10 Chapter 10- A Stroll in the Garden

--Alexandria POV--

"Well, Alexia. My name is Tobias Lockheart. It's lovely to meet you,"

With that, he moved back into a gentleman's bow, grabbing my white-gloved hand and landing his pink lips on my knuckles.

To say I was surprised would be an understatement.

After a moment, he stood back up, smiling down at me while I gave him an odd look.

"What are you doing in the palace?" He curiously asked.

How was I supposed to reply to that? As if sensing my confusion, the maid cut in- "Miss Alexia is a personal guest to his royal majesty, King Alpheus," Tobias's eyes popped out of their sockets as he stared at me, clearly shocked.

"Well, there's something you don't hear every day. You must have saved an entire country in your past life if you're the guest of honour to the King who has never in his reign had a personal guest before," Was it really that big of a deal? He made it sound like a big deal.

"Where are you currently headed?" He asked. Should I tell him?

"The garden. I was wanting to visit the rose garden before I left," I decided to go for the truth.

"Hm. Mind if I tag along?" He asked, grinning excitedly.

I shrugged. "Not at all. Just try not to bump into me anymore," I joked and he laughed at that.

"If I recall correctly, you bumped into me," He shot back as we began walking side by side once again and the maid decided to leave us alone.

"Then you must be recalling incorrectly," I cheekily smiled and he grinned at that, moving his hand to tap my nose which had me laughing like a mischievous child.

"Say, what are you doing here?" I decided to ask him the same question as he did me a few minutes ago but before he had the chance to answer, I caught sight of the garden.

Squealing excitedly, I made a dash for it and the guards barely had enough time to open the doors for me as I was met with a face full of sunlight, breathing in the fresh air.

I had never been confined inside a building for so long.

I jumped down the few marble steps and skipped down the brick path that led towards the rose garden that I so desperately wanted to go to.

Once I reached the said garden, I came to a halt at the entrance, staring down the tunnel of roses which weaved through what looked like a metal fence but it was barely visible due to all the red roses and green leaves.

Tobias then caught up to me. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a fast runner? Just where did you grow up to learn how to run that fast? You're not even out of breath," He panted out, still chuckling.

"On an island," I answered, leaving him gasping as I walked into the tunnel of roses.

He ran to me until he was walking beside me, staring down at me as if trying to figure out whether that was a joke or not.

"You're being serious!?" He shouted.

With a smile, I nodded, not even looking at him cause I could practically sense his emotions right now. Was it that surprising to know that I grew up on an island?

"No. Way. How did you survive? How haven't you caught any diseases from unhygienic living conditions? How did you end up here in Lazarus?-" He continued to question me and I patiently waited for him to run out of questions to ask before I would answer him.

It took some time but thankfully it ended.

"There were plenty of fruits and vegetables that grew there and I made sure to collect every single one of them before they stopped growing. As for hygiene, I had been vaccinated before I started living there and eventually grew immune. The King found me on the island and tried to convince me to come back but I denied him and eventually decided to come with Val. That was yesterday," I finished with a smile.

"Any more questions?"

There was a long moment of silence in which we just stared at one another until he started rapidly nodding and shooting another batch of questions my way.

If everyone was going to react like this then I think it's best I find another story of where I come from. Would they buy it if I said I came from another city? It's more believable than saying I came from an island, right?

"I ended up there due to a shipwreck when I was of 10 years. I lost my memories during the wreck when my head banged against a rock but I had John fill me in on the important stuff. John was my only family but he died a few months ago and that's why I decided to come here to Lysandra,"

I ended up telling him everything about my life on the island and how I was able to manage without certain necessities... yes, including my time of the month. Luckily, my first-time started later than most girls- when I was 14 and John had expected me to freak out but I had done my research beforehand so it was all good and there were plenty of leaves that I could use as pads.

There was nothing to be ashamed of. Just because I grew up on an island with no memory of my past life didn't make me any less human than everyone else.

Tobias and I ended up talking for hours where he filled me in on the story of his life after I was done with mine, well he was doing that until we realised that it was getting dark.

We were back inside the palace now and Tobias was escorting me to my chambers. He wasn't as shady as I had first thought he was and was actually quite funny, making a joke at any given chance and they were dumb jokes that left me wheezing like a hyena.

"Alexa!"

I jumped at the booming voice, spinning around to be met with an enraged looking Val. I didn't get was why he looked ready to kill. Did I do something wrong?

"Where have you been!? I've been looking for you for an entire minute!"

