"There he goes again... All for you..." I commented with a sigh as I walked up to the thief's bed. Just like before with the Gilded-Bark, the man I was in love with was taken away from me. And while I could understand it better this time. I was still by no means happy about it.
This woman was so beautiful... I might as well have been a root in comparison to her. It was no wonder she caught my Love's eye. She was far beyond me...
And even if I dug into other possible ways she ensnared his heart, she was still my better. My Love only ever smiled around her. He was at his happiest with her. I understood why and didn't at the same time.
"It should be me he goes to these lengths for..." I angrily mutter under my breath as my tubes tap against the polished floor. As I paced about as well, I once again naturally found myself looking out across the settled-flower. This city of Thrurstradtur as they called it. Yet, my gaze went beyond its hedges and off into the distance.
I might not have been able to see it, but I knew it was in the direction I was looking. The Garden-Mount of my flower, my people. The place I had hoped to plant a seed of my own. One he gifted to me because he loved me like I did him...
But that dream was going to never happen now. I had forsaken my right to ever go back there when I gave up my role as Ivy-Mother. I threw it all away for my Love so I could be with him. And I did it all for nothing...
"Because he loves you!" I spit before I aggressively approached the bed she was laying in. For weeks now had she been dormant. Not a stir or sign of life that she once showed... And every other night, my Love came back bloodied and beaten trying to save her.
It made me angry, it should have been me! It should've been me! I was the one who was there for him from the start of it all! It was me who helped him conquer his fears of what he had become! It was my love for him that gave him the strength to climb this mountain...
"SO GIVE HIM BACK, THIEF!" I roar in the sleeping beauty's face before I backed up. Looking up with uncertainty when I heard that someone else was in the room.
"What troubles you, my Dear?" a man unlike any other asked as he stepped out from the shadows all of a sudden. I wanted to question where he had come from, or who he was. But just seeing him left me in a heated trance...
"So... H-Handsome..." I uttered with a gulp before I violently shook my head. Blocking my eyes completely when I felt them come over and take me into their arms. Their touch was so intoxicating... It had such talent for pulling out the wildest, most primal form of love.
But I did my best to push him away. I made a promise to my Love. I had to keep it. I can't just go back on my word like this!
"Oh, that's what I like to see!" the stranger cackled before he stepped away from me. And, in but one confusing moment, that beauty from before disappeared. He was suddenly lesser than my Love... Yet, there was something very strange about the way he looked.
I could see no outline to his power. My Love had a distinct outline, a shell that contained all that power... Yet this man, he lacked it in its entirety. He was an enigma beyond me.
"What do you want? How did you get in here?" I demanded to know once I got control of myself again.
"Did you know, in all my time doing what is right by this city. I have never had to kill an aelenvari?" he randomly told me. But that while his words were strangely reassuring. I was now aware that he was a threat.
For now, though, I decided to trust in that declaration of his...
"And why might that be?" I asked him dismissively as I sat down and cross my legs. Leaning my bottom forward while one hand traced the edges of my breasts. The other, took hold of a fine glass so I could get back to the drink I had poured myself.
"Aelenvari are good mothers, unlike this girl here." he snickers maliciously before he walks over to the grand window.
"Humans have their flaws, yes." I comment nonchalantly as hearing this failing brought a smile to my face. She was not perfect, and that meant I could usurp her wrongfully gained affection.
"As do you, no?" he asks as he walks closer. The distinct sound of something dropping into my glass scares me. Much to his amusement.
"Wh-What did you do!?" I nearly screech as I scramble to take it out of my drink. Only to slow down and become confused once I picked it out. It was a small seed from some fruit...?
"Dropped a fruit seed." he cackles before he crunches into something that appeared in his hands. It looked like a yellow-skinned rolling fruit.
I snort, unamused by the antics of it, "Get to the point."
"I'll leave this here, let you figure it out for yourself. Besides, got to dodge this incoming swing!" he cackles before vanishing all of a sudden.
"My Love...?" I question as I look down at the dark streets below. Was this something to do with him? Was that the madman who he has been so determined to hunt in recent memory? Better yet, was there a way to make him help me?
Make my Love care about me as much as he did this woman that man attacked?
