A Game Of Tag

Aedan and Princess Myrna
Early Spring of the Year 759
Glenmore, Loch Kerr

Aedan didn't see much of his family once he'd left to be a Royal Guard. His older brother was typically posted in the Glenwood and his mother and sister were virtually confined there. His father never quite approved of the light-coated son who couldn't take anything seriously, especially his royal title. 

Normally it didn't bother him. Sure he missed his mother and his siblings but he had his adventures and his ladies and his fellow patrolling guards to keep him company. There was always an Oakfern or a Blackwood to sniff down, always some crisis to deal with. 

But even with all that, he found himself getting homesick from time to time. Not for Glenwood- the royal glades reeked of confinement and civilization and couldn't hold a candle to the wild reaches of Glenmore in terms of untamed beauty. No, he longed for the company of his family.

Word reached him that a group of royals were seeking an escort to accompany them to Loch Kerr for a spring trip and he leapt at the chance. It didn't hurt that one of those going on the trip was Princess Myrna herself, evidently overcome with cabin fever from the long winter and making everyone around her as miserable as she was herself. 

She was so happy to see her brother that she nearly shrieked in surprise when he arrived. "Aedan! Are you coming with us?" 

"Oh course, you think I'd pass up a vacation?" He certainly wouldn't pass up a chance to see his sister. Lord Yorik thought Aedan was a bad influence on her, and discouraged such visits whenever he could. 

But Lord Yorik wasn't coming, just his mother and sister. His mother greeted him warmly, with all the proper protocols of a Princess to a Guard, ignoring the fact that this guard happened to be her son. 

"Why don't you take Myrna for a run?" Princess Alana suggested. "I think it would do her some good. I think it would definitely do your fellow guards some good. There's not a single one of them who hasn't had to chase her down at some point along the journey here."

Aedan chuckled, and agreed. Soon they were playing a vigorous game of tag, ripping their way through the newly unfurled grasses along the shore of the lake. By the time they began to slow, both were covered in sweat despite the cool spring breeze.

"Has anyone ever taught you to swim?" Aedan asked, catching his breath.

"No. Why would they? I might make a break for Windborne."

Aedan could only laugh at that. "You would, too. I bet even the sharks couldn't stop you if you decided to go."

He had to stop for a moment to explain to Myrna what a shark was- and then that she really, really did not want to actually meet one.

"It doesn't matter anyway," he continued. "If you don't learn how to swim, you won't even make it far enough to meet a shark!"

With that, he knocked his little sister into the shallows of the lake.

When they finally returned to Princess Alana that afternoon they were both exhausted and utterly soaked, but Myrna could almost swim on her own and their mother didn't even give them a lecture.