Okay, I was starting to feel bad until he said 'an entire minute!'... What? Was I supposed to feel indebted to him for wasting 60 whole seconds on me? Glad that it was 1 minute and not 2. Would he have called the army on the 3rd minute? or possibly the 4th.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one dumbfounded by that as Tobias was full-on laughing, clutching his stomach with tears sparkling in the corner of his eyes.

"Oh my gosh! A whole minute! I was expecting you to say an hour or something but a minute! Oh, brother, you are just too much,"

I would have giggled along until his last sentence rang in my ears. Wait. Brother?

"You guys are brothers!?" I squealed out, pointing between the two of them, shocked, to say the least. I heard that Alpheus had 4 kids with Val being the oldest, two twins who were 14 and a little girl called Yvaine who's probably around the age of 4 or 5 now.

Tobias looked to be the same age as Val which didn't make any sense but he cleared it up for me when he went to stand beside Val, swinging an arm around his shoulder.

"Not by blood, of course. We're best friends. If we weren't friends then I'd just be a lowly knight who worked for him," Okay. Now it all made sense.

Tobias was 24 years old and he was the third in command for the knights (So no, he wasn't just a lowly knight). He was the son of a viscount and was supposed to take over for his father but gave up the position to become a knight and for that, he's hated by his father and his mother. That's all I knew.

He stood a few centimetres shorter than Val, 6ft something with light brown hair, stubble and caramel eyes. He had a dimple on his right cheek which was obvious to spot as he's always smiling and unless he told me then I would never have guessed that he was a literal knight in shining armour.

Right now, he was dressed in leather pants and a loose white shirt but it was obvious that he had a well-structured body. Not too many or too little muscles.

"Anyway..." I shook my head at the situation.

"Can I help you with something?" I asked Val who seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"No,"

Well, that didn't make any sense now, did it?

"How did you both meet?" Val asked neither of us in particular.

"She bumped into me. Of course, she likes to believe that I bumped into her and she's a cool lady so how could I say no. Right?" I only glared at Tobias and he grinned right back.

"Ugh," I rolled my eyes, spinning around as I walked off without even saying goodbye to them. I could faintly hear Tobias sniggering as I walked into my room.

Just as I walked in, Ryder took that opportunity to fly through the open balcony doors. Like me, he wasn't used to staying indoors for so long and luckily the cold didn't bother me so I kept the balcony doors open all the time so he could freely go and come as he wished.

Petting his head, I walked towards the large bed where I threw myself onto it, sinking into the mattress as I turned my body around to gaze at the ceiling.

This was weird.

I didn't see stars, I wasn't uncomfortable and I was surrounded by warmth in every direction. Is this what it felt like to be a royal?

I wouldn't give anything to be a royal though.

They're too busy all the time that they don't realise life floating by them. They didn't enjoy gazing at the stars every night because they didn't have time. They never felt the satisfaction of growing your own fruit, picking it and eating it- they didn't have time.

They had everything but time.

Unknowingly, I felt my eyes flutter as I gave in to the tiredness and finally closed my eyes as I fell asleep, dreaming about the adventurous life that I've left behind.

At least I've got Ryder as a memory from the island.

The next day I woke up with an empty feeling in my stomach, dressed in the same clothes as yesterday and not even tucked under the sheets. I squinted my eyes when I felt the sun rays seeping through the room and hitting me directly in the face.

Ryder was nowhere to be seen so I'm guessing he's left to explore for the day.

I got up, feeling odd that I slept through the whole night without waking up in the middle like I always did. I can't remember the last time I slept right until morning, I don't think I ever have. It must've been due to the comfortable sleeping arrangements.

Stretching my arms, I sighed contently when I felt my muscles stretch out. The bun that Val had tied was now long gone and my hair tumbled down until it rested on the mattress.

Half an hour later, just as I got out of the bathroom, Ryder came flying through the open doors as he patiently waited for me, standing on one of the four bed-poles.

I quickly got changed into the set of clothes left for me and admired the beauty in front of the mirror for a good minute or so. It was a white Lolita dress with blue embroidered flowers on the skirt and puff sleeves.

I pulled on the white ankle boots and tried to tie my hair as best I could with the ribbon Val gave but failed and decided to do the only hairstyle I knew. Grabbing the top half of my hair, I pulled it up and tied it with the ribbon, making it into a bow.

"I think that'll do," I smiled at my reflection.

Moving to get the shoulder thing that Val had given me, I strapped it on and Ryder immediately came to sit on it before I even told him to. Stroking his hair, I made sure that I had everything before I left the room.

"Let's go find a home now," I excitedly stated.