The Reflection Of True Love

The Man

"It's okay, I think fluff will be back today." Yumi says quietly to the caramel coloured rabbit sitting peacefully in her lap. Her small hands stroke the furry long ears as she watches her father scatter food for the pigs snuffling at his feet in the distance.

She always tended to the bunnies before she did anything else. She spent time with each of them, giving them love and chatting to them. There are times when she thinks she can hear their thoughts so it's as if she's having a conversation with them. It's only the man in the house castle and witches that have special powers though or at least that's what people say. Yumi has met a few witches in her vampire life but they don't come by very often. They stick to their communities and have anti-vampire boundaries so vampires don't trespass on their land. Humans live amongst witches in complete ignorance but it's not the mortals that pose a threat.

Yumi enjoys playing in the forest, climbing trees and often finding a quiet spot up high where she can read a book in peace, surrounded by the animals. The rustling of the leaves and the birds chirping provide a tranquil soundtrack. Every now and again, she will hear someone walking by, sometimes it's vampires from nearby, sometimes it's humans on their way to town and once or twice it's been a witch. It's easy to distinguish between them, a vampire has no heartbeat to hear with her heightened audible capability. A human heart beat and emotions ring loudly in the ears of a vampire but with witches, it's their pungent smell that differentiates them from others. The scent of wet dog infiltrates a vampire's nostrils and taps into an ancient instinct from a time when werewolves were a major threat and it acts as a warning, sometimes before the witch is seen.

The last witch that Yumi met in the forest was an earth witch. The woman walked through the trees and plants, using her magic to revitalise the ones that were wilting or dying. The witch was kind and spoke to Yumi who stayed on the branch she was sitting on so there was a bit of distance in a bid to dilute the smell. They'd spoken about the wildlife and Yumi thought the witch was very kind and her scent wasn't that bad at all.

Just as she thought that the man in the house castle was kind.

With the rabbits munching on vegetables in their pen, Yumi waved goodbye to them and got to her feet. Her small blue pumps with ribbons as laces moved through the field towards the trees. She walked along the dry muddy path of the forest floor, towards the fence that formed the partition between land that belonged to the man in the house castle and the rest of the world. One of the panels in the dark wooden fence was loose enough to be shifted to one side to allow the small girl to squeeze through. Technically she had her father's permission because he didn't say no when they were playing chess and she wasn't going over the fence, she was going through it.

There's a calming atmosphere in the garden and she's often wondered if it's something the man did with his special powers? The garden smelled like a bottle of ladies perfume and Yumi is always reminded of her mother, even now. Her memories remained, frozen in time along with her age. She wore a small horse shoe pendant on a silver chain that her mother once wore. It was part of a handful of things that they took with them when they left that night. Her mother's floral scent is something that is catapulted to the front of her mind when she's surrounded by flowers.

Yumi hasn't ever seen the man in this part of his land but she presumes he must tend the flowers and plants here because they look well cared for, albeit overgrown. She makes her way to the large iron gate that marks the entrance to the inner gardens and house castle. This was the way she'd always entered, via the fence, across the first part of the gardens with its large plants and wildflowers to the iron gate that is slightly open. It wasn't easy making the journey with a bleeding rabbit in her arms yesterday and she hadn't even considered trying the front entrance. She slips inside the gate into the immaculate, ornate garden with its large rose bushes, purple rock cress and stone ornaments. She stood with her hands behind her back, tapping her foot as she looked around and noticed the giant purple Prince that the man had shown her how to prune the time she was here before the incident with Fluff. The last time she was here, she raced into the garden shouting and pleading for help. She'd found Fluff injured while she was in the woods and couldn't leave him to die and the man said he would help, taking the bunny and telling her to return.