The Crown's Entrapment

Clara didn't know whether to scowl or to swoon as she let Gilas drag her around by the arm towards the small territory's town square. Sure, she had fully expected her mate to try and take her to this supposed festival as soon as they arrived, but she didn't think it would be this soon! Why she wasn't even ready yet, and they had barely managed to offload their things from the carriage and into their rooms for the night before they just up and left the inn.

[Your hypocrisy is showing again,] Sheba cackled.

Shaking her head, Clara didn't even have the time to rebut her wolf when they arrived at the town square. Looking up, the sight of hundreds upon hundreds of paper lanterns floating up into the dark sky made her gape in awe, their faint glow dotting the night sky in flecks of orange as they lazily floated up and out of the town square. Coupled with the light snow falling from the sky, it almost looked like a winter wonderland, if that was a description she could even use for it.

"Looks nice, doesn't it," Gilas said beside her, his voice almost sounding wistful as he looked up at the sky with her. "We almost didn't make it too."

"Right..." she trailed off, speechless at the amazing sight before her.

It was... magical, in a sense. Sure, magic existed in the world, but the flight was still something that was rare for any and all master mages. To see all these little things lighting up the night sky... It just set the mood for something magical to happen.

"So, what do you think?"

Clara almost did a double take when she heard Gilas's voice pierce through her wondrous stupor. On top of that, the somehow felt familiar sensation of him hugging her close to him almost made her stutter before she could even speak. She had been so busy looking at the little lanterns floating up in the air that she didn't even notice him snaking his arm around her waist.

"Y-Yes?" she inadvertently asked before quickly inwardly cursing at her own stupidity.

'What am I doing?!' she mentally hissed at herself. 'I'm acting like an amateur!'

[Well, that's what you are, Clara,] Sheba teased. [An amateur in both love and being honest with yourself!]

"I was... asking if you liked what you saw," Gilas repeated, a small smile adorning his face as his gaze seemingly penetrated her soul. "You look like you really liked it."

"I did..." she absently replied. "It's... nice, I guess."

"Just nice?" he chuckled.

Clara didn't know why his voice sounded melodious to her just now, but she was going to ignore it regardless.

"It's... I guess it's ingenious?" she frowned, her mind slowly grinding to a halt the more she felt his presence grow ever more closer to hers. "Paper lanterns can float with mere candles... Maybe we can make them bigger so that people can ride them..."

"Oh? I honestly didn't think of that," Gilas genuinely remarked. "Maybe we can bring it up with the king as a suggestion. You might be onto something here."

Clara would've nodded at such a suggestion if she wasn't too busy trying to compose herself with Gilas's constant skin contact with her. Even now, it felt like he was pulling her closer and closer to her, his warmth seeping into her clothes as he now held her in a one-armed hug.

"It's amazing, isn't it? To think that they have a tradition like this every winter?"

Clara blinked at Gilas's sudden thoughts. "How so?"

"Well, how did they even come up with something like this?" Gilas explained, a hint of wonder tinging his tone. "A bunch of paper lanterns flying up into the sky with nothing but small candles underneath them... There's something magical in it, don't you think?"

Her heart skipped a beat at those words. It was as if he had just read out her thoughts on the matter... She couldn't help but smile... Why?

"I... I completely agree," she found herself nodding. "It's like we're making our own stars, no matter how temporary they might be..."

Like hopes and dreams, some of them might reach the highest peaks, while others fail to even get off the ground. Even now, some of the paper lanterns were only barely hovering above the ground, and yet they still held this mystical allure to them that made them beautiful to look at all the same.

"That's totally what I was thinking about," Gilas quickly replied. But before she could call him out on his lie again, he grabbed her by the arm again and asked her straight to the face: "Want to get a better view of them?"

She didn't know what to say. "I- Sure?"

Just as quickly as the question came, Gilas went and dragged her all the way up to a small hill overlooking the town square. They were still within the range of the paper lanterns, however, and with their added height, they could now see all of them as they floated high and above up towards the sky.

Gilas chuckled. "Pretty, isn't it?"

Clara was speechless as she did her best to look up instead of to her side. Somehow, Gilas's words felt like they were directed mostly at her as opposed to the lanterns above them. Not that she couldn't say the same. Slowly but surely, she couldn't help but stare at Gilas in the same way that he did to her.

And right now, he was proving to be more interesting than the magical paper lanterns floating out in the distance.

"Yes, they are..." she breathed out.

"That, she is..."

Clara turned to face Gilas, and at that moment, something clicked between the two of them as their faces came ever so closer to one another. She could feel it coming from a mile away, and yet she still let it happen as he finally cupped her face and kissed her on the lips. Their lips were currently cold and dry from the weather, and yet it still felt like the warmest thing in the world as they focused on each other's presence.

It was... It was magical. In the backdrop of floating lanterns and the dazzling snow, Clara somehow found Gilas more interesting. It was a realization that only further chipped away at what little hesitations she still had in being with him.