Flowers, Faeries and Honey

Looking up at him as he touched her arm gently and asked if she was alright, Tia managed a slight smile "Yes, just sick of being hurt, I miss my village as well as June and Folly" they were her real family, they werent the way her mother and father were. Hoping that she'd be sent home soon she watched as the faerie looked over the honey jars seemingly hopeful that they might have refilled magically. He murmured something about being home soon, a little curious as to the fact that he'd mentioned a 'we' not just himself, wondering what he meant she took a risk and spoke "we?" why would he want her to come with him she wasn't exactly useful. Plagued with a series of negative thoughts many born of the way her parents had tried to deal with her anxiety she had little idea of what she was worth. Brushing her hair back out of her face she waited to see if he'd elaborate on what he meant, if he wanted her to come with him she wasn't sure if she'd accept or not, the chance to get away from her family and spend time somewhere else was indeed tempting but her job at the florist and foster family she'd found with June and folly tugged at her also. Having no idea that she'd be given little choice on the matter, she glanced up at the sky checking for rain, thankfully it'd be a nice warm day today perhaps she'd be able to have a nice nap in the warm sun withotu being disturbed by the dragon.

Looking from the sky over to him when the faerie explained he wouldn't want to see her stuck there if she was set free a gentle smile slipped onto her lips, naive to the ways of faeries she had little idea that she was being manipulated. Her ginger hair was fine and kept being lightly blown about by the breeze, wrinkling her nose as it tickled her, the girl reached back and carefully tied her hair into a bun so it was mostly under control. Brushing her fingers through the grass the smile returning at the tickling sensation, it was such a nice day, flopping back against the earth she closed her eyes briefly inhaling the pleasant and familiar smell of the earth. She'd been through pain here, but at the same time this tiny world away from the world, filled with so many wonderful plants it was like a dream, most of the anxiety had left her whilst here, there was a routine and she understood things. The intrusive thoughts that liked to bring up social foul ups had become less here too, digging her fingers into the thickly growing grass and curling her bare toes into the dirt contentedness taking over her face. Remembering she wasn't alone, green eyes flicked open and the girl quickly sat up thinking over things before standing and offering him a hand "The shore gets the best amount of sun, the rocks warm up quickly too" and she could splash into the water once it was warm enough, knowing the island very well by now she headed towards the place where the shore got the most sun. With a happy carefree smile stretched out over her face the young girls hair was already trying to escape its bun, the fine strands slipping free, her clothes weren't the ones she'd been wearing when she'd first been brought to the crater, those had worn out and been taken away, she was now wearing clothes that'd been left for her. A simple well worn but well made shirt in navy with thin white stripes and three quarter pants out of a hard wearing fabric that was a dark brown with plenty of pockets, for now all her thoughts and feelings to do with being hurt, being trapped here and what folly would think of her spending time with a Faerie were filed away neatly to worry about later. For this very short period of time she could live in the moment, and enjoy the fresh breeze and warm sun that was already starting to heat up the rocks like she'd predicted, having already forgotten the 'necklace' around her neck Tia was carefree.

Her carefree behaviour instantly stopped when she heard the familiar steps, spinning about with fear displaying itself over her gentle features she barely had enough time to warn the faerie before Erisidr walked up and dragged him away. She didn't see Tori for a while after that, after a week she gave up on seeing him again and had tried to comfort herself over the sudden loss of a friend. One afternoon she sat in a clearing carefully making a daisy chain and singing to herself, when one had no other friends around singing was a good way to fill the silence and keep herself entertained.

I close my eyes and I can see
The world that's waiting up for me
That I call my own
Through the dark, through the door
Through where no one's been before
But it feels like home

They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say I've lost my mind
I don't care, I don't care, so call me crazy
We can live in a world that we design

Once she'd made the chain long enough she connected the start to the end and placed it on her head, although after a moment she removed it to tightly braid her hair back out of her face and replaced the crown. Drawing her fingers through the grass she moved to lie on her stomach she inhaled the fresh smell of the earth contentedly, it was so comforting here was something solid that would always be there. Remembering the plants in the glass house, Tirena hastily got up and hurried over there pausing to fill a watering can from the lake, managing to lug the heavy thing into the glass house and began watering going out of her way to check them over for any that didn't appear to be very well.

'Cause every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
A million dreams for the world we're gonna make

the chorus of the song was her favourite part, it spoke so much to her, all the hopes and dreams that filled her head with bright colours. Like how she wanted to create a flower that glowed at night and was a different colour by day, she'd drawn the basic idea down on a scrap of paper that she kept hidden on her, terrified someone else would steal the idea that was so central to her love of plants. Back home she'd grown so many plants in her planter boxes she'd had to sell some to make room, the florist had always welcomed her saying the flowers perked up whenever she entered a room. These days she didn't believe that but it'd been nice to hear, stubbornly struggling with the heavy watering can she took a moment to catch her breath.

