Bella walked out among the tall grass watching the sun begin it's decent behind the trees for the day. She was enjoying the fresh clean scent of the air after the storm. The storms that had been raging had finally stopped leaving the grassy field soggy and squishing underneath her bare feet.
Alaric had enjoyed watching the rain from safely inside his home, but now he was feeling cooped up. He needed to get out and walk around. So he'd done just that, bursting out of the house at a run and laughing as he zoomed toward a field. He didn't expect to meet anyone on his outing, but it'd be nice to not be alone, he thought.
She was dancing, laughing as she felt the spongy give of the earth beneath her. Too long.. the rains had been a day and a half.. when they'd sounded like they would lift.. they only started again. Now this day the clouds showed no sign of returning. She was glad to be able to leave her woodland home for a stroll in the field without risking being soaked.
It was the distant sound of foot falls that caused her to pause, large blue eyes peering about behind a hap hazard fall of deep blue hair. "H-hello?"
Alaric's ears perked up when he heard someone singing, and when he heard her call out he stopped. "Who's there?" he asked, heading closer to where he'd heard the voice. It sounded like a feminine voice, but that didn't always mean anything.
"Ah but I asked first.." She looked around waiting for whom ever the owner of the voice was. Part of her screamed to hide, the other wanted to know just who else had had the idea to come out here in the soggy field. Crouching finally, she tucked her skirt behind her knees so it wouldn't drag in the mud while she looked around half hidden in the height of the grass.
He grinned a bit at her response. "did you? I must have missed it," he said with a soft chuckle as he came closer still. "I'm Alaric." He laughed a little as he looked around, a little confused since he hadn't seen her yet. "Where'd you go?"
She knew she hadn't.. but it was good to know he'd just taken her word for it. "Arabella.." She raised to a standing finally. "I was.. hiding.." She admitted sheepishly, her nose giving a nervous twitch. "What brings you to my field?" It wasn't her field.. she knew it wasn't though.. in a way it was since it was one of her favorite places to wander.
He smirked a bit. He was fairly sure she hadn't asked first, but it was usually a good idea to just go with whatever a girl said. "Hiding? From what?" he asked. "Me? Oh, I'm just getting out. Been cooped up in my house for two days because of that storm," he said and snorted a bit. "And if you knew anything about my family you'd know that it's surprising I haven't gone completely crazy yet."
She nodded slowly, her eyes still un-moving from his face though she did brush some of the unruly hair from her eyes. "Yes.. from you.. I sort of hide from most strangers.." She frowned some. "The rain storm did seem a little.... unnatural.." She looked a little thoughtful as she spoke. "Then again.. I suppose even by one's self you could go stir crazy being cooped up so long..."
He blushed a little and smiled sweetly. "I suppose strangers can be scary..." he said and tucked a bit of his red hair behind an ear. "It did, I was wondering if I was the only one who thought so..." She looked really cute as she thought, and he laughed a bit at her words. "True, very true...so...do you have family?" he wondered. He loved his family very much, but sometimes he just wanted to be alone.
"It just... didn't seem like it wanted to go away..." She chuckled some offering him a friendly sort of smile. "None that I can remember.... To be honest.. I don't remember too much of my child hood." She gave a small shrug. "So I live like a hermit in the woods." She chuckled again.
He nodded a bit in agreement. "You're right. It was really weird..." Now that he thought about it, his brother hadn't been harassing him during the storm. That was weird too. He wondered where Avery had gotten off to. He laughed a bit; he could find his brother later. "A hermit, huh? You're too cute to be a hermit," he said with a grin and a blush.
She nodded in agreement only to have her train of thought derailed. It took her a moment to stare at him with wide confused blue eyes as she gave a small squeak of surprise. "Th-thank you.. but I really don't see how I could be.. I mean.. I suppose just about anyone's capable of being a hermit... Others.. they tend to scare me..." Her voice dropped some as she spoke. The only individual who'd possibly not really frightened her so much was possibly that nutty bird.. but then his lady friend had terrified her at first.
Alaric chuckled softly. She really was cute. And she totally seemed to miss him saying so... "do I scare you?" He didn't think he was particularly scary....not like his mothers. Now they were intimidating...
She frowned thinking about it before idly rubbing one arm with her hand as though she were cold when she wasn't. "Well.. Yes.. And yet no.." Her eyes darted around before finally resting on him once more. "I'm just... overtly cautious I guess.." She chewed on her lower lip as she stood there shuffling her bare feet in the grass. It wasn't that he was an overly intimidating presence because so far he hadn't been. The insecurity was her own. Strangers.. especially an abundance of them made her nervous in general.
He smiled softly. "So...as long as I don't scare you...would you like to be friends?" he asked, reaching up to ruffle his hair a bit.
She thought about it for a small moment before finally nodding. "If you like.." She chuckled. "I don't have many.. but.. I think it would be nice to have another." Reaching up, she tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear, looking to the sky. "It's supposed to be a nice evening..."
