𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 ✔

Chapter One

The leaves had begun to grow on the trees again giving the forest a more welcoming look, and soon flowers would have been blooming everywhere.

Occasionally, there would be a breeze that would nip at my skin as if the wind was reminding me that even though it might have turned spring the day before, winter was not quite done with us yet.

The dead plant life that was once hidden under blankets of snow, and had been revealed after the melt, now covered the ground, soggy from the rain showers and had already begun to be replaced with new life. The sticks and remaining dead leaves crunched and squished underfoot, followed by the smell of rot and wet soil, as I made my way along a narrow muddy path that arose after many reoccurring visits.

I had made several treks through those woods over the years to a place I held rather dear to my heart. It was a refuge, of some sort, from the world I had found myself living in at the time. A world anyone would have paid the handsome price of death to escape.

Just down the road from mine and Papa's little cottage on the edge of town, a few minutes inside the tree line but a very safe distance from the signs, stood a tree I spent most of my childhood in.

Only I and one other knew about this quiet haven, and that person was Bash. I had not always known Bash, nor had I not always lived in Du Ciel. I met the troublesome young man roughly a year after Papa and Mama agreed that we should leave England and move to France to start a new life in a small town just below where the young Prince, heir to the empire, was to settle after his castle was finished being built.

The sound of the birds singing in the distance, and the dewy smell left from the rain relieved the pressure in my head and soothed my ever-turning mind. Back then, nature was the only thing I needed to cure whatever ailed me, and it never failed to assist.

When I arrived at the tree, I took a moment and closed my eyes. I wanted to enjoy the peace of being away from town, from being cooped up in my small cottage repeating the same motions of daily life.

The sound of a twig snapping behind me broke me from my trace. My eyes sprang open at the feeling of hands gently grabbing hold my shoulders and I gasped.

I shook off the hands and turned quickly to find none other than Bash looming over me with a pleased look on his face. He always enjoyed seeing my shocked expression after startling me. In return I smacked him on the shoulder.

"Ouch, that wasn't polite." He grabbed his shoulder as he let out a chuckle. "I say, Isabelle, that might have been the greatest scare I have given you yet."

"How many times do I have to tell you to quit sneaking up on me?" I brushed off his words trying not to feed into his pride.

"Enough that you should be prepared for it each time." Bash gave a devilish grin, then something in his eyes shifted, "What took you so long to get here, I was about to come look for you."

"The Baker was fresh out of bread, so I had to wait on the next batch." I shook the basket at him, "Shall we head up to our perch so we can eat it while it is still warm."

"Of course." He tossed the rock he was fiddling with in his hands behind him, then started up the tree. As he grabbed my hand to assist me, he added, "Oh, I almost forgot. I have a surprise for you."

"You know I do not need anything Bash." I replied as he pulled me up, then I took my usual spot on his left.

"This," I watched as he pulled a jar of pickles from his satchel, "This is an early birthday gift."

"Rather early indeed. My birthday is not till weeks from now, could you not have waited until then?" For something so trivial to the upperclassmen, pickles among other things had become too costly for the lower class, such as the two of us, to afford. Which slightly angered me. "Bash, you don't have the money to buy things like this, it had to have costed you a weeks' worth of pay at least."