And again, I find myself drawing inspiration from my time abroad. This should be a relatively short story, maybe 10 chapters or so? And theoretically should be finished within a few weeks, as I've planned the plot out completely and chapters will just be a matter of fleshing out ideas more thoroughly and tying up loose ends. Should be a fun write and a fun read, hope you enjoy!

Setting: Carcassone (Southern France), Late June

POV: Richard

Richard groaned as the group slowed to a stop and yet another row of bushes. Okay, so he was being crass. They were in a vineyard, on a wine tour that he had admittedly signed himself up for of his own free will. But for some reason when he read the description of the day he pictured a lot fewer grapes and a lot more actual wine-drinking. He sighed for what seemed like the eighth time in the past hour and reached under his dark shades to pinch the bridge of his nose. The elderly couple in front of him turned to give him disapproving glares before shuffling forward a few feet closer to the tour guide.

They were only at their first vineyard, with two more to go. But how long could they really spend looking at different grapes and talking about what wines are made from them? Wasn't the purpose of the wine tour to actually learn about - by way of drinking - said wines? His stomach grumbled loudly and he tried to keep a straight face as the same elderly couple turned to glare at him once more. If he had known the tour would be such a snooze-fest he would have just stayed in and nursed his hangover from the "comfort" of his hostel bed, instead of jumping up like a crazy person at the sound of his alarm going off after the fifth "snooze" button, and choosing to shower rather than get breakfast before the start of the tour.

He also didn't expect to be the only young person on the tour. In the company's defense, Richard thought, it is probably a much more lively trip when the audience isn't comprised of two balding, middle-aged men, an elderly couple, and a hungover backpacker who isn't quite sure what he's doing there.

He mentally scolded himself. He should be trying harder not to be miserable. Putting on his best attempt at an "oh this is interesting" face, he moved forward to catch the last of the tour guide's explanation.

"...so zat ees why zese types of grapes are better for a nice Merlot, rather zan, hmmm, a Cabernet Sauvignon." Richard rolled his eyes and dropped back to a safe distance as the obnoxious tour guide broke off into a bout of arrogant laughter and the old-timers humored him with polite giggles and light head shaking at the audacity of mixing up wine grapes. The group continued forward and Richard let a few more feet of distance form between him and the rest.

Okay, he tried. It wasn't going to work. Time to plot his escape. He had to fake some type of emergency and get himself out of there. The vineyard they had seen was nice enough, but there was no way in hell he was going to last an entire day vineyard-hopping with Clement the wine-wizard and his army of elderly buffoons. He knew he was being mean. But Richard couldn't help but feel that this tour guide was rather overdoing the sophisticated French-guy, a feeling that only doubled when said tour guide came to a sudden stop and looked over all of their heads.

"Sacre bleu!" exclaimed Clement, his eyes widening and his mouth hanging slightly agape. The old-birds turned immediately to see what had caught their guide's attention, while Richard fought to hold back laughter at the phrase. He lost the battle.

Letting out a deep bark of laughter, Richard doubled over and choked out a few choice words. "Oh what the hell! Sacre blurr? Is that something that French people actually say?" Clement hardly noticed Richard poking fun at him, and instead straightened up and began moving through the group with an air of someone trying to regain his composure as quickly as possible.

Finally, still chuckling, Richard turned in the direction that everyone else was still staring...and felt his jaw hit the ground.

Moving briskly through the vineyard towards the tour group was quite possibly the most beautiful woman that Richard had ever seen. Her eyes were wide and bright-green. Her long, deep red hair fell about her shoulders in waves and looked as though they would settle at about her waist if the wind didn't keep picking up the ends and tousling them around as she got closer and closer to the group. One hand was clutching a wide-brimmed sunhat to her head; the other one was holding onto a shawl that was threatening to fall off her sun-kissed shoulders, which Richard decided he wouldn't mind at all since underneath the wide shawl she seemed to be wearing a white spaghetti-strapped summer dress that fell to just above her toned calves.

