The village is quiet as Eilon walks through it, his hands in his pockets. He looks around curiously, trying to assess the circumstances in which Helena live, trying to see if he can glean anything that will let him know what kind of person she is. The cobbled streets are clean and well kept, the houses neat and taken care of. There are few cracks in the paint, and for the most part, everything looks immaculate. The village of Uj'iea is definitely not the poorest in all of the Lescaean realm. It is, after all, where the people just below the nobility live.

Good. She's not a noble. He's had enough of those pompous idiots.

Eilon, himself, might be a royal, but that doesn't mean he's particularly fond of the people he's surrounded with. In fact, 'not fond of' is very much an understatement.

Helena's home, according to the candle maker, is located in the outer rims of the village, near the border of the forest. Eilon can easily transport himself there, but he enjoys walking. He has nothing but time, so why not waste a bit of it by taking in the sights around him? He doesn't get to enter the villages nearly enough for his liking. This is a very good excuse.

It also gives him a chance to see how normal Lescaeans live. There have been many times that he wished he was one of them. Today is no exception. Seeing how simple their lives are, how little they truly have to worried about... Eilon can't help but be a little envious. None of these people have to deal with King Normandiar on a daily basis and everything that entails.

Things that Eilon really doesn't want to think about right now.

Coming here is also his excuse to not think about the court and his family.

Helena. He's going to think about Helena and how he's going to go about wooing her. She's not fond of him, already having formed her own opinion about what kind of person he is based on the rumors she's heard about him. Eilon doesn't exactly blame her. He wouldn't have liked himself very much either if he only heard the rumors as well. They aren't pretty. It's going to be difficult changing her mind, but Eilon is up for the challenge.

She's going to like him because of who he is, not because he's a prince. Not because he's part of the Court. He'll show her the real him, and if she wants to reject him after that, he'll accept that.

He tells himself this, anyway.

Truth is, he's willing to do whatever it takes -- however long it may take -- to win her over. Something about her has caught his attention, and he doubts another woman will be able to ignite that same flame inside him.

Eilon has never had to work to get a woman to like him before. It's never been a challenge. Helena is one.

Perhaps that's the only reason he's so interested in her, because she poses something different than what he is used to. If that's the case, the excitement should die the moment he's succeeded in wooing her. Either way, this little expedition is a welcome distraction from his everyday life.

And at least it will be fun, regardless of how things end up.

As he walks, he tunes out the voices around him -- both the ones spoken out loud, as well as those spoken in the mind. At court, he gets more silence, as he's incapable of hearing the thoughts of all his brothers and most of his sisters. His ability doesn't work against people who use mental blocks created by those more powerful than he is. Frustrating, but sometimes a very welcome reprieve.

Here, however, there isn't a single mind that is a mystery to him. He's still wondering about the candle maker and why he was unable to hear the man's thoughts. There are of course several different reasons for why that is possible. He's either more powerful than Eilon, or someone who is placed a block on his mind, among others. Eilon decides to ponder over that particular puzzle later as he tunes out the minds around him.

He's never actually tried to turn off his ability to hear people's thoughts. It would be like turning off one of his senses, to cease to taste, or smell, or see, or hear, or hear, or feel. His ability is merely an extension of himself, something that is always there. Hearing thoughts are a lot like hearing voices, just the babble is constant. They are easy to ignore when he isn't paying attention to them. He rarely lets himself get lost in the din of sound, reducing the voices to white noise that just happens to follow him everywhere.

Eilon reaches the edge of the forest much faster than he would have liked. He was rather enjoying his walk.

He tells himself it has nothing to do with the fact that he's the slightest bit nervous. Eilon Pasquale Mi'antiae doesn't get nervous. Especially not about a woman. There's a reason he's notoriously known as a womanizer.

He shakes the thoughts from his head as he walks down the line of eclectic homes, decorated in bright, lively colors. Everything here is so... alive, vibrant. Eilon finds himself smiling, thinking he'd enjoy living here if he ever got the chance.

Small, quaint, and homely. He's never liked the large expansiveness of the palace. One day, one day he's going to build himself a small cabin in the woods and move there, away from the politics of Court.

He finally finds Helena's house, the location detailed on the slip of paper the candle maker gave him. Eilon feels like laughing as the house comes into view. It surely is amusing. He'd have figured this was her even if he hadn't known it should've been located in this exact spot. The note says nothing of the cottage's appearance, but he figures it doesn't have to.

The cottage is small, at the very edge of the village just as the note said it would be. It's two stories high, paneled in wood, paint splattered in various colors as if someone couldn't decide on a single color and just used all of them. Or a color wheel vomited all over the place, another very likely scenario. Judging by Helena's artistic capability when it comes to making candles, Eilon is sure she's responsible for decorating. Stars. Whoever would put her in charge of decorations? They must be mad.

