'somewhere it is Spring and sometimes
people are in real:imagine
somewhere real flowers,but
I can't imagine real flowers for if I
could,they would somehow
not Be real'
- e.e. cummings
She was deep into the thicket, surrounded by the bramble and the brush. The Unhome was not too far away. If she found herself in some peril, she could alert the lover easily, but hardly anything perilous lurked nearby, and her senses were keener than most. After all, Viki had six instead of five.
Not many know much about her past, not even Domikai, though he had seen more of her past than she realized. The two being seers brought them together, and brought them farther than that. But what he didn?t know, what most didn?t know, is that the girl was a splendid gardener. Her green thumb was legendary in Lanrette, and wherever she lived, a garden sprung to life. The LeFay Hall and Valir Estate gardens boasted the most beautiful flowers, small shrubs, spiraling vines, towering trees? She even kept a garden on the Isle of Chains. After Kat LeFay?s death, Viki had limited herself to growing only the yellow variety. Everything that bloomed was yellow thereafter: yellow roses, tulips, carnations, lilies, daffodils, and of course sun flowers.
The Unhome was no different, though they were surrounded by forest. Still, she had found a place to cultivate life where space provided. Fortunately, life had been cultivating itself all this time. One night, earlier in the spring, she had stumbled upon the strangest flower with a glowing yellow center and light blue petals. The glow had attracted her first and foremost ? the color blue could be reconciled later.
Her first instincts were savage. She tore it apart and scattered the seeds.
Weeks progressed with Time?s gentle persuasion. Viki and Domikai were wanderers by nature, but there were days where she slept endlessly, sometimes out in the open, welcoming the sun?s radiance. There were other days when she did not sleep nor wander, but sat in her familiar thicket, her eyes on the soil, whispering to the roots she came to know too well.
There were twenty seeds in all. A bluebird carried two away, leaving behind an equal number of his own beautiful feathers. Viki accepted the trade and wound one into her hair and placed its mate on the bed, on Domikai?s side of the bed. It laid dead center on the imprint that his back made along the mattress.
Two other flowers did not make it. A thunderstorm upset the soil and drowned the newborns before their stems struck air.
Finally, one more was sacrificed to breed new life. With her hands and feet already caked with mud and healthy earth, with her knees stained a glorious grass-green, Viki attacked the soil and set the seeds underground to begin anew.
If you are to begin anew, you might wish to return to the place where you did already.
Plucking several flowers from the grass, Viki sat upright and weighted the riddle. While she was measuring, a firefly lit up the tip of her nose.
people are in real:imagine
somewhere real flowers,but
I can't imagine real flowers for if I
could,they would somehow
not Be real'
- e.e. cummings
She was deep into the thicket, surrounded by the bramble and the brush. The Unhome was not too far away. If she found herself in some peril, she could alert the lover easily, but hardly anything perilous lurked nearby, and her senses were keener than most. After all, Viki had six instead of five.
Not many know much about her past, not even Domikai, though he had seen more of her past than she realized. The two being seers brought them together, and brought them farther than that. But what he didn?t know, what most didn?t know, is that the girl was a splendid gardener. Her green thumb was legendary in Lanrette, and wherever she lived, a garden sprung to life. The LeFay Hall and Valir Estate gardens boasted the most beautiful flowers, small shrubs, spiraling vines, towering trees? She even kept a garden on the Isle of Chains. After Kat LeFay?s death, Viki had limited herself to growing only the yellow variety. Everything that bloomed was yellow thereafter: yellow roses, tulips, carnations, lilies, daffodils, and of course sun flowers.
The Unhome was no different, though they were surrounded by forest. Still, she had found a place to cultivate life where space provided. Fortunately, life had been cultivating itself all this time. One night, earlier in the spring, she had stumbled upon the strangest flower with a glowing yellow center and light blue petals. The glow had attracted her first and foremost ? the color blue could be reconciled later.
Her first instincts were savage. She tore it apart and scattered the seeds.
Weeks progressed with Time?s gentle persuasion. Viki and Domikai were wanderers by nature, but there were days where she slept endlessly, sometimes out in the open, welcoming the sun?s radiance. There were other days when she did not sleep nor wander, but sat in her familiar thicket, her eyes on the soil, whispering to the roots she came to know too well.
There were twenty seeds in all. A bluebird carried two away, leaving behind an equal number of his own beautiful feathers. Viki accepted the trade and wound one into her hair and placed its mate on the bed, on Domikai?s side of the bed. It laid dead center on the imprint that his back made along the mattress.
Two other flowers did not make it. A thunderstorm upset the soil and drowned the newborns before their stems struck air.
Finally, one more was sacrificed to breed new life. With her hands and feet already caked with mud and healthy earth, with her knees stained a glorious grass-green, Viki attacked the soil and set the seeds underground to begin anew.
If you are to begin anew, you might wish to return to the place where you did already.
Plucking several flowers from the grass, Viki sat upright and weighted the riddle. While she was measuring, a firefly lit up the tip of her nose.