Myosotis

Myosotis : Chapter One

MYOSOTIS

Chapter One

               My light footstep was the only sound—aside from the birds singing and the wind blowing the leaves—that I could hear in the garden. I was too far away from the Lily Castle now. And close to the Myosotis.

               The garden had never been the same ever since that faithful day when my mother had died. The gardeners had all but flee or died and now no one was taking care of it, all but one old man, and it was too much work for him alone. The garden had become wild. It looked deflating. Just like everything around.

               Iris wasn’t what it used to be. Ever since that day. Everything had changed. Father had never accepted Mother’s death. How could he? She was his true love, his Ipomoea. Their names were incrusted together on the Myosotis. They were both part of each other and when she had died a part of him had died. He would only feel whole again after death, in the Flora. The Heliotropes repeated that to Father every time they visited him, every time he visited them. But there was no point; my father didn’t believe it. The loss had been too great. He didn’t believe in any of it anymore. I don’t think he ever had. It was Mother who always had faith in the Flora. With her death, Father had turned all his attention to the scientific discoveries from the people in Clematis. It was weakening our city. But we couldn’t do anything about it.

               And now, with the deflating numbers of Heliotropes, all our beliefs would die soon, for what purpose was there to write our names on a big tree? How could it mean anything? I had seen them slowly disappear from the castle, one by one until there was none left. I knew there were still a few here in there in the Lower City and in other cities around, other than Iris, but not under my father’s roof. And there were no white heads among the Orchid anymore. People had stopped believing and the older ones, the one that could have changed my father’s mind had either died with my mother or been asked to accept or leave. Leaving had appealed them more.

               I walked on the gray rock path, green moss escaping from every crease in it, making its way out. We were far away enough from the castle that it wasn’t cedars creating a fence each side of the path but now it was different trees, oaks, sequoias, beeches and maples and even a few walling trees here and there. There were more of them around the river that flowed around and in garden. I could hear it, the river, making its way to the city to quench the thirst of the population. It made a loop around the castle, protecting it from unwanted enemies and also around the garden to refresh it.

               The closer and the closer I got to the Myosotis, the smaller the path was becoming. I had to watch my steps to not trip on a root or a rock.

               Of course, I could already see the majestic Tree in front of me. You could see It from anywhere in the town. There was no structure built by man bigger than It in all the Worlds. Even the Clematis castle wasn’t as big as It.

               Or at least that’s what people told me.

               The early rays of the Sun were streaming through the branches of the trees, making patterns on the ground I tried to no walk on, in a fail attempt at amusing myself. When I was younger I could spent hours here, skipping around. But now, the memories of those times were too painful to not bring an ache to my heart as I thought about them. My mother was there with me in those days…

               I took a deep breathe to clear it from those thoughts and followed the path, leading to the small temple at the edge of the majestic Tree.

               “It is early to come pay me a visit my Child,” the voice of the old man rang from the structure in front of me, making me smile.