"Eugh, hate yellow." was all I had to say about the fruit, however. So I binned it and then headed to bed. I would need to get some rest before I could attend to my Love's injuries. Or, rather, as it has been these past few weeks...
Just linger in the corner of his vision as the wind-people reluctantly helped him out...
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"I just don't get why he did not care as I left..." I nearly sobbed on my way back to the magic academy. I have tried so hard for him, yet he could not care if I was around. If he wanted to turn the others away, then fine! But I was not someone he should be doing that to!
For a moment as well, I came to a stop. Frustrated with how it has all turned out. I left my flower for this... I gave it all up for this...
I didn't regret it at the time, but circumstances made me change my mind... I wanted to just go back to the way it all was. But I also did not want to abandon my Love. I could never find someone to love again after meeting him...
"But if I was to just go... I could not do it like this." I commented before I looked at that seed I took out my drink. I don't know why, but I had kept ahold of it since last night.
"Come on little one, time to go eat."
"Yes, mama!" a familiar voice laughed eagerly. It was a beautiful sound. So I looked at its source. And I found myself overflowing with jealousy as I saw it.
The first thief, the one I punished justly for her transgressions... She was there, enjoying her time with her son. Her beautiful baby boy... My lesser was doing all of that while I was...
Here, alone...
"Dandel'lhia." I said clearly, but not quite loud enough. So I just glared at that woman as she walked off with her son. Then I briefly looked into the building where all the other children were. She wasn't the only aelenvari mother here either.
However, she was the only one who had a flower to go back to... Her son still had a father who wanted to hold him. And while I did not love him anymore. And while I wasn't an Ivy-Mother anymore...
I just couldn't let this stand!
Time away from my Love would surely show how important I am to him, no? Being away from him before made him fight so bravely for me! He overcame his better I took me back into his arms! Maybe that is what was needed here too...?
I could only hope so...
So I looked on at the disappearing thief and her son. The son a younger, ignorant me should've carried. And while I was not the mother, I had a responsibility to this child. It was me who looked after him, after all.
His mother gave all control over his well-being to me! And she has shown me how bad a mother she was... She hadn't nurtured him into a proper man at all! She just doted on him ceaselessly!
To say nothing of her attempts to return him to his father...
"I, however, will not make that mistake." I whisper into the wind before I make a sharp turn for my current place of residence. Maybe my longing for the Garden-Mount was a premonition of sorts? A desire implanted in me so that I could help this sapling? There was no way it could not be!
So I needed to prepare myself for all the troubles ahead! I needed to leave with that sapling as soon as I could so I could take him home. He needed to be raised within a flower to grow properly! Not fattened within a place like this!
Our people needed more sons, he would make none when surrounded by the beauty of wind-people!
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"Dandel'lhia, a word?" I said once she came out of her room. And I made sure that she had no room to go. No way to get out of this. She would understand and move aside or I would remind her of my supremacy!
"W-What do y-you want?" she fearfully croaked as she recoiled against the door she just closed. It made me smile on the inside. She paid attention to the lessons I had taught her prior!
"Your son." I told her. Yet, her behaviour suddenly switched.
"I've told you to stay away from him!" she snaps in my face as confidence fills her body.
"And you know this is no place to be raising him." I snort, unimpressed by her inferior strength.
"That wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for you!" she growls.
"For me? It is not my fault you stole him from his home!"
"He's my son!" she angrily reminds me as if I could ever forget.
I snort once more, "He's the Gilded-Bar-" I start to say before my cheek suddenly stings. A loud clap rings out into my ears while my face burns mildly.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY SON!" she roars angrily as what little magic she has started to flare up.
So, to show her I was not intimidated in the slightest, "You dare!?" I snap as I hoisted her up before slamming her against the door. Smashing her against it again and again with thunderous bangs until I suddenly stopped. The sapling was crying...
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"MAMA!" her son cried fearfully before I suddenly found myself knocked away.
"Shhh, shh, it's alright!" Dandel'lhia softly told him as she opened up the door to pick him up. And I grew angry as I watched her hold him.
"Get your hands off of him, Thief!" I snap.
Yet she holds up a magic-covered palm at me, "Come near my son and I will kill you." she growls.
"You dare!?" I say once again as my magic suddenly glows brighter than hers.
"Mama!" her son cried once again. And, as if he was a switch, our magics both died out.
