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Naminé longed to go outside her tower. She didn’t care how dangerous it was. What threats might lurk behind the verdant green leaves of the forest surrounding her home. Every time she opened her window and heard the song birds chirping outside, she wanted to sprout wings and fly off with them.
But Marluxia and Larxene were never going to let her, and the tower made it impossible. It had neither stairs nor doors. The only way in or out was through the window, and the drop to the ground from up here was enough to kill a person without the special trick her guardians used.
Sighing, she opened her sketchbook to a blank page and grabbed a nearby pencil. She’d drawn the view outside her small window so many times, but the tower only provided so much entertainment. She supposed she could draw herself looking out the window. Waiting for something, anything to help her step outside her prison, even once.
As her pencil flew across the page, bringing to life the image in her mind, she hummed to herself. It was a lullaby whose origin she did not know. The humming soon turned to words, and she let her voice echo loud and clear through the secluded little valley. No one ever came here besides her guardians, and so no one would ever hear her besides them. And even if they did, they had no way of climbing the tower.
The sun sank low in the sky and the light faded from the world, and she sang to herself as she captured what she could on paper.
Presently, a sudden sound interrupted her reverie. “Naminé, Naminé, let down your long hair,” a man’s voice called to her.
It must be Marluxia. Strange, this wasn’t usually the time he or Larxene came. They preferred the mornings or early afternoons, and it was twilight. Well, only her guardians knew the secret call. Maybe something was pressing or urgent. She carefully fastened her long, golden hair around a hook in the window, then let her braid down for him to climb.
Now that it was night, all she could really make out of Marluxia was his black cloak with the hood pulled over. She waited patiently as he climbed, one gloved hand going over the other. It wasn’t until he had reached the window and was climbing through it that she realized something was wrong. The cloaked figure was smaller than Marluxia for one, and when he straightened and removed his hood, the candlelight revealed a handsome young man with windswept golden hair and piercing blue eyes.
Oh dear. It was much too late to do anything about the fact that this wasn’t Marluxia. It wasn’t Marluxia at all. Her guardians’ warnings about thieves and vagabonds raced through her head, and yet there was something about him that put her at ease.
“Who are you?” she finally asked when she’d found her voice. It came out much shakier than she would’ve liked.
He smiled, and something about his smile made her breath catch and her heart leap in her chest. That had never happened before. She wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. But it wasn’t a bad feeling, not at all. Just…unexpected.
“I’m Roxas,” he said in answer to her question, bowing politely. “I’m a prince, and my family’s kingdom isn’t far from here.”
A prince! So he wasn’t a thief or vagabond after all. Well, that was a relief. “But how…”
“I heard you singing when I was passing by one day,” he replied. “Your voice is beautiful, but you sounded sad.”
Sad? Well, she supposed she was sad. How could she be happy when she wasn’t free?
“I wanted to meet you at least once,” he said, his face very earnest and sincere. “Today, I finally figured out how.” He grinned and cupped a hand over his mouth. “Naminé, Naminé, let down your long hair!”
“O-Oh. Well I suppose…” She cleared her throat and rested her hand over her heart. “Yes, that’s right. My name is Naminé.”
“Naminé,” he echoed. “It’s pretty. Like you.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks. Another strange new sensation. “Oh, um, thank you,” was all she could manage. What was it about this man that left her tongue tied?
“You’re welcome.” He glanced around the tower, taking in the rocking chair by the window with her sketchpad and pencils, the small kitchen and cozy fireplace, the little table with three chairs tucked into the corner, her bed with its royal blue canopy and matching covers. “Do you live here?” he asked.
“I do.” It had been her home and her prison ever since she could remember. Marluxia and Larxene made sure her needs were attended to, but a gilded cage was still a cage.
“Do you ever leave?”
She shook her head, and the way his eyebrows knitted together and his lips pulled into a taut line surprised her. Why did he care so much?
“So you’re trapped here,” he said, his voice dropping lower. “That’s why you’re sad.”
“Yes,” she said softly.
“Do you want to leave?”
“More than anything. But I have no way to escape.”
“What if I helped you?”
Her breath caught again. It was one thing to daydream about leaving, it was another altogether to actually act on the urge. Now that the possibility was on the table, she found herself hesitating.
“We would be punished harshly if they caught us. My guardians Marluxia and Larxene would, I mean.”
“They don’t have to know.”
She considered this. She had never tried to hide anything from them. No, that wasn’t true. She never voiced her true feelings about being locked in the tower. She’d tried once, only to be yelled at for several minutes straight about how it wasn’t safe out there, they just wanted to protect her, she couldn’t handle being out in the real world.
But wasn’t that her choice to make? What was the point in being protected from a world she never got to experience?
“Why do you want to help me?” she finally asked Prince Roxas.
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” he said, his eyes flashing with determination. “No one should spend their life imprisoned in a tower. You deserve to be as free as I am.”
Something about his answer reassured her. Perhaps it was how fiercely he was advocating for her. Maybe it was because he didn’t say a word about what he expected to get out of the arrangement. No, the focus was on helping her and doing the right thing.
Still, this wasn’t the sort of decision she could make lightly. “I…I need time to consider,” she said, pressing her fingers together. “I want to leave, but—”
His expression softened. “You’re scared, aren’t you? Can’t say I blame you. Some strange guy climbs through your window and wants you to leave the only home you’ve ever known. I’d be hesitating too. What can I do to gain your trust?”
“Could you…come back tomorrow?” she said. “And the day after that. But only in the evenings or at night. Mornings and afternoons are when they visit.”
“I’d be happy to. And each time I visit, I’ll bring a small length of rope. Not enough to raise suspicion, but enough for us to make a ladder to climb down, piece by piece. And when the ladder is finished, that’s when we can escape. Together.”
She nodded. His plan was worth a try. It was her only chance of escape, really, and the nightly visits would give her a chance to get to know him before then.
“So tomorrow at twilight, you’ll be back to see me?” The prospect was very appealing indeed, and not just because she wanted to escape. No, the prince was someone she felt like she could spend hours talking to, and the thought of seeing him again made her stomach flutter like a bird that had taken wing.
He smiled. “I will. I promise.”
With that he put his hood back over his head and she fastened her hair into the hook on the window once more. Carefully, she lowered him to the ground and watched as he mounted his horse and rode off into the night.
Smiling to herself, she pulled her golden braid back up, then sat on her rocking chair and grabbed her sketchbook and pencils. A new idea for a drawing had entered her mind, and she worked on it until the candle was just a stub and the wick flickered.
When she was finished, she examined her handiwork with a satisfied nod before fastening it to the wall and lighting a fresh candle.
She sat down to eat a delicious supper of apple slices, chunks of cheese, and fresh bread, but her eyes kept wandering to what she’d drawn. Two golden birds flew through the skies together, completely free to go anywhere they liked. The tower was far in the distance, and they would never have to return again.
Someday, that picture would be reality, she was sure of it.