Gardener

Chapter 13

Give Your Heart

I woke to find my right arm completely numb and my throat aching worse than it had been the night before. I raised my left hand to my throat and closed my eyes as the warmth of my magic filled me. In my mind's eye I could see magic in the shape of glowing vines pushing the blood along ridding me of the bruise and then reinforcing the skin and muscle making it stronger, speeding up the healing process until the burning pain faded to nearly nothing just a small twinge gone by the time I dropped my hand and opened my eyes. I looked towards my numb arm to find Jenae curled against me, head resting on my chest bare save for the band I wore to cover my breasts. Her arm lay slung across my waist hand curling over my hip. I was surprised I hadn't noticed the weight of her before, reinforcing the fact that in my mind she wasn't as heavy as she thought or others claimed her to be.

She looked younger asleep, her face free of stress, her wise eyes hidden beneath the cover of her feline eyelids, her body lax. Safe...the Princess felt safe, I stroked my fingers through the earth and sand strands that curled around her face, she did not so much as twitch. Hesitantly I pressed a gentle kiss to her brow stiffening slightly when she shifted before relaxing again, sighing softly in her sleep, a breath of cool air gusting across the heated skin of my chest. I relaxed my heart slowing as I finally took in the fact that we were not in the infirmary, or my room for that matter. The walls were murals green things growing across the expanse of them, vines, trees, flowers, any flower, any bloom, any tree you could think to name was there on the walls, on the ceiling all growing together in harmony. Some of the flowers held fairies, the glowing shadows of small bodies hidden within buds near ready to bloom, some were already free, fluttering around the trees looking splendidly happy and carefree.

There were centaurs, their coats coming in every shade one could find on a horse, from black to silver, from dapple to roan, chestnut, bay and any other one could think of. Their human halves just as varied. I saw a female that resembled the healers of my people, with brown skin and short hair cut in a specific way, her eyes were silver like my mother's her ears pointed and tipped with fur the color of her coat, she wore a vest for modesty and it was uniquely designed to mold over her chest. It was said that none had ever seen a centaur in Angileri because they hid behind human skins and at times I wondered why something so magical would ever wish to appear human. No I felt perhaps they had left us, like the giants or hid from us as the older Fae do. There stood a giant, hiding behind an ancient giant's spine all you could see was the bristles of a beard on his jaw, the edge of his nose and the glint of his eye and perhaps his hair near about mixing with the canopy of the tree he stood behind. A dragon flew across the ceiling shimmering blue and green like the sea, flying beside a griffin every red a human could dare name and perhaps a few one couldn't. A moon shown on part of these fanciful images and the sun shown on others. The longer I looked the more that I could see, but the most prominent theme was green, the setting a forest that resembled paradise to me. I could probably stare all day and never grow tired.

The furniture in the room was a golden cream color so that it stood out, the wooden floorboards near about black in color, a small table sat on either side of the bed. The one to my right holding the Heir's crown, the one closest to me holding a change of clothing, a pitcher of water and an empty glass. There was a window directly across from me, open now, revealing the lightening sky, I could hear birds chirping as they woke with the dawn. Another window on the opposite side of the room remained closed, curtains drawn to keep out the light. The door was a distance past the end of the bed beyond a little sitting area with a couch a few comfy chairs and a coffee table that held a chest set, one of the finest I'd ever seen, all of the pieces set up so that one could play at any moment. The door like the floor was made of a dark wood, intricate vines carved into its face.