The Rosebloom Boy

Skies of May

        I have woken up in this world. I know not where I am, nor how I came to be here. I am just here, to stay and waste away my time. The days pass by blandly. Nothing to see but the cloudless May skies.

        Alfred charged out into the garden, wondering what he would discover today. His sun-kissed, blonde locks fell any way they wished and he had somehow managed to get his elbows and knees dusted with soil already. His cobalt blue eyes shown with a childlike whimsy and innocence most children would have trouble faking. The garden he running into was quite large, a portion of land only the richest of people could afford. Regardless of its size, it was still well taken care of, not a single bud out of place and not a leaf uncared for. And despite how often Alfred made a mess of it, it was hardly ever in disrepair.

        Alfred loved every thing about it. It was spacious, beautiful, and always had something new to explore everytime he went out. It was a lot more like a park or a scene from a fairytale his father had read to him than anything else. It was vibrant in colors and smelled strongly of mixed flower scents, except in the winter, when it was more of a plant graveyard than anything else. He never knew the secrets behind the garden. They'd been there for years, and yet Alfred had never noticed them.

        He'd climbed every inch of the grove of assorted trees, examined every bush and flower, turned over every rock, and he had even bothered the garden gnomes and koi in their pond in exploration. He had seen nothing out of order in all his leaf turning and tramping through grassy patches. Of course then he didn't know about the reflections.

        Every once and a while, mother nature will add a little too much life to her creations. They live with their respective less lifelike counterparts and continue on, appearing and disappearing with the change of the seasons. The difference is they look more human. They will never die, as long as their origin doesn't die. They will stay frozen at the prime of their life, guaranteed a happy life—as long as they don't break the rules.

        A reflection is an innocent creature such as nature itself. Most are plants, with the exception of several animals and insects. They are forever to remain like their natural origin. Those who choose to become more humanized will fall very ill. Reflections are not meant to be anything more than what they are.

        Humans and reflections shouldn't even speak to each other, let alone form friendships. Any close attachment to a human could leave a reflection forever weakened. Their origin will weaken along with them. How exactly could it leave a reflection so damaged? When the human dies, the bond the two shared is broken, and a reflection is left in a saddened state. It tends to weaken the growth of the plants and animals around them. Some can even die from a state like that.

        But back to Alfred. He wandered through the garden, unaware that he would soon make the biggest discovery of his life. He dashed through the paths, pretending to be some sort of explorer discovering new species. He was even narrating his every movement. He slowed his pace, nearing the area with the koi pond and where most of the flowers grew.

"Alfred nears the raging waters, filled with creatures of abnormal proportions," Alfred says, dipping his hands into the pond. He picked up the fattest of the koi, it roughly struggling in his arms. "He's caught a rare beast! It's a fiesty thing at tha—" Splash! "The beast has escaped, swimming across the rapids."

        And then Alfred hears something that is definitely different from the sounds from the animals and rustling of plants in the light breeze. This sound is more human. It sounded like some sort of a muffled giggle. Alfred immediately perked up, in search of whatever had made that sound. He treads over to the thick rosebushes on the northen side of the pond. He's never really like them because he's pricked himself on them so many times. This is where the sound came from, and he has to investigate.