Chapter 1 : Where Mud Speaks Louder Than Gold
In the year 1800, in a town called Verdania, where summer arrives with its golden heat, spring blooms in vivid colors, autumn carries the fallen leaves like a shawl of memories, and winter cloaks the earth in a pure white veil.
It was not an escape... but rather a search for something akin to herself, perhaps even a kind of quiet protest... The princess had always believed that silence is more powerful than commands.
She slipped through the trees until she reached the farthest place from the palace, where neither the nurses' screams nor the footsteps of the guards could reach.
The sky in that corner of the garden was wider. The trees gave no orders, nor did they watch the steps.
She sat on an ancient rock and lifted her head toward the clouds while a book rested on her lap after she finished reading it, observing shapes resembling a horse, and another like a heart.
She liked her solitude. She always tended to speak to things that did not answer, as if she could hear from them what we cannot say.
Then she felt him... before she heard him.
He stood a few steps away. No sound, no breath, no greeting.
She turned to him lightly and smiled a smile only one born a queen could possess before the crown ...yet tired, carrying much of "I understand you, but let me live."
"I told them I did not wish for company this morning."
"And I am not your company, Your Highness. I am merely fulfilling my duty."
She tilted her head lightly, that gesture she always made when trying to confuse him in vain.
"Stop calling me 'Your Highness' when we are alone."
"Even if you are alone... you are still she."
"I do not want the morning's noise today."
"I am not the noise, Your Highness."
Their silence spoke truer than any words. She did not scold him, nor order him away. She merely made space beside her on the very same rock.
He remained standing, hands behind his back, his posture straight, his gaze not meeting hers directly.
Like a solid wall her attempts had yet to soften.
The strangest thing about him? He was not harsh, but very tender... yet his boundaries were carefully drawn a man unwilling to stray from the right path.
And she?
She was doing everything she could to make him lose his way.
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Hey,
I just finished reading your story and I really loved it. The characters felt so real and every scene kept me completely engaged. I also have a few ideas on how we could enhance it visually if you are open to exploring them.