WINTER UPON THE SUN

CHAPTER VII

The birds' chirping and tweeting is what woke the young prince from his slumber, which he was annoyed with. He had been dreaming about meeting and bonding with his fiancé, so for it to be disrupted, it's irritating. At the Martinez palace, it's rare for birds to fly around there. Moreover, they don't idle, since it's quite cold there.

Ethan sat up and stretched his limbs to wake his system up. It had been 2 weeks exactly since he went home with his family and everything was still the same except for the unknown part where he quite longed for the prince, presumably princess, of the winter kingdom.

They did keep their promises to write at least twice a week but it was, of course, still far from the reality of being close together.

Ethan barely knows the others and is still quite young to understand anything like this, but he already knows the feeling of liking a person, as he had already tried dating a friend, but he is sure that he likes Skyler dearly.

"A few more weeks." He mumbled, before standing up to check if the princess’ letter had arrived.

"Have any letters addressed to my name?" He asked one of the staff in the royal mail. The staff smiled at him and shook her head, "Dear prince, it has only been a day since you've sent your letter. The letter you sent will arrive to the princess today." She explained, kindly.

Ethan sighed, thanking the kind mail lady before leaving with disappointment blooming on his chest. He needs to get prepared as he still has classes and meetings to attend and practices to finish.

~•~•~•~•~•~

Skyler’s currently with his two older friends, Marlene and Angelo, getting ready to practise horseback riding. Ever since Ethan convinced his father to ride a horse, his father asked him if he wanted to train to ride. He, of course, gleefully agreed and continued thanking his father.

Both his friends are equally excited as he is and keep telling him that they'll help him if he needs anything. "You think the teacher the king chose would be any good?" Angelo joked before Marlene elbowed him softly. "Of course it would be one of the best. If you haven't noticed, this princess is the one and only child of our kingdom's royal rulers." He matter of factly explained.

Angelo rolled his eyes, trying to make a face at his older sister, but Marlene smacked him in the back of his head. Skyler just laughs at his friends, as he watches them. "Enzo will come later after his training with Nila." He said, looking at Angelo. Once the other younger boy looked back at him, Skyler wiggled his eyebrows up and down, teasing the elder one as he knows Angelo likes the young gardener.

"Shut up!" Angelo groaned.

"I'm not even saying anything." Skyler laughed.

"Your brows are expressing more than you should." He answered back, before standing up to go to the stable to get his horse. "My brows were joking!" Skyler said out loud, laughing with Marlene.

Once everything's calmed down, Skyler meets his teacher and starts practicing. "Keep your back straight, your highness." Buppha, the teacher, instructed.

Buppha was the lady who taught Ethan when he was younger and when the young prince had found out about the king's decision to let Skyler learn to ride a horse, he immediately recommended his old teacher, Buppha, to the family, to which they immediately agreed to.

Skyler nodded and did what he was told to do, but he slowly fell sideways again. Buppha, held his arm on time and straightened him. "My lady, if you're falling sideways, either just lean a little on the side where you're not or lean on your front, and for you to stay more stable while sitting straight, use your legs and squeeze the middle part of the horse just until you can manage to sit up straight without doing so." She explained.

"Alright, thank you Buppha." And he did try that. Although he still fell, it did help with his stability. Enzo did come that day, which led to Marlene and Skyler starting to annoy Angelo, as they both kept giving him knowing looks while he tried to talk to Enzo.

Skyler and Marlene watched Angelo opening a bento Enzo brought over for him, enjoying how much of a goner their friends are with each other. Skyler stared at them and thought if ever he'd feel that same way towards Ethan in the future. "Do you think I'll have the same experience as those two together with the prince?" He asked Marlene. That got the attention of the elderly. "I don't think you'll have the same exact experience as we are all different and have divergent situations of meeting and feeling. You and the prince, it's a must that you both should get along whether either of you like or not, but from what I witnessed, there's no need to force a relationship between you two. You were both mutual in this." The elder explained, turning back to the other two. "I mean, I haven't even got to meet the one for me.” She stopped, looking at the princess blushing. “Not that I’m looking for one. I still have plenty of time to find that kind of relationship, so I'm a bit uncertain how to answer your question, really." She sighed, closing her eyes. The younger chuckled at his older friend.

"What if, one day, I realize I don't like Ethan that way? What if he doesn't like me that way?!" That scared young Skyler as that would mean he has to marry a person he's not in love with or the other way around.

Marlene could see that her friend needed reassurance, and that made her giggle and shake her head. "With the way you two acted even though both of you barely know each other? You have nothing to worry about, Sky."

That calmed him a bit and he hummed at the explanation. Marlene is really wise. "Thank you.. I'll try to remember that, Marlene." He smiled his way.

At the end of the day, he got a small bruise on his knee from falling while trying to get down the horse after practice, but it wasn't a bad experience. After the talk with Marlene, he realizes a lot about that, although he still has a lot of questions and doubts. He shook his head to forget about it for now.

~TBC~