[ You are running for the love of it, your King's robes swirling about your feet in susurrations of heavier spun-silk, lighter crepe, and color. You are vivid, impossible to miss, and your retainers try to keep pace with you as you race past fluted pilasters and through carved overdoors, making for your favored part of the castle as they implore "Yᴏᴜʀ Mᴀᴊᴇsᴛʏ, ʏᴏᴜ ᴍᴜsɴ'ᴛ! Yᴏᴜ'ᴠᴇ sᴇᴠᴇʀᴀʟ ᴍᴀᴛᴄʜ-ᴍᴇᴇᴛɪɴɢs ᴛᴏ ᴀᴛᴛᴇɴᴅ ᴛʜɪs ᴀғᴛᴇʀɴᴏᴏɴ ᴀʟᴏɴᴇ!", but to no avail, for...! You've reached it, the casement window which overlooks the cliff-face below, and before you are caught, you cast open its sashes, and find yourself momentarily taken by all the beauty which greets you there. The country which you exist for, the people for whom you embody hope, and the ones who have supported you all this while—...
You turn back to face them with an impossibly bright smile, fond of them, your family made by the bonds of choice. ]
My thanks, for the reminder, and my most sincere apologies for my soon-to-be truancy, but...
[ Hands bracing on either side of the limestone ledge, you pitch your body forward, your foot instinctively finding the window frame to aid with momentum—a pushing off and away—because this is something (and perhaps the only thing) you would ever take for yourself: the freedom to be found in the weightless suspension of freefall. ]
...my heart simply isn't in the right place!
[ Because it has been (and always will be) for the good of the people who crowned you, haling you as the Hero King.
But who knows if your retainers had been privy to the sentiment at all, or the spirited laugh which followed in short suit, for both were likely lost to the wind as you plummeted to the fields blow. It is a daredevil's drop, even for those practiced in magic, but the incantation you weave swaths you in its light, slowing your descent until you are able to land with both feet upon the ground in a seamless dismount.
And again, you run, giving no pause for you should hate to be caught now.
Kicking up blades of grass in your wake, you cavort through the sweeping field, waving, smiling, greeting those groundskeepers closer to the castle's bounds (and you are pleased to be greeted back with a call of "Wᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡᴀʏ, ʏᴏᴜʀ ɢʀᴀᴄᴇ!") before you find your way to a quiet enclosure, a secret place where the hillside the castle is perched upon ebbs into the woodland which banks the rest of the Capital city.
It is here that your body finally gives way and you collapse, gasping out a laugh as the earth beneath you becomes a bed of tall grass shaded by the treeline, wildflowers tickling at your limbs and nose as your chest rises and falls, all the vastness of the world burning in your lungs and legs.
But you are not alone.
You become aware of the sound of approaching footfalls, though you bother not to lift your head, golden eyes trained skyward as you wonder who it is that has found you so very quickly after your impromptu departure. ]
Whoever it is that goes there— [ Breathless, still, your cheeks are flushed with hectic (and unusual) color: a glowing gold which speaks to the old magic running through your veins, the reason why your people think you to be Divine, and they are not the only ones. ] —will you not forget your present cause, if only for a little while, and join me here?
[ You do not wish to return to the castle, not just yet. ]
canon memory | (give me one day out there)
You turn back to face them with an impossibly bright smile, fond of them, your family made by the bonds of choice. ]
My thanks, for the reminder, and my most sincere apologies for my soon-to-be truancy, but...
[ Hands bracing on either side of the limestone ledge, you pitch your body forward, your foot instinctively finding the window frame to aid with momentum—a pushing off and away—because this is something (and perhaps the only thing) you would ever take for yourself: the freedom to be found in the weightless suspension of freefall. ]
...my heart simply isn't in the right place!
[ Because it has been (and always will be) for the good of the people who crowned you, haling you as the Hero King.
But who knows if your retainers had been privy to the sentiment at all, or the spirited laugh which followed in short suit, for both were likely lost to the wind as you plummeted to the fields blow. It is a daredevil's drop, even for those practiced in magic, but the incantation you weave swaths you in its light, slowing your descent until you are able to land with both feet upon the ground in a seamless dismount.
And again, you run, giving no pause for you should hate to be caught now.
Kicking up blades of grass in your wake, you cavort through the sweeping field, waving, smiling, greeting those groundskeepers closer to the castle's bounds (and you are pleased to be greeted back with a call of "Wᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴛᴇʟʟ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡᴀʏ, ʏᴏᴜʀ ɢʀᴀᴄᴇ!") before you find your way to a quiet enclosure, a secret place where the hillside the castle is perched upon ebbs into the woodland which banks the rest of the Capital city.
It is here that your body finally gives way and you collapse, gasping out a laugh as the earth beneath you becomes a bed of tall grass shaded by the treeline, wildflowers tickling at your limbs and nose as your chest rises and falls, all the vastness of the world burning in your lungs and legs.
But you are not alone.
You become aware of the sound of approaching footfalls, though you bother not to lift your head, golden eyes trained skyward as you wonder who it is that has found you so very quickly after your impromptu departure. ]
Whoever it is that goes there— [ Breathless, still, your cheeks are flushed with hectic (and unusual) color: a glowing gold which speaks to the old magic running through your veins, the reason why your people think you to be Divine, and they are not the only ones. ] —will you not forget your present cause, if only for a little while, and join me here?
[ You do not wish to return to the castle, not just yet. ]