CinderEll

Chapter Two ~ Gardens

When Ell woke up the next day at five am, she quickly put on her maid uniform and got ready for work in the falling to pieces bathroom the basement held.

Once she was ready for the day ahead of her, Ell began to make her way down to the hotels garden, but just as soon as her elevator dinged signalling that she had arrived at her floor, she realised that there was a major crowd in the hotel, bigger than she had ever seen before. Ell panicked as she tried to manoeuvre her way through the crowd feeling more and more fear well up in her throat the further she got into it.

When she finally saw the entrance to the indoor garden she made a beeline for it, and breathed a sigh of relief when she was able to get in.

Of course, no one was in there, the crowd seamed to be rather fixated on whatever was out in the entrance of the hotel, and Ell certainly didn't mind that. She'd rather be alone in the garden, than squished into that crowd likely to never come up for air again.

"Hello my beauties!" She called as she happily ran over to the roses she tended to as a part of her job. Honestly she would have done it for free if she had the extra time, but her uncle had her working seven days a week, so she hadn't known what a day off was like since high school.

"Don't you go drooping on me now!" She continued to talk to the plants as she picked up the watering can nearby and began to water them. As she did so she looked around the garden peacefully until her eyes landed on the giant Christmas tree in its middle. The hotel had specially planted a real tree there, so that way they could decorate it lavishly for their guests each year. There where little benches surrounding it that had also been strung up with lights and even the bins had a bit of decoration.

It reminding Ell of her parents and she couldn't help but to sigh as her eyes welled up with tears.

"I wish you where here." She said to the air as she grabbed a pair of pruners and began to take off the dead leaves from her beloved roses.

As she did so, Ell remembered one of the songs that her and her parents had used to sing when they decorated their Christmas tree each year.

She began to hum it softly, and soon she began to sing.

"The First Noel the Angels did say
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay, In fields where they, lay keeping their sheep, on a cold winter's night that was so deep."

She sang with a sad smile as she put her pruners down and looked at her roses fondly.

Perhaps if she sang to them, they'd be as happy as she was when her parents where still alive and they'd grow to be the brightest flowers in the garden.

"Noel, Noel, Noel Noel, born is the king of Israel." She finished sweetly, as she leant down to smell one of her favourite roses.

"Ah!" She suddenly gave a squeak as she pulled her hand back, putting her finger to her lip with a pout. She'd accidentally held the rose by its thorn and had all to quickly lived to regret it.

"Hey, are you alright there?" Came a sudden voice, Ell jumped two feet in the air and upon coming down lost her footing. Just as she thought that she was about to hit the ground with yet another little squeak coming out of her mouth, something stopped her.

"Woah, I've got you." Came the same voice again but Ell had her eyes scrunched up, still bracing herself for the impact she was sure would come.

"Hey it's ok now, you can open your eyes." The voice said gently, and Ell chanced a peak.

Ell's mouth dropped open at what she found, or rather who. The person who had caught her had to of been the most beautiful woman Ell ever had ever seen. With her long brown hair pulled back into a tight pony tail, and her eyes a glorious shade of deep mossy green, Ell could have sworn she felt her heart give out as she looked into her eyes, transfixed.

"Are you ok?" The woman asked as she looked right back at her with, was that a smirk?

"A-Ah I-" Ell tried as the lady helped her back to her feet, but when she wobbled on them, she made sure to steady her with her hands.

"I'm-" she was about to introduce herself, but when a flustered looking older man walked into the gardens and spotted her, he walked up to her angrily and gave her a look that read 'your dead.'

"Alexandria there you are, your mothers been worried sick. Come along now, we must get you somewhere safer." He said as he quickly ushered her away, the woman, Alexandria, Ell noted, turned back to her once and mouthed what Ell could only guess was 'sorry.' Ell just stood there shocked as she watched them retreat.

"W-What just happened?" She asked to no one in particular as she resigned herself to go back to her work. But she couldn't help but to think about the incident, after all she'd never been caught by someone before, let alone by the most gorgeous woman she'd ever seen.

Ell certainly knew that she wouldn't be able to stop daydreaming for the whole rest of the day as she began to make numerous mistakes in her work, just hoping that no one would notice how far away her kind was.