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Erudian had met the princess of Lebovny when he was only twelve years old.
It was during the annual Glucaman Tripartite Agreement meeting and his father had decided that he join him. This would be the first time Erudian would ever leave the borders of the Belgoat Empire. He had been curious of the world out there but knew his duties needed to come first.
The first time he had seen the pink-haired child was when she was running around her small garden. Erudian was lost inside the castle despite its smaller size compared to the Imperial Palace but the unfamiliarity of the place has caused this unfortunate event of his.
With his father busy with the kings of Lebovny and Azekien, Erudian decided to entrain himself inside the quiet castle. He had opted for reading in the library and he did at first, but he was a child still and needed to release all the pent-up energy he had built over the past two days. It’s not like he could do his sword training here.
Erudian went on and on walking, hoping that the more he does so, he will eventually find something familiar which will lead him back to his room. But the more he did, the more unfamiliar it was. The moment he stepped into an unrecognizable open hallway with great pillars leading to the small courtyard garden, he knew he should stop.
Erudian sighed. Father will not be happy with me.
He was about to lose hope and stay still for a while, waiting for a servant to pass by and save him, until a little hand grabbed the end of his coat jacket and tugged. He felt some of his divinity leave him and Erudian turned, and looked down upon noticing pink which reached his stomach.
The very first thing he had seen was blue and for a moment, he had thought that he was way above the clouds and was looking down at the heavens until he realized that that those blue orbs were eyes. He had seen her in the introduction, being carried in the arms of her mother and was distracted by the flowers in her mother's hair.
"Found you!"
Erudian blinked at the statement before letting out a small unsure smile. He had never been in the company of other children, the only person who he was familiar with around his age were Perrik and Iven.
In front of his stood a child who must be around five or six. Her pink hair reached the back of her chest, a ginormous white ribbon bow at the back of her head. She had a small silver tiara and a lacy pink dress. She was hopping in excitement, unaware of the slightly rigid state of her companion.
"Found me?" he queried in confusion, red eyes meeting blue.
"Yes, we're playing!" the little princess in pink grinned brightly at him and it felt like Erudian couldn’t look away.
"Playing?"
"A game of hide and seek!"
Erudian let out a small chuckle as he lifted his hand and patted the soft pink hair which reminded him of that one time Perrik brought him some cotton candy from the square.
"I was not aware that we were playing, Your Highness."
"Yeni!" the child suddenly shouted and Erudian was once again lost in his confusion.
"What?"
"Yeni." the little princess insisted and he thought for a moment.
Yeni… Ah, Yereninovica. Is that her nickname? He looked down at the small figure.
“Yeni!” she repeated, tugging more on his coat.
Erudian chose not to say her name and decided to play her little game as a means of entertainment. If he was lost, then he has found some sort of salvation in the form of a five year old child.
"Very well, Princess. I have lost the game. Shall we do another round?" he offered his hand and the little one giggled. Instead of placing her hand in his, she grabbed the open hand and dragged him into the garden.
“This time, I hide and you try to find me, okay?”
Erudian couldn’t stop the bubble of excitement in this little game of theirs. This would be a first for him yet, he did not find it strange, did not find it uncomfortable. He was having fun with the youngest princess of Lebovny.
“Alright. I’ll try to find you, Princess.”
For his entire stay in Lebovny, Crowned Prince Erudian was almost always found with Princess Yereninovica. There were times they would be found walking in the gardens, her small hand in his as he slowly escorted her. There would be times they would be found reading silently in the palace libraries. But most of the time, they would be found playing in the small courtyard of the West Wing, playing a small game of hide and seek.
They wouldn't meet again for years. When Erudian left to return for Belgoat, he first had to placate the crying princess who wanted to play with her friend more. His father was curious of their friendship but Erudian shut down any of his father’s ideas of a marriage between them.
“Where are you going?” she cried, clinging to his coat as she did when they first met. But instead of a smile, there was a frown. “We’re going to play today!”
Erudian couldn’t stop his eyes from going to the watery blue eyes. What once was the sky was now a sea. He briefly recalled the emerald seas at the borders of the empire and he promised himself he would take her there one day when she is grown.
“Yeni, goodness me.” the Queen sighed, trying to remove her daughter’s hands from him. “I am so sorry, Prince Erudian.”
“No, it’s fine, Your Majesty.” Erudian smiled politely and turned to his little friend. He patted her head and back to comfort her. “And please, don’t cry Princess. We’ll meet and play again.”
The little princess sniffed, wiping the tears away from her eyes. Cute.
“We will?” she asked, “When? Where? I want us to play now!”
“Yeni!”
Erudian just laughed lightly at her demanding. What a demanding princess you are. He moved a strand of her pink hair. I wonder how you will be when you grow up.
“Then how about this? Just think of this as a long game of hide and seek, hm? I’ll come looking for you in the future. How about that?” Erudian thought and hoped that the princess would fall for it.
And of course she will. He smiled when the princess nodded with a bright smile despite her teary face.
“Okay! I’ll hide and you seek, okay?”
Erudian pinched her cute cheeks making her yelp, her mother laugh, and his father scold him. He didn’t mind.
“Okay. I’ll find you.”
When he went back to Belgoat, he often wondered about his friend. Has she grown? Is she still an active little child? Erudian wanted to write letters but knew that that would look to weird. A twelve-year old crowned prince writing letters to a five year-old princess. What would his father think? What would the nobles. And so, he pushed thoughts of her to the back of his mind, focused on his training and his studies,
And eventually, Erudian had forgotten about her, about the princess. There would be times he would think of the sky and try to recall something but end up with nothing. Erudian didn’t know why during his early morning sword practices, he would glance up at the slow turn of the sky from black into blue and the clouds becoming pink.
Whenever he would read Lebovny in the documents. He knew there was something important at the back of his head, and he thought it was only because of the Glucaman Tripartite. And the more Lebovny was mentioned, the more irritated he became with it.
When he stepped into the small castle during his attack, a sense of nostalgia hit him. Erudian quickly shook it off as he focused on the battle happening around him, letting out his frustrations of Lebovny, red-violet eyes narrowed and hardened.
He had forgotten something. But what?
He had forgotten.
But he remembered when he saw pink hair trying to hide from behind the large pillars of the castle.
"A game of hide and seek!"
Erudian stared at the pillar where the princess was hiding, frozen at the sudden rush of memories that hit him. A little hand grabbing his clothes, a little hand in his, a little hand patting his head after a day of reading books, a little hand touching him whenever she managed to find him hiding.
Het out a huff of laughter despite the ongoing battle around him as he smiled at the crouched figure. Erudian slowly approached her, trying his best to be gentle and not frighten her. He could already see she was trembling. Erudian wondered how she looked like now.
Was she still the cute and energetic princess he had met fourteen years ago?
He saw that bright blue sky once more.
"Found you, Princess."