As the helpful man above the hole lowered his hands, Persephone was quick to note that he only lowered them so far. Glad to see the gentleman was cautious over chivalrous, she was confident in placing her hands in his when Lord Stelios prompted her upwards by exerting force on the underside of her foot.

Lifted several inches, Persephone was able to grab ahold of the hand proffered her, and then the combination of the tugging from above and the lifting from below hand her elevated enough for her to secure a knee on the rim of the sandy hole.

Careful to place her weight as far away from the edge as she could, in order to not place more pressure on an already collapsing dune, Persephone was focused in getting her free boot up beside her knee and then managing to - as gracefully as possible - rise to standing.

Maintaining hold on the man's hands until she was in a possible to rise by herself, part of Persephone's mind registered the roughness to the man's palms and the edges of his fingers, noting such callouses to mean that he was no member of the nobility. But a common man, dedicated to helping others.

When he let go and gave her her space, Persephone was thankful of the adherence to her rank. Too much familiarity with a member of the royal family was known to be rude and yet to not offer the aid at all would have been worse. For all a common man, he seemed aware of the appropriate behaviour for such a moment.

Dusting off her knee with a quick hand, Persephone rose to her full height - a stature only a few inches shorter than the second of her rescuers and she smiled kindly, her straight teeth white in the sunlight.

"Thank you." She offered generously and gave a dip of her hair.

It was then that the man commented on her being centre stage and she could not help by smile as her guards worked to keep the common people back from approaching the hole - simultaneously risking a sand-slide and witnessing their eldest princess in an embarrassing situation.

"I'm concerned not." She told the man, continuing her smile. "Such a thing is not unusual."

Spotting one of own guardsmen she instructed him firmly, her authority returning as her humiliation over the circumstances receded.

"Find some rope." She told him in a calm voice that carried. "We must help Lord Stelios retrieve the girl."

Dismissing the man as soon as he had replied to the affirmative and hastened away to complete her bidding, Persephone turned to look down into the sandy chasm, just as the man beside her called down to them.

She had been about to ask a similar question and so let her mouth snap shut - no reason in only repeating the same words.

She made eye contact with the little girl though and smiled at her in an effort to calm from a distance. The first real response she had gotten from the girl since she had fallen in the hole was the tea-stained and slightly wobbly smile she now offered in return.

"Be gentle with her, Lord Stelios." She told the man from her perch. "I think her very scared."

As the man nodded and worked to dig the little girl out it was some tense minutes before the girl's leg was freed but Persephone did not fill them with idle chatter.

Instead, she watched intensely as the little girl was finally liberated from the sand, her leg and bare foot red raw with the rough pressures of the beach and her face now bright pink with apparent embarrassment or teariness.

When Lord Stelios was ready to aid in lifting her to the surface, Persephone noted her own rescuer kneeling down to repeat the aid he had given her and so crouched beside him to offer the same. While the girl was significantly lighter than herself, she was also much smaller which meant that were an obvious need to lean further into the hole to reach the podgy hands she lifted towards them. Such a deeper reach risked a worse leverage and Persephone offered her own hand beside the other in order for them each to take half of the girl's weight.

In one swift motion of Lord Stelios lifting the girl about the waist and Persephone and the other man pulling her up to the surface, the little one was safely return to the beach to a round of applause from the crowd.

It was then that a woman with as much a tear-streaked face as her apparent daughter rushed beneath the arm of a guardsmen and with only the fortitude a mother requiring the touch of her child could show, hurried forward to secure the girl in her arms.

There was much babbling - this time in Italian - and Persephone quickly realised why the little one had been so blank to her words. They were immigrants form further into the continent and she had not understood her Greek.

In basic Italian, Persephone commented to the woman that the young girl should be fine but they would be wise to seek a healer to assess her leg.

When the woman's eyes bulged at the words of her native language on the Greek princesses tongue, her face broke into a lightened smile and she curtsied low, still holding her daughter to her chest and the little girl wrapping her arms and legs around her mother.

In a stumbling Greek, the woman thanks Persephone - and then the men behind her who had aided in the efforts as Lord Stelios pushed himself from the hole, his height and strength allowing him to do so without aid - and then hurried away, murmuring what were likely chastisements and adorations of love into the little girl's ear. Turning back to her fellow - and own - rescuers, Persephone couldn't help but smile, as she offered them her thanks again. She then turned to the crowd.

"Even in the midst of disasters everyone can do something good." She said allowed to her audience who murmured, nodded and even cheered at her words before they were finally broken up by her guardsmen.

When the captain of her protective unit came to speak with her Persephone nodded at his suggestion of returning to the palace.

"I agree." She stated simply. "I think today has been exciting enough..."