"Leave us alone... You've done enough harm, Root." she spits before she slams the door at me.
"I AM AN IVY-MOTHER!" I angrily scream as I force the door open. Only to force myself to calm down when I saw his beautiful little face.
"Then act like one..." she points out as she bounces her son up in her arms.
"I am..." I meekly mutter under my breath before I sigh.
"Go!" Dandel'lhia demanded as she protectively held onto him.
"I know how to get back to our flower, you know." I then say. Both a truth and a lie, but, I did have a way.
"H-How...?" Dandel'lhia questions as her son started to calm down slightly.
"You'd have to be an Ivy-Mother to know what I am talking about." I bluff. In reality, I just had an idea which way our Garden-Mount was.
"Then you owe it to me, the Gilded-Bark who loved me and the son our love created!" she mockingly reminded me as she aggressively rose to her points.
"I owe it to him to make sure he knows what is expected of him..." I quietly remark towards her son as he looked at me with uncertainty.
"Then fix your mistake!"
"I will, once you give him to me!"
"I am his mother, you childless failure." she mocks.
"Yes, and what I great one you have been..." I remark sarcastically.
"Oh? You know what it means to be one? I am sorry, but I see no signs of a seed having ever been here!" she tells me aggressively before she jabs at my stomach.
"Why you..." I growl before I hear footsteps from behind.
"Everything alright up there?" one of the men call.
"It's fine, just dropped something."
"Your pathetic pride, maybe." Dandel'lhia comments.
"Don't worry, everything is alright." I tell whoever it is down the stairs. Holding back the anger that comment helped to create before I turned towards her.
"So? Will you be taking me back home? Will you do your job, Ivy-Mother and make sure my family is alright?" she mockingly asks me while I kept my eyes on her son.
"Family..." he ends up repeating for any number of reasons.
"I will." I firmly declare. And while I was upset that it did not go to plan, I suppose this was fine enough.
"Then, you best start getting ready." she tells me before I am pushed out of the room while my mind lingered.
"Right, I need to make sure we are ready for a long journey..." I say as my mind focused on her son. I owed that sapling so much... Even if I gave it up, the mindset was still with me. In the name of the First Mother, in her name, I would perform my duties again!
And maybe... I could figure out how to make my Love love me... If it was at all possible. I had plenty of time to think about it, I know but...
This just all felt so sudden...
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"Right, this should be helpful..." I flicker with my true-voice before I put the map away. I knew the direction, but the path there was more than just a direction. I also made a point of not letting that thief see it. I knew her kind all too well.
They were petty and pathetic, they'd do anything to undermine me. So I would have to be cautious around her. Her stupidity would endanger the sapling otherwise. And I just could not allow that to happen!
"H-How are we meant to carry all this...?" she complained as she looked at my bag.
"You mean you." I correct as I smile down at her wide-eyed son.
"I have a son to carry! I can't carry that as well! Besides, it's yours!"
"Hmph, you're the closest to a root here, Dandel'lhia." I sneer, jabbing at the incomplete nature of her own name.
"I'm not carrying your stuff... You need to let some of it go."
"As if." I snort before I force it all upon her. She had no right to complain anyway. It was barely anything in comparison to what I brought here! I was fully aware of the fact my Love would not be with us.
"H-Hey!" she complained as I took hold of her son and cuddled him tightly. He was so warm and soft for a male! He was just too adorable to ever let go. And that smile of his made me warmer than any fire could!
"Mama!" he cheered as I put him next to my face. Yet, it was abundantly clear that despite his giggles, he wanted her. I had no issue with that, but I could not risk his safety with her.
"Give me back my son!" she demanded shortly after I started walking away towards our Garden-Mount. We had not even left the grounds of this place and she was already causing issues.
"Do not be so careless with my property..." I sneer, unamused by this defiance on her part. We had more important things to do and she just kept dragging us down!
"Give him to me!" she barks before I shoot some magic at the floor near her.
"Pick it up and let's go." I tell her, making sure she was fully aware of how little patience I had for this. And while I was making sure the sapling was alright. That he was comfortable and happy. That thief finally did as she was told.
"You will give him back the moment we settle down for the night." she complained as we walked away from Suhurlodst. At first, we were just walking on our own as we kept to the grass around the academy. But we soon found ourselves on the main path into the greater city nearby. And regret started to fill me slightly as I looked back at that place.
