Meili dropped to her knees.
"My sincerest apologies your highness," she kowtowed.
The two men surveyed the wreckage that was the courtyard and the most undignified state of the young noblewomen. Prince Nur spotted the princess, with her bi-coloured face, and he let out a little chuckle. She blushed under her two-coloured face, adding a third colour to the mix.
"Excuse me a moment your highness," said the Second Prince to Prince Nur, who nodded.
He strode off to the pavilion, his expression inscrutable. Meili stayed where she was, kneeling, not daring to get up, or even to look up.
Shortly thereafter; "Splat, splat!"
Two huge blobs of fermented rice hit her on the back and the neck. She looked up to see the Second Prince. He was already heading back for more.
"No, your highness!" she cried.
She sprang up and raced for the pavilion, overtaking the prince, who was still striding at a dignified pace. She managed to get there before him, and she showered him in the face with green tea powder.
"Why you little vixen!"
She doubled over with laughter. He looked totally ridiculous! Like a green demon.
Now it was really on. He dipped his hands into the fermented rice goop. Meili turned on her heels and fled. She hid herself behind an ornamental rock formation. As she peeped out looking for him, he snuck around from the other direction.
Creeping directly up behind her without making a sound, he dropped two huge handfuls of goop into her hair.
She screamed in terror. That had really frightened her!
"You green demon! You scared me!" She tried to wipe the rice from her long hair, which seemed to make things worse like some kind of nutritious hair mask was binding her hair.
"You deserved that you little vixen. How dare you throw red muck all over a prince of the realm. I could have you beheaded for that you know," his lips were curled upwards in a slight smile.
"You'd have to catch me first!"
She ran as fast as she could back towards the pavilion.
"Don't even think about it!" he roared.
They reached the table at the same time, but on opposite sides. Prince Nur stood at the head of the table, and opposite him was the princess. This was getting interesting! Meili thought.
Prince Nur had filled his hands and was stalking the bi-coloured princess like a scary tiger.
"Get him princess, he's still clean!" cried Meili.
"I'm trying Mei Meili, but he's too quick," she laughed.
Prince Nur grinned wickedly.
"I'll give you a head start princess," he said graciously.
The princess fled with Prince Nur short steps behind her.
Meili scrambled to fill her little fists. She and the Second Prince were now playing a game of cat and mouse running in circles around the table. She worked hard to stay on the far side from him, but she could tell he was gaining on her, despite her best efforts.
All of a sudden, he jumped up on the table and ran across it, pelting her with powder as he jumped off the table, like a flour assassin.
"Aaah," she cried as the powder hit her in the face and neck.
"Gotcha little fox!" he cried with satisfaction.
Before he could escape and reload, she chased after him with her two handfuls of fermented rice. He was much faster than her, and she was hampered by her dress and shoes. How she wished she could take them off, but that would definitely be one breach of protocol too many after this folly.
She was puffing and panting now.
"Come back here," she called to him in frustration.
"Absolutely not. If you can't catch me, that's your bad luck."
He looped back around and refilled his hands, turning the tables on her and coming up behind her stealthily again. She screamed and fled, dropping her ammunition as she ran for her life.
She was actually very fast he thought with admiration as he kept pace with her easily, like a wolf teasing its prey. And she didn't run like a girl at all, she was very athletic. He wondered if she had been trained in martial arts.
But she was not nearly as fast as him, she was a girl after all, he thought arrogantly.
He trapped her in the corner of the courtyard, from where she had no hope of escape. He was closing in on her now, with a very intense look in his eye.
"No, no, no your highness!" she cried, shaking her hands in front of her chest.
"Yes, yes, yes, little vixen," he growled.
She shivered with fear. He sounded like he was actually going to eat her.
"Please stop your highness, I'm scared."
"It's a bit too late for that don't you think, little fox?"
Oh my god, she thought, what was he going to do to her? She remembered back to the scene on the bridge in their garden. The man was unpredictable when his emotions were up. She tried to do a feint and get out of the bind she found herself in, but he was just toying with her now.
The minute she came within arms' reach, he grabbed her around the waist with one arm and spun her, pulling her tight against him, so that they were chest-to-chest. Then, he leisurely reached over with his other hand and opened the front of her dress a few centimetres, dropping a big handful of batter into the gap and gaining himself a glimpse of both her chest binding and the swell of her curves.
"Oooooh!" she squealed, trying to wriggle away from him while he held her tightly against him, letting the liquid rice trickle down the inside of her dress.
Those delicious little wriggles she was doing increased the burn of desire he was already feeling.
"Not so fast little vixen. Now that I've caught you, you don't think you're getting away that easily, do you?"
"What do you mean to do to me?" she cried fearfully.
"What do you want me to do to you?" he whispered into her ear, looking intensely into her eyes.
She pulled back sharply from him, staring at him with wide-eyed shock. What did he mean by that? It sounded very suggestive. Was he toying with her?
"Let me go?" she suggested tentatively.
He laughed out loud. "Nope. What else have you got?"
"Nothing!" she blushed under her white powdered face.
"You owe me for my precious silk robe you've destroyed. How do you plan to repay me?" he raised one eyebrow at her.
She continued to struggle and push at his chest, and he smiled in amusement, pulling her even tighter to him, demonstrating his superior strength.
"I'll … I'll ask my father to repay you. He'll certainly compensate you for the loss," she said breathlessly.
"I don't want money," he drawled. "I have plenty of that."
"What do you want, your highness?" she asked him nervously.
He felt her tremble and flutter in his arms, further inflaming his desire.
He pushed her roughly against the wall, trapping her between his arms and using his hips to pin her there. He grabbed both of her hands in one of his and pinned them to the wall above her head, immobilising her. He grasped her chin with his other hand, drawing his face so close to hers that she could feel his breath on her lips.
She was like the prey of a lion, mesmerised by its fierce eyes, and completely frozen in fear.
"How about a kiss, instead of gold," he whispered so that only she could hear him. "I'll call it even, and the ledger will even favour you."
She shook her head mutely.
"Is that a 'no' little fox?"
She nodded vigorously.
"You have to answer me with your words, Meili." His hot breath on her neck made her shiver.
"That's a 'no' of course your highness," she whispered.
Was he teasing her? Why did he call her by her name? Was this what princes did because they could get away with it? She really needed to get out of this situation before anyone saw them, or she would end up having to become one of his harem of concubines.
"Really? That's disappointing. You'll find I'm very good at getting what I want in the end."
He came so close to her that she felt his lips brush past hers in a featherlight touch, before he set her free.
He turned and walked away, leaving her shaking like a leaf.
She put her hands to her lips in shock. What was that? Did that count as a kiss?
He'd touched his lips to hers. Did he just steal her first kiss without even kissing her?!