The Controversial Item

The weather turned cold in an instant, and the biting wind was like blades forged from ice, slicing into every inch of exposed skin.

Pheobe pulled her travel cloak tighter around herself, trudging through fallen leaves that reached past her ankles. The white mist of her breath was instantly torn apart by the cold wind.

She had learned from her father earlier that Charles had been suspended from school. When they spoke later, Charles had not seemed troubled, so she had treated his trip to America as a chance for him to clear his mind.

Recently, she had also learned from her Maternal grandmother that Charles was living in seclusion in the Rocky Mountains, researching a profound magical question. She had even found out his address.

Pheobe had been rather busy lately and had only found time today to visit Charles.

At that moment, she was making her way along a mountain path carpeted with fallen leaves, her thoughts even more winding than the twisting trail.

Bare branches crisscrossed overhead, cutting across the azure sky.

The woods were eerily quiet. The only sounds were her boots crushing dead leaves and her own uncontrollable heartbeat.

A thought, like a ghost, had followed her from the moment she set out. Now, in these mountains, it had grown infinitely larger.

In these vast mountains, there was no one besides Charles and herself.

If he proposed... proposed that sort of thing, what should she do?

Once the thought surfaced, it stubbornly took root and refused to leave.

Her cheeks burned abnormally hot in the cold wind.

Should she hesitate symbolically, half resisting and half yielding, preserving a little of a young girl's modesty?

Or should she follow the bolder voice deep within her heart and agree directly?

Or perhaps she could be more proactive