Was this really the right choice? Was this what I should be doing? I wasn't an Ivy-Mother anymore... My Love needed me right now as he struggled against a mighty threat...
Yet, at the same time, this sapling I held in my arms was all the motivation I needed to do this. He needed to know and see his father. He needed to be amongst his people so he could help save them. I may have not worn the dress or held the staff anymore, but it was all still in my head.
I remembered all the rituals and even some of the women I talked to on the regular. I consoled them on their relationships and how to please the man they caught. Even before my Love first arrived into our flower... My life was by no means a boring or unfulfilled one.
I was very much happy with what and where I was. There were just others who did not like that... And thinking along these lines reminded me of another thing. It was her that saw me leave my position as Ivy-Mother.
It was her that my Love somehow got caught up with during his stay at our flower. She didn't even deserve to come back home with us... So why I continued to put up with her, I did not understand. Maybe I could lose her at some point later, but now was not the time.
"So how are we getting down this mountain?" I was asked as we moved to the edge of the road. Not too far from the grand gate that was teeming with wind-thorns.
"We use one of those." I say as I gesture out to the machines I once used to get to that party with my Love. We had stuff to barter with so we could pay for our entry should it be required. Yet, I had to admit, I was still inexperienced when it came to how humans traded. I was never involved in it at any real point.
And any shopping I did do with my Love and Einervaene has become blurred in my mind. So I suppose the best course of action was to simply hope we would not be left at our wit's end. Yet, I was proud to say that I was an observant individual. My old practice did call for it, after all.
"A family ticket to Zufatzdadru, please." a father clearly said to someone behind a glass panel. We were all queued up as well, so it made it easier to see who was in his group. And he was a trio so that surely meant we would qualify for that same category?
"There you go, Sir, next?" they said with a nod before we were called over. And, I made sure to step in front of the thief as I would be the one to handle this.
"A family ticket to Nahgart." I say as I recalled the town on the map that was closest to our Garden-Mount.
"Right, Nahgart... I'm very sorry but that is not on our list of stops. Would you like me to find a closeby town, city or mountain-state?"
"I-I see... Yes, that would be helpful." I answer as I was not quite expecting that. There were so many stone constructs leaving this mountain that you'd think they'd go everywhere near here...
"Alright, let me see... Ah, here we go. It's a mountain range over, but it is our closet stop near Nahgart. However, we warn against it."
"Warn? How so?" I asked the woman as I held onto the sapling protectively.
"Soldiers from the Seven-Peaks Union have been moving through there a lot. It would likely impede your journey."
"A few thorns is no issue, can we hurry this along?"
"Yes, sorry, here you go. That'll be two Workmans Effort, please." and once she says that, I step aside to let the thief handle it as she had all our stuff.
"H-He-" she began to complain before I boarded the machine ahead of her. Setting the sapling down in one of the plump seats before I sat next to him. And when his mother finally boarded, she was blocked from going near him.
"Mama!" he cooed as he reached out for her as she reluctantly sat across from him. And while she looked over longingly at him, I played with his short, dull hair. Rubbing his head gently while he distracted himself with his mother's scarred fingers.
"These thorns aren't going to be an issue, will they?" Dandel'lhia asked.
"Why would wind-thorns stop an aelenvari triplet?"
"Because we are still witches, Rose'lhia." she sighed. And I laughed at the part where she lumped me in with her.
"So that is what you are calling yourself now." I dismissively say while I looked at her son's magic. It was obviously weak and nearly non-existent. But he was going to grow up to be a very strong man. He'd be very popular with all the petals he will see.
"Rose'lhia, please, enough. We're really doing this, we're going to our Garden-Mount. Can you set aside whatever this is for at least a moment?" she asked me tiredly. And I snorted at her because she had no right to tell me what to do. Not after what she has done to me over the years.
"Then watch your tongue." I tell her as her son started to slap the table for some reason.
"That's not an instrument, silly." I tell him as I stop him from doing it.
"Hungry... Where food?" he asks before he starts to slap the table again.
"It's alright, I packed some for you." his mother sweetly coos before she brings out a small bag from the bag she brought.
