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Maverick smiled and said "I know what you mean. The first time I stumbled upon this it stole my breathe away." He looked over at hiss future bride and said "Have you ever been swimming before?" This was his own way of learning about the elven princess. To him it was much more interesting to learn hands on then sit and ask questions. He hoped they would learn much about each other this way.

(so ummm, should I just continue as if I was alone from the beginning and just pick up where I left off with NPC's?)

Xaundellyn's long fingered hands reached up and covered her lips in a nervous yet giddy gesture. "You would do that? Mother always said 'swimming isn't an art for Ladies'." But there was excitement in her dark grey eyes at the thought. "My youngest sister could swim. She taught herself just to make mother mad. She is funny that way, always thinking outside the box." Her face softened when she spoke of her sister.

She instantly reached back to the strings that laced up her dress, giving them a tug and letting them loosen. "Alright! As long as you won't let me drowned!" There was no shame nor nervousness in Xaundellyn's eyes as she shed her dress, shoes and stockings. This man was to be her husband and she reasoned that eventually he would be seeing her in a lot less than corset and bloomers. And bloomers are really just like childrens shorts, though thinner and frilly. She pointed at the water, "Let us commence!"

Walking to the edge of the water, Xaundellyn hesitantly put the tip of her toe into the water and then, seeing it wasn't very cold talked in until the water came up to her hip. She held her arms out at her sides, palms resting on the surface. "Alright, dearest. What do I do know?"

“…Prince.”

A decidedly unimpressed blonde guard stood at the edge where the forest met the clearing that the river ran through. It hadn’t taken her too long to get on their track, but she’d wanted to be quiet to avoid alerting possible danger in the woods that the prince and princess were off on their own. Her hand was on the hilt of one of her short swords, and for a moment she thought wistfully about taking it out and smacking the Prince with the flat of it so that he would learn to respect the fact that his guards needed to know where he was.

It was one of her more common daydreams, usually kept in reserve for whenever guards came to her, looking contrite and asking for her help in finding the Prince.

Her eyes swept quickly over the scene, and the frustrated look on her face suddenly underwent multiple lightning-quick changes. Surprise. Embarrassment. Amusement. Finally she seemed to settle on exhausted resignation. “If you and the lady would kindly get dressed again, I believe your father would like to have a word with both you and the Princess.”

Glancing briefly at the Princess, she added politely, “If the lady would like to learn to swim, Prince,” because it was obvious that that was what she was learning, “there are proper teachers for such things.” She’d learned to swim young, as many of the guards had—there were advantages to knowing any kind of terrain, as well as learning to fight in a situation where you might be without armor and weapons. Though she assumed the Prince would be a good teacher, she didn’t think it was…well, quite proper for him to be teaching his wife-to-be, at least not right at the moment.

Maverick smiled at her as she began to swim all by herself then blinked in shock when she sank, bobbed back up and clung to him in a matter of seconds. Not because of her actions but because of the voice that just rang out to him. He smirked and said "Dearest guard, you may be right, there are plenty of proper teachers. But none are as fun as me." He stuck his tongue out at Atahlea before splashing water in her direction. "As for my father..I'm sure he can wait a little bit more. I mean I can probablly have the conversation he wants to have with me, by myself." He never much cared for the boring political speeches his father would give to him. Some might think him a street rat by his attitude, he was not traditional royalty by any means.