“Then I hope that you will enjoy the view as much as I do,” Luke boasted, glancing sideways at his passenger who seemed to find every bit of the capital amusing. It might be a new perspective that she was viewing New Florence from above like a mythological goddess, instead of a mortal craning her neck up at the skyscrapers yearning to reach the heavens. Everything was small and seemingly insignificant from a distance. As if the capital had found its equilibrium, a balance that allowed an invisible hand to guide the perfectly efficient mechanisms that made markets move. It was why he loved flying, even on a limited altitude that a hovercraft was allowed.

“But we will not go cliff diving today,” he continued. “For one, we don’t have any change of clothes. Second, I don’t think you have it in you to jump off that cliff.” It was at least twenty meters drop from the edge of the cliff to the water, then fifteen meters more to the sea bed. Rhiane didn’t seem the type who had a fear of heights, given that she kept looking out the window and to the city below them. She even bravely stared out the city view from his suite. However, the fear of the sea and its depth was a different issue all together. It was one thing to hear about the vast stretch of blue water, but another to experience its seemingly limitless reach. And for his passenger, it would be her first encounter with the gigantic body of water, therefore a crucial moment when she would decide whether she would fear it or not. “Maybe another time, when your ankle is healed, and when we find that you will not panic when your feet cannot touch the ground, we can make the jump, but not today.”

Nevertheless, Luke would not want her first impression of the sea to be unpleasant, else the princess elect might forever reject his request to come with him to the beach. The crown prince wouldn’t be able to bear with it. “As for swimming, it’s a necessary skill for survival. I might be able to find time to teach you, but,” His smile was lopsided, and he kept his eyes averted from her. “But I cannot assure you that I have the capability to be a patient instructor.” Luke remembered when he volunteered to teach Calista to swim and made her cry several times, almost pushed her to the brink of hating the water. She was just an adorably curious five-year-old then, and he was a know-it-all teen. 

The craft followed a pre-programmed path. Slowly, the landscape changed from the city of skyscrapers and a few trees to a land of lush greenery and rolling hills. Probably the landscape that she was familiar with. There were residential buildings, low-rise commercial buildings and such that jutted out from the face of the earth, but nothing compared to the sprawling metropolis of New Florence. The presence of flying cars significantly diminished, traded by the rural dwellers for conventional four-wheeled vehicles, the much slower cousins of hovercrafts. The advantage for a lone flying vehicle was that he could accelerate without caring about either aerial traffic regulations or colliding with another hovercraft.

With its optimized speed, they reached the end of the main land in about forty-five minutes. Sooner than later, there were no more land beneath them. In its place was the calm blue sea off the coast of the kingdom. Not too far away from the main land was a spattering of green like freckles on the blue water, which was among the crown prince’s favorite places in the kingdom. It was his retreat, his sanctuary, where he would not be found by life’s stressors.

“There,” he pointed towards an island which looked like a donut, because it seemed to have a hole in the middle. 

They landed on the beach far enough in the island so that the waves would not reach the hovercraft. The sand was pristine white and fine that it was a shame if he would not take off his boots and let his toes sink on its powdery texture. He did free himself from his boots before exiting the craft. The chill of the coming winter was already in the air, especially that afternoon. He grabbed his coat from where it rested on the backrest of the driver’s seat then draped it over his shoulder. After which, he walked to Rhiane’s side, unlatching her door, then offered, “Take-off your shoes.”