Finally she pulled even to the group, and dropped to rest her hands on her knees as she caught her breath. Giggling a bit, she straightened up and offered her hand to Clement, who almost ran forward to take it in both of his and kiss it. At this, Richard bristled, and was delighted to see that the strange girl was almost frowning.

Recovering quickly, she reclaimed her hand and smiled warmly at him. "Hi! I am so sorry for my tardiness, but it seems that my hostel was a bit tricky for the driver to find this morning. I am Kory Anders, and I believe I am to join your tour." Clement bowed deeply and asked her to think nothing at all of her tardiness as it was the driver's fault. Beckoning her forward, he somehow managed to get her situated at the front of the tour - probably so he could oggle her more easily - and the tour continued.

As they inched forward to another, slightly different group of bushes, Richard craned his head to get a better look at the late-comer. Her cheeks were still a bit flushed - whether from Clement's gross kiss or from her quick solo trip through the vineyard, Richard couldn't be sure - and she seemed to be very genuinely interested in what Clement was explaining about these particular grapes, which was a red-flag for Richard has he had absolutely no clue what the hell was going on.

Richard inched forward toward the stationary group as Clement picked a few grapes and held them up while continuing to talk about them. He offered one to Kory and she graciously popped it into her mouth, making an adorable giggling sound as she chewed that made Richard's stomach twist itself into a bit of a knot before rapidly untwisting itself again in an extremely unpleasant fashion. Nudging the judgemental elderly couple aside a bit, he took one more step forward so that he was stationed right behind Kory. She hardly seemed to notice, but Clement narrowed his eyes at Richard before plowing through his extremely boring monologue about the importance of this particular set of grapes. A plan forming rapidly in his head, Richard only vaguely noted that Kory's hair smelled of vanilla and raspberries, before tearing his eyes away from the back of her head and forcing them to focus on Clement's now positively sour-looking face.

"And so, zese are zee types of grapes zat are best suited for making zee malbec zat zis winery eez quite famous for, at zee moment."

Only half-listening, Richard nodded his head and looked politely interested like the rest of the group, but his fingers were moving rapidly over his phone's keyboard just inside his coat.

"Ahh, but of course! And every one knows that a good malbec's characteristics vary greatly depending on where it is grown and how it is transformed. Generally it produces an easy-drinking style, well colored wine that tastes of plums, berries, and spice." Richard noted triumphantly, earning the blank stares of Clement, the entire group of old birds, and finally enticing Kory to turn around and settle those bottle-green orbs on his face.

For a second he felt like he was being appraised. Her eyes searched his face, and he expertly kept his cool while he stared eagerly back at her from the safety of his dark shades. Turning more fully, she lifted just one eyebrow into a playful arch, a small smile tugging at her lips as she fought to keep them pursed in disapproval. The smirk won out, and she turned back around to face Clement as Richard silently reveled in his small victory.

Seemingly holding back the urge to roll his eyes at Richard, Clement cleared his throat and offered Kory his arm. She let her gaze linger on Richard for a millisecond longer before graciously accepting the arm being offered her and moving along with the smirking tour guide. The elderly couple and balding old men moved forward at once, but Richard stayed put for a few extra seconds before following suit, once again falling to the back of the group. Although Clement was annoyingly poor at subtlety, Richard couldn't help but feel a bit of a spark had been there while he had held Kory's gaze.

Stuffing his hands back into his coat pockets, he studied the back of her head. A slow smile crept upon his face as he realized that, for the first time that morning, he was feeling rather optimistic and excited about the rest of the tour.

Disclaimers: I have never been to Carcassonne, nor am I a wine expert. This story will require a fair amount of research and I am quite happy to do it, just as long as you guys don't crucify me if I have a few things wrong! Haha.

So, how this will work, is that I will post Richard and Kory chapters within a day of each other. Each character will get their own chapter for any given place / significant moment, but they won't necessarily recount the same exact parts of the story, so that the plot will progress with each chapter. Sound good? Kory chapter is going through maintenance and then it will be up in a few hours. Tell me what you think!