"There's a house we can build
Every room inside is filled
With things from far away
The special things I compile
Each one there to make you smile
On a rainy day
They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy
They can say, they can say we've lost our minds
I don't care, I don't care if they call us crazy
Runaway to a world that we design"

Singing to the flowers was what she loved and her sweet voice grew slightly stronger as she sang, so many dreams so little time, She wanted to get married, to have kids, to own a house and have a wonderfully big garden. University was a goal, she wanted to go and learn everything she could that she'd be able to complete her ultimate dream of creating the lantern blossom flowers she'd come up with. Her parents and brothers had always laughed off the idea of her going to college, you're crazy they'd told her, stick to doing womans work, find a husband and have some kids. once she'd finished with the many plants in the glass house a quick glance at the sun suggested it was about lunch time, putting the can away she headed out to where she normally slept finding the food that had been left there for her Tia headed down to the shore to eat lunch and play about in the water.

"Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
A million dreams for the world we're gonna make"

She had to be careful to keep mildly busy, too busy and she'd stress, not busy enough and she'd start to ruminate on things, her social anxiety meant she kept second guessing things that had been said by her. Especially whenever she was trying to get to sleep which was why she was thankful to sleep outside underneath the stars, Tia'd begun to search out constellations in the beautiful jewels that lit up the night sky. Having always liked kids she was mostly confident that she'd be a good mum, kicking the shallow water and sending it flying up she squealed when she covered herself in water by mistake. Today she was wearing the dress that looked like it had been worn by someone who worked hard, it fitted nicely and its state meant she didn't mind if she got it dirty.

"However big, however small
Let me be part of it all
Share your dreams with me
You may be right, you may be wrong
But say that you'll bring me along
To the world you see
To the world I close my eyes to see
I close my eyes to see"

She felt so alone and isolated here, it was why she'd warmed up to Tori so quickly, he was kind and she was innocent enough in the ways of the world to not realize he had other intentions than remaining friends. With her daisy chain crown still resting neatly on her head, Tia played in the water for a while before the plants pulled her back. She could never stay away from them for very long, visiting the plants with the most beautiful flowers. Hydrangeas, Fuschias, Rhododendrons were some of her favourites, Sunflowers too they were the plant that meant home to her the most. After all back home there had been several fields filled with Sunflowers, perfect for taking a nap or playing hide and seek in. They were happy flowers, despite how crazy it sounded to everyone she often thought that the plants had feelings, the Sunflowers were happy flowers, Daffodils were hopeful they brought the promise of warmer weather.

"Every night I lie in bed
The brightest colors fill my head
A million dreams are keeping me awake
A million dreams, a million dreams
I think of what the world could be
A vision of the one I see
A million dreams is all it's gonna take
A million dreams for the world we're gonna make"

tracing her fingers along the leaves of the extremely old looking Rhododendron plant that looked like it could be over a hundred years old Tia gently touched her hand to the bark of the bush that had over time been allowed to become a tree. What if it could talk, what wise stories would it have to say, what things would it have seen up here, unaware or perhaps uncaring that her singing was easily heard over the island. Smelling the flowers and giggling as a bee nearly landed on her to gain entrance into the flower she'd been sniffing, Tia left him to it not wanting to slow down his work. "For the world we're gonna make..." wandering back out from where the bush-tree-plant thing was (She wasn't entirely sure to call it now) Tia looked up at the trees considering climbing up one of them, she hadn't done so in a while perhaps it'd be fun. Deciding that yes she'd do that she picked a tree and carefully climbed up before seating herself on a sturdy branch and taking out the drawing studying it, taking out her piece of charcoal and adding some more ideas to it.

Daisy chain proudly resting on her red hair not unlike a crown, swinging her legs as she worked she glanced up in time to spot her friend curling up in a patch of sun, he didn’t look so good, remembering where the beehive was a somewhat risky idea came to her. Sliding down out of the tree she moved through the forest to where she’d spotted Tori curling up asleep in the sun, quietly as she didn’t want to wake him Tia touched a hand to one of his disliking how cold it was and how pale he appeared, he needed something to eat and now. He’d been so kind to her, and she’d enjoyed that kindness, she wasn’t used to such attention from males in the first place as having five older brothers usually kept suitors at bay back home and the dragon here was definitely not pleasant to be around. Standing back up a thought occurred to her that could solve her problem, on the island in the lake there were four hives filled to the brim with honey but guarded by bees and a fair few traps however, she’d spent enough time here to realize that one of the bee species that was kept on this island was different from the others. You could take the honey from the hive and they’d just buzz around you angrily and yet wouldn’t sting, while normally she kept well away from the hives as she didn’t want to anger the scary man who was keeping her imprisoned here she’d bonded well enough with Tori that she wanted to risk that to make him be okay. The problem was all four honey boxes appeared the same and she was quite certain Erisidr did that on purpose to make it harder for hungry faeries to figure it out, she was quite aware he never would have expected her to have figured it out. Blessed enough to have very little reaction to be stings just some pain and a red sore nothing like what some of others in the village back home that came up in massive swelling and so with her mind made up the girl flicked a concerned look at Tori before darting off one hand reaching up to keep her flower crown safely upon her head childish perhaps but if anything it was a reminder of just how gentle, genuine and innocent she was. Chewing on her nail once she arrived at the honey boxes while thinking it over she decided that she had no choice, Tori needed the honey, she was pretty sure this was the hive with no stinging bees as there were a lot more traps around here but they hadn’t been too hard for her to figure out after having nothing better to do but garden and solve puzzles. Stepping forward and carefully going the correct way up to the hive, Tia opened it and stole as much of the comb as she could carry and managing to carry more than she could in her arms by using the apron she’d found a few days ago. Closing the hive up again and hastily beating a quick but careful retreat the redhead blitzed over to where the faerie was and crouched down next to him, missing her crown and bright red from exertion shaking Tori awake “Look! Here you should eat” not saying he looked horrible as that’d have been unkind and rude she merely passed him a bit of the comb warm and dripping with honey “eat” providing him with such service with little thought otherwise was perhaps a nod to how well the faerie had woven his spell, due credit, however, had to be given to her nature and the fact she, of course, would do almost anything for him thanks to his kindness.

