Short Stories of the Garden

Not Remi | Moral Remedy

It was dark, May really shouldn't have gone on a walk.

The trees spread across the canopy with thin branches that looked like hands. Hands like a person. There is a ghost they sometimes see with bark over their hands. The trees could just be a lot of ghosts with bark for hands.

It's like they are keeping the forest in a protective hold, if it wasn't so creepy.

Their forest isn't supposed to be creepy. All their life it was full of sunshine or moonlight. Lovely greens would decorate the ground and part of the sky. Flowers bloomed along the ground in a wild fashion and laughter was often heard from the depths.

But that was all their life, when Remi was in charge. Did it all break apart after they killed- took over? Did they single handedly destroy the warmth of the forest? That wasn't supposed to happen. They were supposed to do good. But the flowers are all silver and the branches look like hands and someone is staring from the trees.

Was that October? They like to stare. But May is uncomfortable and Oct never makes them uncomfortable anymore and they should be at home.

They should both be at home.

The sticks under their feet turned sharp and stabbed into their soles. May hissed in discomfort and pulled it out.

It was a shard of steel.

Why is it a shard of steel?

Lightning flashed and made them jump. Suddenly water started pouring down from the sky, flooding the trees. May tried to keep up, but for some reason they were sinking like a stone. Why are they sinking? Why is it suddenly raining? There were no storm clouds earlier! It shouldn't be. They should have stayed in bed.

Water flooded into their mouth and nose, pushing air out and water in. It went down their throat and made a home in burning lungs. This is it. It's the end, everything is wrong and now they're wrong because the body is seventy percent water not eighty percent. And the land isn't supposed to be flooded but it is flooded and they're also flooded because now they've going in the land and now their people is going to flood and oh my god the people what about the people-

A hand grabbed theirs and pulled.

May took a large hacking breath, but didn't cough out the water. It was as if the water was never in their body in the first place. In fact they were perfectly dry, and their savior was brushing invisible dust off their shoulders.

Their savior-

May froze. Those eyes are familiar. That shade of blue is familiar. That easy smile was familiar. Remi smiled and inspected them, hands cupping their face for a moment to turn it this way and that. "Hmm, you look fine. Are you sure you're completely okay?"

The warmth of their hands left to settle on their shoulder. May stood stock still under his friendly gaze. He was warm, not cold like the last time they had to hold him. The blue vest he wore and white color was clean of any stains, specifically red. His hair was still neatly up in a half bun.

Shaking hands grabbed at the vest collar, and around the shoulders and May unsteadily brought the elf into a hug. He smelt like pine and May wondered if they smelt like smoke, like August's bonfires or June's hair.

Remi gave a small surprised ha! and returned the embrace. He nudged their head so that he could lean against the sharp horns, his own head phasing through the thin halo that surrounded them.

"Is everything alright? You're so clingy today~" Remi teased. May didn't respond, holding him closer and burying their face into his shoulder.

He didn't like that.