| shining through the forest with a little funk in soul

"I bet she went off to meet the mermaids! I will catch you later, okay?" Arcel hastily brushes away the other boy's presence and is about to rush toward the lake when the boy hooks a finger around the back of Arcel's collar and hinders his haste.

The brunette jolts to a stop.

"I don't reckon you should go in," he suggests to a very disapproving looking Arcel. But before the brunette could list out all the reasons of exactly 'why he should really go in,' the ravenette beats him to words. "Does you friend know how to swim?" He suddenly asks, dark eyebrows furrowing at the sight of the bubbling lake.

Usually, when a child drowns, they do not struggling as much as a teen or an adult normally would. They tend to go down peacefully and if the Prince's friend was not masterfully underwater diving at the ripe age of five, then she, for sure, was drowning.

"I...uh, don't think so? I only met her yesterday. She tells good stories," Arcel shrugs, quite nonchalantly for someone whose 'friend' just disappeared in the middle of nowhere.

But that was hint enough for the ravenette to know that Arcel's companion wasn't busying herself with underwater sightseeing. "Stay here," he orders, quite strictly, to Arcel, eyes narrowed at the Lake as he runs up to the crystal boundary and jumps in without a sound upon impact. As if the Lake absorbed him.

Brilliance of the sky diminishes against the small, illuminating, shards of crystals guarding the lake. The forest knew peace, it was at peace, but Arcel wasn't.

Arcel tip toes in his place, craning his neck to observe whatever was happening underneath the glorious scarlet surface of that Lake. It looked calm on the outside, gorgeous in the unexplored eyes of the sheldered prince. His feet begin tapping, unbeknownst to him, his index fingernails start rubbing against the skin of his thumbs, his body rocks to and fro on his heels as he tries, hard, harder, putting so much effort to be still as his tongue maps out the whole of his mouth.

And suddenly, the silence breaks.

"P-puh-puuhhl- pull her aahup!" A hoarse voice gasps and Arcel takes it as a cue to race up to the Lake's edge. For someone who was supposed to have jumped in a lake, both Iris and her saviour were dry as a desert.

"Woah! You found her! Is she okay? She doesn't looks like she had a lot of fun," Arcel iterates, slotting his hands under Iris' arms as the boy supported her legs on one shoulder and jumps over the crystals.

The passed out girl was considerably small and light yet the boys lay her down on the grass and pant to their heart's content.

Though, conversation cuts to chase when the sound of synchronised metallic footsteps fall on their ears. Arcel's eyes widen, jaw dropping to a considerable length as he looks around, trying to put sight to sound.

The boy pulls Arcel by his shoulder and points Australis, 'They are there!' he mouths, as distinctly as he could. It was the same direction as the Maynard Castle. Arcel's dim eyes brighten in acknowledgement. Duchess Arabella's promise to The Church.

'Knights from the Castle!' Arcel mouths with hot breaths of whispers hitting the other boy's face. The boy picks Iris by the waist and was about to hang her over his shoulder when Arcel tries to snatch her from him.

The brunette furrows his brows as his grip around Iris'shoulders tighten. Arcel narrows his eyes at the stranger and the ravenette instantly lets go. Iris' lower body plops, very awkwardly, to the grassy ground with her shoulders weighing down Arcel's hands.

The cobalt haired boy jogs toward the opposite direction from the Knights whilst Arcel tries hard to drag Iris and himself into a safe place, before the guards catch them both and report them to the Duke and Duchess. Or worse to worst, they would report them to Lady Crimson! That would be 'The End' to all freedom and fun, for sure.

Arcel, giving away all consideration for Iris' body, starts dragging her over the grass like a piece of log. Her heels tracing the pattern of Arcel's awkward movements. When the other boy notices that his dumb princely companion was leaving behind a trail, he rolls his eyes before running back to grab one of Iris' legs and running off again.

Arcel mouths him an agressive and hasty, 'Thank you!' But the boy already has his back to them.

With one foot dangling into bioluminescent wildlife of the Forest Borealis, shinning purple ferns tickling her exposed skin, Iris gains subtle consciousness. Quite itchy.

"Do you think she is dead?" Arcel huffs out a question, having ran quite a lot into the luminescent forest. They drop Iris on a patch of purple pampas and try to get their life together.

"Wo-ould you mind- if she is dead?" The stranger huffs a response, golden eyes narrowed at the silent form of shabby Iris. He decided she looked better when she was speaking.

"Not if you be my friend," was Arcel's quick reply. "We can start off by exchanging names. I'm Arcel," the boy introduces, holding out a hand over Iris' body, extending it to the standing other.

His golden vision alternates between the girl, the Prince, and a retreating longing glance at Lake Virae.

"I'm Vasil," he finally introduces, shaking Arcel's hand after little contemplation. The Knight might have found the necklace by now and the only way he could retrieve it again was by befriending the Prince. Now, this was a win-win situation that he could not give up on.

"Yes! About time! Or I would have to bet you into it! Iris' wasn't pleased when I bet her into it so I tried different this time! It is spectacular to meet you, Vasil!" Arcel jumps over Iris' body and tackles Vasil into a hug, all the whilst ranting in hushed whispers. The unsuspecting boy almost topples into the cluster of rocks behind him. His hands remain spread out, unable to hug back, fingers squirmed with emotions unknown. Arcel's hug felt sweaty, heavy and Vasil wanted to be done with it.

Why did Arcel want to be friends? Why won't he ask him about the theft? Why is he so expressive...?

"I cannot believe you discarded me so easily, you fiddlefart," comes the bitter remark of a vengeance seeking Iris as she pulls Arcel and Vasil by their legs and makes them fall into the purple pampas patch with muted yelps.

She laughs as their limbs entangle with each other, Arcel's kneeing Vasil in the chin, Vasil wrapping his foot over Arcel's stomach and Iris standing on top of them. She laughs harder.

Vasil almost jumps on impulse, caging Iris' laughs behind his hand before they could leak out to the Maynard Knights, not far beyond. 'Knights,' he mouths, golden blown out eyes looking beyond Iris.

'He did it again, cage her mouth, twice in a day. Man's got some nerve,' Iris scoffs to herself, before pinching his sides while, simultaneously, Arcel decides to pull them both by their legs.

Behind Vasil was a cluster of sharp rocks.

Behind Iris was a steep pampas slope.

Vasil's knee-jerk reaction was toppling his weight over Iris' side. The brunette, whose hands were still clung to both of their legs, along with the two ravenettes, swiftly tumble down the steep slope in a flurry of concealed screams and yelps and curses, mostly from Iris, as they land in a glowing pit of goo.

"Ugh, I hate you!" Iris whines as she feels her muscles throb from having rolled down a grass hill with two guys more in weight than her. She opens her eyes to find herself slick with what looked like liquid glitter or mercury.

"This was so much fun!" Arcel whisper yells, laughing and splashing his hands in the glitter pit as his neck turns from Iris to Vasil. Iris stared Arcel down in disappointment while the ravenette boy was busy whispering something to himself.

"Patience, I must be patient. Unicorn vomit is nothing, I have seen worse. There are people dying in wars, what is Unicorn vomit in comparison?" He ranted.

Iris looks at an excited Arcel, a borderline terrified-cum-disgusted Vasil, and the slick pool of alleged Unicorn vomit. Well, it could be worse. She raises her hand and the fluid sticks, raising with her hand in a thick silky silver thread.

Who would have known that Unicorn vomit would make her feel like she was shinning through the forest with a little funk in soul.

Celebrating the spirit, she threw a blob at Vasil's anxious face and laughed it off with Arcel.