"And I'll be taking those." I say as I snatch it up. Smiling down at her son as his eyes lock onto the bag of food I had. It was a potent smelling mixture, but I think I knew what it was. After all, my former role in our flower meant I smelled similar smells often.
"Ah!" he cutely let out as he patiently waited for me to start feeding it to him.
"One!" I cheerfully said as I put the spoon near his mouth.
"Nom!" he let out before he started to pull on the spoon.
"No, let go." I told him before he started to laugh at me once I finally got it free.
"Nom!" he let out once more as he started to get distracted by his mother's expressions. He then started to slap the spoon away when I tried to feed him. With his little arms gesturing incessantly at his mother as he whined loudly.
"Very well." I reluctantly said as I bowed to the wishes of the young sapling.
"Ma-nom!" he started to say as he jumped to his points to take the food from his mother. I watched on with some envy before I just shook my head and looked away. Somewhat content to look out the windows as we started to move.
"Now leaving, Thrurstradtur and Suhurlodst." a man declared through some contraption as the mountain rapidly distanced itself from us. Whatever regrets I was feeling before did not matter now. I could not do anything about it so I just had to go along with it. And, at some point, I got up and walked away from the other two.
I kept on walking as well, all the way until I reached the end of this machine. I knew it was pointless, but I wanted to try and stay near my Love. Even as the place he was at grew further and further away. If there was a way, surely I would be running or flying back to that place right now...
"No, it's alright, I'll come back for him. I'll be done with what is expected of me, and he will be free to love me as he should." I say with a quickly fading smile. I felt like crying but I kept it in. I was not alone in the back of this machine. It was not something they deserved to see.
Yet even then, I was not sure if I could keep it all in. Even as I understood why this needed to be done, I could not help but feel guilty. But I could just not argue against what I was doing right now. That sapling, the Gilded-Bark's son...
I needed him to go home for his own good.
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"Mama, where we going?" Spruce'endoor asked me as he looked up at me from my lap.
"We're going to see daddy!" I told him as his eyes grew wide with excitement. And that was only the start of it, I had to hold him down to stop him from bouncing about.
"Daddy!" he cheered with some uncertainty before he giggled at me and played with my face.
"No, stop that." I laughed as I moved him away from my face. Holding him up before me while he tried to reach for the table that was just out of reach with his points. And that made me smile in anticipation. Me and my dear Oak talked a lot about Spruce's first pair of tubes.
We were going to make them ourselves after he could walk on his own. And that saddened me at the same time, because that time has long past. Yet, I kept his points bare so I could do that with him. I withheld so many of my desires just so my dear Oak could do them with me.
And now we were going to be a family again! So we could and very much would be filling in for lost time. I just had to wish that Rose'lhia's intentions were entirely pure. I could not doubt her want to help my son.
Vile as she was, she showed nothing but care for children. She took her job seriously and for a while, once upon a time, I was grateful for it. But then she orchestrated my kidnapping by osibindah... She scarred me for life and tried to make my dear Oak forget me...
Were it not for that human, I might not even known that my son was born. Concerned as I was for my own safety. I was willing to set it aside to some extent for my precious little one. And while I could not trust her with anything else, I could trust her with my son's safety.
I just wished I did not need to do so. If I could, I would've made this journey on my own. But I was never going to be strong enough. Even with the wind-people's help during my stay at that mountain. And there was no way that Valkinvar would ever help me over something so insignificant.
If that human boy was still around, maybe I would ask for his help. He did save me from the thorns following Rose'lhia's spiteful requests, after all. But he just disappeared all of a sudden. I wish I could thank him at some point, though.
For now, however, I would have to be content with what was going to happen soon. I'd be walking into our Garden-Mount and I would present Spruce to my dear Oak. He could hold his son for the first time and then me...
"Mama?" my son asked as he started to stroke at the wet streaks on my cheeks.
"It's alright, my darling. Everything is going to be alright." I tell him with a smile as he continued to wipe away my tears. Then I pulled him in close for a tight hug before I looked out at the valley's below. I yearned to go back to my old life for a while now. Even if I sat around doing whatever I needed to at our flower.
We still went places, the immobility of the wind-people's way of life always felt strange. Many of those I spoke to back there as well felt the same way. Yet, their families were there on that mountain. So it became a luxury they were willing to let go off...
And that worried me. Was Rose'lhia willing to let go of her standards for this journey...?