It was later in the afternoon of that late summer, under the scorching sun where two young mortals were playing without the slightest care in the world. Lupa making flower crowns out of wild herb berry blooms for her new friend (or rather only friend) to wear. The girl learned of his origin to which she understood of as a fairytale, claiming him to be her very own prince charming. His mask still a hassle to her but not as bothering as before, she is confident in her own intuition.
"Is that why you made this? To symbolize a crown?"
"No, I made it because your smile goes well with it", she placed the flower crown on his head, he was silent and only stared at her. Such simple words but it made him realize something.
The crown he has to wear is something heavy and solid with a lot of responsibilities to wear, it's an expensive heirloom so he must not tip his head and dent it unlike this crown made of flowers where he can smell its sweet scent and is light on the head and kind.
"My father says I am to be King one day"
"So you really live in a big castle? I wonder what that's like"
"Is that how you climb trees?", the children eagerly exchanged questions.
"Can peach trees grow in the desert?", Lupa asked while climbing up a tree and tossed another peach she had acquired while the boy collected it. They had been taking turns gathering fruits to eat.
"We grow the finest trees in the palace but I have yet to see a peach tree grown there", he reasoned as he laid out all the peaches they had gathered on the grass.
"I don't think I can live in a world without peaches", the girl reasoned as she got a peach and ate it beside him after getting down from the tree.
"I prefer strawberries"
"How ironic, you are in the deserts but what you like is a winter fruit"
"My desires are unique",the boy shrugged as he ate a peach. Lupa stared at him and thought.
"There's a strawberry patch near here…", they stared at each other for a second.
"The first one to get there gets to eat all of it", the idea she proposed.
"Alrigh--", without a doubt the boy agreed and got up.
"But there's a catch, you can run faster than me so you have to carry all of these peaches in your robe while running. See ya!", the cunning brat reasoned before running off first.
"What? But I--Wait!", he tried to complain before quickly picking up the peaches on his robe and running after her.
Lupa knew he cannot venture far from the temple and she didn't want him to be put in harms way so instead she played with him as would a thousand children.
The scene continued and progressed as it should in the story.
They ate with their mouths full of strawberries and peaches to their hearts content. They danced to the distant echoes of the songs from the market musician and its band. They drove down the hill on an old bark of coconut leaf until it broke from them crashing into a tree where they simply laughed at their injury. They ran up and down the hill, to the rice fields near and rode on a calf to which they got a scream from the owner for not asking permission as they fled into another game. The two gave each other piggy-back-rides and shoulder lifts to which Lupa couldn't even actually carry the weight of the prince. He got to climbed as many trees as he wanted to. And when their stomach rumbled for lunch, she initiated on a theft down to the market where they stole roasted fishes on skewers, fleeing from the place with it in between their bites. After, they played in the mud and washed themselves in the river but with mostly playing with the water. Ostensibly in wonderland as they played away their childhood. The two could barely catch unto their breath from too much laughter, holding unto their bellies as they roll on the ground from each others jokes. Then, when exhausted from their fun, they fell asleep together under a tree and when they woke, they played again. The sounds of their laughter echoed throughout the temple walls as the king merely sat in silence, drinking his fine wine and listened to hearing his son laughing joyously for the first time. Even for Lupa, this was the most fun she had. For a moment, she was just a child with no memories of past lives, her first time living.She had truly made a friend.
But alas, the afternoon breeze soon grew cold and the sun began to set. The temple bells rang, signaling for the young prince's return. It was the end of the two children's little adventure. Their playtime is over. It had only been a day but for the two it felt longer, like time had went away. They didn't want their fun to end but they understood that it had to be for they both have duties of their own to fulfill.
The two stared at the direction of the temple, after awaiting its last bell to ring, the two looked at each other. Although, disappointed, a smile broke between them as they stared into the sunset together. This moment was enough for them, for now.
"Our time has ended but I think this is only the beginning", the boy couldn't help but smile.
" So it is, at the turn of events you ended up making a friend simply by falling off of the temple walls", Lupa chuckled.
"It's a silly encounter. All that laughing almost made you barfed out the food you ate"
"And your face was red from laughing at me", she teased. The boy sighed as they stared into the sunset together for the last time.
"Sunsets here are different from back home. The desert is a warm place but it gets very cold at night"
"I thinks sunsets are beautiful everywhere. When you come back, I'll teach you how to fly a kite", Lupa smiled.
"And I'll give you our finest gold"
"I'd rather it just be food"
They both laughed, then an unwieldy silence followed. The prince glanced at the temple then back to his friend.
"I guess this is goodbye", Lupa sighed from the sight and forced a smile for him yet again. She didn't want to send him off deplorably.
"For now, but I oath to visit again. Well I be welcomed?",he fixed his headpiece.
"Of course, I'll be here. We'll play again and next time, I'll show you my house. I'll tell my parents that I've made friends with a foreign prince", she assured him.
"I'd rather not, I'm not fit to be", he laughed.
"Nonsense. I'm sure you'd be a great King". The girl smiled brilliantly unknowingly that at that moment, in the prince's point of view, with the sunset shining on them it felt like she had glowed beautifully with the setting sun. He had become utterly in awe of her presence.
"Before you go, your Highness. May I see you?",the girl requested. But it was just a way for her to confirm his identity.
He nodded and agreed, for her it felt as if he could not instinctively deny her. So he slowly took of his head piece and stopped when he held her hand.
"Then…in exchange, may I know your name?", he stared intently at her and moved the bandage that was almost covering her right eye until he finally removed the bandages that was on her face so he could register every detail of her face.
"Bricallis…Lupa Bricallis", the girl revealed as she smiled.
Then she looked back up at him, it was now his turn to remove his mask. Strangely, as he was doing so, she could not help but notice that her heart was beating profusely. Was it because she is very certain that he really is the protagonist? She would not know what to do if it had turned out otherwise. His gesture was slow, in her eyes she cherished every moment noticing every component of his clothes, to his jewelry, his flawless fair skin with a tint of tan. But then all of a sudden, his brown hair was slowly turning light, as her gaze went up to see his face, it made all the more sense. Lupa was astonished, she was speechless of his beauty.
"Snow fairy…", she muttered to herself.
"You look like a snow fairy!", Lupa admitted which made the two of them burst out in laughter for the last time. Bickering once more as her compliment made him shy.
"Until we meet again, my Prince", she thanked him with the sweetest smile she has ever mustered. The boy nodded and smiled back as he started to walk away. He'd rather not let this moment end.
With every step of the way so was the sounds of the bell ringing and urging him even more to hurry back to the temple. But as she painfully watched as her friend was slowly fading away from her sight, Lupa clenched her hands together.
"What…", her voice almost cracked as she whispered.
"What should I call you?!", she yelled out to him with her heart.
He froze and quickly turned back. Hearing her voice for the last time made him overjoyed. Confident that this isn't the last time he'll be seeing her.
"Klysh!"
Although, he could not tell her his real name, it was still his name, just not his first one. Lupa laughed of knowingly as she waved her final goodbye at him.
"Until we met again, my prince!"
And so, the two friends parted ways and with them their cherished childhood memory of that one fateful summer day that for the both of them could never be forgotten nor replaced by any other.
* **