Or just too lazy to do it themselves.

Large windows break up the disjointment of color on the walls, heavy curtains that barely seem to match with each other obscuring the view inside. A set of stairs lead to the green door, a paint job that's trying -- unsuccessfully -- to hide the mustard color beneath it. Eilon is amused. He's very amused.

It's quaint and eccentric.

He loves it.

Whoever lives here cares very little about the opinions of others.

Yes, he rather thinks he'd get along with Helena very well.

Eilon strides up the steps, past the flower bushes that run along the sides of the cottage, growing wildly as if no one has bothered to trim them ever, and raps his fingers against the door.

It takes a few minutes for whoever is on the other side to finally open the door, but Eilon is prepared to wait. He's nothing if not patient and diligent. Even if he couldn't wait until tomorrow to get this location from the woman herself. It's not his fault. He rather doubts he's going to come across a stranger, more interesting woman in the foreseeable future. If he waits too long, someone else might win her heart before he has the chance to.

Helena has piqued his interest immensely, and he'll see it through to wherever it ends.

The door finally swings open, revealing the red-headed, green-eyed beauty, rubbing her hands against an apron around her waist. Her smile is almost friendly, until her eyes settle on Eilon and recognition sinks in.

He rests an arm against the door frame, grinning in a way he hopes comes across as charming. "Hello," he says. "I don't suppose y--"

"What are you doing here?" Helena interrupts, frowning, crossing her arms over her chest. She's obviously very delighted to see him. Certainly not the reaction he was hoping for, but definitely the one he was expecting.

"I was getting to that before you so rudely interrupted me," he says with an easy smirk.

Helena arches a brow. "And yet you still haven't answered my question."

The smirk stays firmly in place. "Forgive me. I'm here to ask you to join me for dinner."

Helena's other brow joins the first one in her hairline before she lets out a dry laugh. "I don't know where you got the impression that I would say yes." In her thoughts, she's calling him several very unpleasant names. Eilon is very amused. Especially because there is some conflict to her thoughts as well.

She's not immune to his looks or his charm. Perfect.

He shrugs, his eyes sparkling with his amusement. "Thought I would ask regardless.'

Arrogant bastard, if he thinks I will ever go anywhere with him, Helena scoffs mentally. I'm not going to be one of the little girls he lures to bed only to be discarded so easily, regardless of how attractive and charming he might be. He has another thing coming if he thinks I will fall so easily.

Winning her over might actually be worth it. He just has to make her see that he doesn't plan on letting her leave his bed once he gets her into it. Helena isn't the type of woman he would sleep with only once and then just move on.

Helena is the type of woman he can actually see himself falling in love with. She's fiery, spunky, has strong opinions, and takes no nonsense from anyone. She's passionate and doesn't give one width of a rat's tail what anyone thinks of her. Eilon already admires her just from their minimal interactions and the little bit he's glimpsed from her mind.

He's actively keeping himself from going deeper into her head and discovering every last detail about her. That would feel too much like cheating. He wants to get to know her. On her terms. He wants to earn her story, her trust. He wants her to give it to him willingly.

"My answer is no," she says.

Eilon pouts. "Surely you would give me a chance before so harshly rejecting me.'

Her stunning green eyes narrow. "I know your type. Arrogant, self important, and unfaithful. If you want some floozy to warm your bed, I'm sure there are many frivolous noble girls at Court who will jump at the chance."

Somehow Eilon gets the sense that she's had experience with one such man breaking her heart. Her surface thoughts doesn't reflect his suspicions, and the temptation to find out who hurt becomes so large that it takes a considerable amount of willpower not to enter her mind further.

"All due respect," Eilon says easily, "you don't know me. You're making an awful lot of assumptions there."

Helena doesn't care in the slightest bit. She doesn't feel like she owes him anything, not even an explanation. She has a point. But that doesn't mean Eilon is going to give up trying to make her see him as a person, as Eilon, not a Mi'antiae Prince.

"I'll assume as much I like, thanks. Goodbye." She doesn't give him a chance to reply or even fully realize that he's being dismissed before she slams the door in his face.

Eilon jumps back, his hand going up to his nose instantly as if it can physically hold back the sharp pain that shoots through his head. Blood is dripping from it, and its sitting at an odd angle. He was leaning in to the doorway too much and she broke his nose with the door.

He didn't even see it coming in her thoughts, that's how easily she's able to distract him.

A grin splits across his entire face. He can't believe she just slammed the door in his face. She broke his nose.

Oh, Helena is going to be quite amusing indeed. With a chuckle, Eilon leaves the way he came, taking the long walk back to the palace through the peaceful village.

He's definitely coming back again.

Helena is a challenge, one he's going to have fun winning over.

She's already won him over.