it back.

"A gardener at thecastle?" He repeated slowly, circling around her and eyeing her up and down.
"You dont look like a gardener. New?" He had completed a full circle now, and went back to cleaning himself while waiting for her reply.

It hadn't yet occurred to Arthur that she may not know who he was. He didn't spend a great deal of time at 'home' and even less in the grounds, therefore he didn't imagine Lexi would recognise him as the crown prince. He decided quickly that he would remain anonymous until she worked it out for herself.

"And anyway," He added, ignoring any reply she may or may not have uttered, "Shouldn't you be getting back to work?"