Diary or the Dead

Flowers For My Love

"Hurry up, we don't have the whole day left!" her voice tore him out of his world of thoughts. Dew found himself in a field of blue star-shaped flowers. The sun was shining and warmed the back of his head. On the wide path that cut through the vegetation stood a woman who had her face partially turned towards her. She seemed annoyed: "Stop daydreaming and pick up the pace" and without waiting another second she clenched her four fists and continued walking forwards. There, at the end of the pathway, stood a round building with large windows. Its gray stone walls, done and overall architecturally simple design reminded him of the castle which stood several hundred meters behind him. Of course it did, they were both part of the residency belonging to the king of this land and his close advisors. The major difference, at least Tiana, who had now reached the building, said so, was its inside.

Finally he freed himself out of his numbness and followed her. The heavy iron doors were decorated with several symbols, the most prominent being the starflower. Tiana pushed them open and sighed in awe. The inside was blinding at first, Dew had never seen so much marvel and gold in one place before. It was bigger than he had imagined: The ceiling was comparably high up as the throne room and was decorated with the pastel paintings of the sky and clouds shaped like various animals such as horses, sheep and he could even make out a dragon near the center.  Right before him stood three rows of marvel pews, padded with thin dark blue pillows and with equally as much detail as the doors. Tiana had her hands trace the pedals of a flower while explaining to him in an almost singing manner: "Lord Rufus the first commissioned the most skilled artists of the kingdom to make these masterpieces when he was still alive. They say each of those took more than a year to make. Can you even imagine how long it must have taken them to create this?" She hastily approached the center of the room. There, on a pedestal as tall as himself stood a magnificent statue. It was a woman who, in her left hand, was holding a crown towards the sky and a claymore pointed downwards in the other. Her long braided locks of hair were whirling around her and so was her cape which looked as if it belonged to a general. Around her stood four smaller statues: One of a horse, one of a swan, one of a dragon and one of a bird which looked as if it was born from flames. Thanks to Tiana he knew that this woman represented the goddess Bota, the protector and founder of the kingdom. Therefore they shared a name. The four animals were supposed to represent the other forms she had been seen in whenever she showed herself.

Her first royal cathedral had been destroyed by rebels during the last years in which the last king, Rufus the first, had ruled the land. Their motive was unclear but most citizens rumored they were against the rule in which every person with hybrid features, like Tiana with her four arms, were treated differently.
The woman had already seated herself in the front row, bowed her head down and pointed one set of palms upwards as Dew finished observing the new building. Tiana had spoken of coming here as soon as she could once the building had been finished and simple servants like Dew and her were allowed to visit. Now she was muttering prayers, mostly towards the health of her mother and probably the wishes for her love life as well. She finished and turned around to him. "What about you? Do you not want to take the opportunity to wish for something?" "No need," he hastily replied. Tiana frowned. "Come on, there are thousands of things you could need. You're in your best years after all..." The last comment made him cringe. First of all, he didn't believe in that goddess and if she really existed he assumed she wouldn't care about a simple person like him. That was because the last gift a royal received was claimed to have happened over hundreds of years ago. Second of all, he knew what she was implying and hearing that from a person twice as old as him made him uncomfortable.

Tiana shrugged while uttering something along the lines of "your loss" before leaving the cathedral. It was almost evening as he stepped outside and followed her back to the castle. The garden was located behind the main part of the building which was made of five stories with a giant come in its middle and two small watchtowers on either side. Even though he couldn't see it from this angle, Dew knew that the lower building was stretching forward to then reconnect and thereby create a square potion in its middle.

He brushed the light blonde hair out of his view to look at one of the watchtowers and then he realized it. "Tiana, can you go without me? I forgot something in my room" he exclaimed. It followed an annoyed groan: "Are you serious? Fred and the others are probably already waiting for us! We have a job to do, remember?" "I'll be fast, I'm quick at climbing stairs" he tried to soothe her. "Ugh, fine," she stood still and then continued while staring him deadly in the eye: "but if for any reason you don't show up in ten minutes I'll go up there and bust your door down. If you had decided to live with me you would be ready now but noooo, you prefer to live with that creepy bastard instead." He wanted to roll his eyes. Yes, she had offered him a place in her bedroom which was three rooms to the right of his own and yes, he also declined her offer. Since then she repeatedly tries to convince him otherwise and it began to become more than annoying. Her attitude was one of the reasons he refused to accept. The other one was that he'd rather live with a quiet, socially awkward knight with a bad reputation than a self proclaimed princess who would regularly invade his comfort space.

As promised he rushed upstairs to end up in the fifth story and quickly chose the corridor in which mostly lowly servants had their one-room apartments. The key clicked in the rusty lock of the wooden door before it swung open. Usually there would be much light falling through the window above the desk right across the room but a tall silhouette facing towards the outside was blocking most of it. "Good evening, your highness," Dew was greeted theatrically. He walked beside the person and softly shoved him. "Don't call me that," Dew exclaimed but received a chuckle in response. "Okay, fishy." The person turned towards him and smirked while one of the streaks of black hair freed itself from the loose bun. This, even though hard for him to believe, was Dew's roommate. Standing next to him Dew guessed he was maybe half a head taller than the blonde one and had colored skin like most of the people in this region. What made him stand out a lot were his hybrid features which in comparison to Tiana's four arms stood out more. Not only had he eyes that were unsettlingly pink, he also had two large bat-like wings and a set of black horns reaching from his forehead to far behind the back of his head. Of course people looked at him with either amazement or fear.

"Do you have to patrol tonight, Avery?" Dew asked while unconsciously gazing at the blue gambeson and the belt around his waist with a claymore attached to it. "Yup, this time it's the roof. What about you? No work today?" "I told Tiana I'd be there in ten minutes. She'll kill me." Avery gestured a slight bow. "I want to see her try. Anyway, see you at some point!" He patted Dew's shoulder before leaving their room. Dew's gaze followed his step before he turned around a corner and was out of his view. He couldn't help but smile through the embarrassment by the ridiculous gestures his roommate made towards him from time to time. If it wasn't for his position as a knight he might have gotten punished for more than one of them because the rules claim the only respect belongs to the royal family. Yet Avery didn't care as much and enjoyed teasing his friend. It had always been that way, even before their arrival at the castle almost four years ago.

In a chest next to the desk he found what he was looking for, a bandana for his hair which sometimes had a mind of its own, next to several pieces of clothing, most of them belonging to him. As he marched back to the door he looked down on himself because a flicker distracted him. It was caused by the pink crystal he wore on a necklace. For a short moment he considered whether to take it off or not. In the end he stuffed it in the collar of his light green shirt and almost ran downwards towards the kitchen.