A Flower in Death's Embrace

Chapter 3

Solitary.

That was the word that best described the spirit of the lake's life.

She was born and grew up alone. By the time she gained consciousness, years had passed since she was born. It was like she was awoken after years of sleeping.

The first thing she did when she gained her sense of self was to look at her face reflected on the lake. What she saw was a girl with long black hair, deep purple eyes, small nose, and thin lips. She didn't understand beauty or aesthetics, but she found her look pleasing.

Day by day, night by night, she sat by the lake where she was born without having anything in particular to do. She was aware, but she felt absolutely nothing.

That was until one night, as she stared into the clear sky and the bright moon reflected on the lake, she heard rustling in the bushes behind her.

"Oh."

She heard a voice. When she turned around, she found a creature, looking much like herself, standing in front of the bushes.

Unlike herself, though, the creature had a shorter hair. It also had smaller but rounder watery eyes, full lips, and a pair of rosy cheeks. There was water flowing down her cheeks.

The spirit tilted her head in curiosity. What kind of creature was this? She wondered. She had seen smaller yet more ferocious creatures around, standing on four feet, but she had never seen this kind of creature before.

The creature in question seemed to be frozen in its tracks. Its eyes were opened wide while its mouth was gaping. After a few moments, the creature finally let a sound out of its mouth, but the spirit couldn't understand anything it said. She arched an eyebrow and jumped off the big rock she was sitting on.

She approached the creature, which seemed startled by her sudden movement, and reached out to the creature's cheek.

The spirit placed her hand on the creature's cheek. A moment later, the spirit's body glowed for a second before the light disappeared.

The creature looked even more confused about what just happened, its cheeks grew redder and its eyes kept on blinking. The spirit let go of the creature's cheek.

"You can talk to me now," the spirit said, in a voice she didn't even know she had.

The reason she touched the creature just now was to absorb her language. She didn't know how she knew how to do that, but it just came up in her mind. Apparently, she just needed a little touch to absorb minds.

She also found out that this creature was called a human and this one in particular was referred to as a girl.

"Huh?" the girl responded. She then wiped the water from her cheeks and bowed. "H-hello, I'm sorry for bothering you!"

The girl peeked at the spirit with a careful glance.

"A-are you a goddess?" she asked.

'Goddess'?

That was a foreign word to the spirit. But somehow, she felt like that term didn't quite suit her.

The spirit shook her head in response. For a moment, she saw how the corner of the girl's lips seemed to curve down, but they quickly perked up again.

"Maybe you're a fairy instead!" the girl beamed.

Once again, the spirit didn't know what a 'fairy' meant so she could only shrug.