Flowers for You

Tomioka was frozen in time. He will never grow old nor grow weak; however, no matter how many times he regenerates, he was tired. Tired of standing by as humanity grew and was tired of humans chasing him down for their own selfish greed. That was why Tomioka, the immortal mage, decided to isolate himself in a forest, far far away from humanity. However, humanity spread like a plague and soon, there was a human village just outside his door step. He watched it cautiously from afar, trying to figure out how to deal with this village. However, when he realized that it was as harmless as humanity could be, he left it alone. Only stopping by occasionally to see how far humanity has advanced. He was curious on what the outside world was like, but he never stepped outside of the forest for his own safety. Not because he was scared of the pitchforks and fires the villagers would use to chase him out. But rather that he would grow attached to someone and watch them die.

As much as he tried to avoid humans by staying inside the forest, there was no rule that humans couldn't go into the forest. It was around a century after the settlement of the village when something caught his attention. It was a pair of young girls who were collecting herbs in the deeper parts of the forest. The village was afraid of the forest because it had dangerous wild beasts and warned their children with stories of naughty children disappearing into the night. However, for a pair of young children to come here, he was baffled. He observed them from the trees as they chatted happily between the two of them as he heard snippets about how they can help their family with these herbs. There was a point in the conversation where he was tempted to chase them away with illusions of the wild beasts that all children would fear, but something about their innocence stopped them. They reminded him of a time before he was an immortal, and when he was positive that they weren't looking, he secretly used magic to grow some more of the herbs they were growing. The older of the two girls pointed out the herbs with an excited voice and they started collecting with even more vigor, making Tomioka almost smile. They soon disappeared and Tomioka had figured that that was the end of them, however he couldn't have been more wrong.

Every week like clockwork, they would appear in the forest collecting herbs, happily chattering about their lives. Tomioka knew it was wrong, but perhaps some part of him still believed in the purity of humanity as he secretly grew more herbs for them to collect. A couple of months into this routine, older sister started appearing less and less meaning that the younger one was alone. Without her sister, the child had no one to talk to was silent as she collected. Her hands quickly trying to gather as many as she can before hurrying off back in the direction of their home. Tomioka felt pity for the child, so he started to grow herbs in more abundance and even threw in some rare herbs to make her feel a little bit happier. This continued until one day, the young child looked up from collecting and opened her mouth.

"Mr. Spirit. I know you're there." it was a clear high pitched voice and Tomioka was surprised as it had been months since she had spoken in the forest. So surprised that he jumped down to the forest floor. They both stared at each other, then the young girl started giggling.

"I didn't know Mr. Spirit was actually there." she said happily as she started to approach him. He immediately backed off and jumped onto the nearest tree branch. Looking up, the young child looked at him in awe before speaking again.

"I know that you're the ones growing these herbs. Thank you." she smiled so brightly that the dimples on her face showed. She sat down on the floor, obviously not bothered by the fact that Tomioka wasn't speaking a word.

"You know. My parents had just died because they were both drafted into the military as doctors. Apparently they were killed in action with the highest honors." she laughed as she didn't know what it meant to die with honor. "Now my sister is watching over the shop and I'm the only one who can gather herbs. She's working so hard, and I want to help her." The young girl started picking up the flowers that were surrounding her and was skillfully weaving them into a crown. She continued to talk. Talking about her neighbor's latest fiasco and what's going on in the war. Complaining that the soldiers would sometimes burst in and demand food. Kanae hiding her whenever the soldiers came in. The sun was starting to set when she finished her flower crown which she laid gently on the ground.