Watching him devour the honey as fast as possible, concern creased her features when he hugged his knees to himself and realized that his wings were flaring out to bask in the sun, knowing there was a place that was far warmer and got more sun elsewhere on the island she got up and gently helped Tori get up “Come with me” gentle but persuasive, the red head managed to get him to the stony shore of the craters lake. Perhaps not as comfortable as grass there was far more sun there and all she wanted to do was help him, once he was seated she flitted off again and returned with the blanket she usually slept under “Here, sit on this it’ll be more comfortable” having absolutely no idea that she was behaving like a well trained pet already just wanting to do her best to help the only person here who’d been kind to her here. Sitting down next to him with a quiet sigh and brushing her red hair back out of her face, it was light and was easily pushed about by light breezes and often ended up annoying her, thankfully there were few breezes today and so it stayed helpfully behind her ears, worrying about him and hoping he’d be okay. Not bothering him anymore, her thoughts turned towards Folly and June, missing them just as much as her family, would her mother and father think she’d run off with someone? She’d always searched for their approval and praise and so often hadn’t gotten it and yet had continued on doing her best anyway, she wanted to learn more about plants and now had decided that when she got out of here she was going to do her best and go to university and learn everything she could about plants. Even if she had to get two or three jobs while she was doing her degrees, she had no idea what exactly what she was going to study, there was a youthful hopeful voice in her mind that demanded everything, that she learn everything every single thing until she could create her own plants. That had to be a thing, breeding plants selectively had to be a thing, creating a new plant, somewhere within her there was a quiet idea, that she wanted to draw out and then create it, lost in her thoughts she hummed absently whilst chewing on her thumb nail.

Once he was asleep she got up when it was time for food to be left out for her, leaving the faerie there she walked off to find her food in its usual spot, returning to Tori with her simple note pad and a slightly worn pen that appeared to have seen a lot of use. Settling down and flicking open the notebook she slipped the pen between her teeth while she thought wiggling her jaws so the pen moved up and down it was somewhat healthier than chewing on the pen or on her thumb nail. Once she had an idea of what she wanted, in the end she wound up with flowers that were white during the day and glowed a special blue during the night, especially so on nights of the full moon, drawing the plant idea she jotted down some notes around it, where she’d get certain genes to create the glowing. What plants she’d splice together to get the right shape and colour of the blossoms, humming a song to herself every now then a line or two would slip out of her mouth while she drew and wrote, that revealed exactly what song was playing loudly “Radio, what's new? Radio, someone still loves you…” indeed her radio had been one of her closest companions only replaced by her Walkman that she’d been given as it meant she could listen to her songs without her parents realizing what kind of ‘sinful’ music she was listening to. Music and plants had been the most important parts of her life, around everything she’d learnt about cooking and cleaning from her mother and how to make and mend clothes from folly, now that she thought about it she was surprisingly well rounded. What her parents would have considered a good wife, but she didn’t particularly want to be, here so removed from the world and their control she almost felt free, perhaps if she asked nicely she’d be allowed into the library and she could look up some books on plants and the like. She was scared of the dragon, but she was a good girl so if she asked nicely and the right way he’d allow her to delve into his library. Finishing off some shading on the flowers she’d named Lantern Blossoms and nibbling on some of the simple food she’d been provided with, Tia continued to hum to herself watching the water sparkle off the waves of the lake wishing she could draw more than flowers. Flowers were easy but everything else didn’t really turn out very well, with follys help she’d created some nice clothes, with folly drawing the shape of the clothes and her detailing the plant decorations that were upon the fabric. Missing her best friend and 2nd mum as she often had called Folly she ended up doodling more flowers on a new page singing very softly to herself trying to not let it hurt as much as it was, after a while the warm sun did its job and she wound up fast asleep on the warm round smooth stones, one arm tucked under her head as a pillow.

Stirring slightly when the blanket was draped over her, the girl sleepily tugged it closer and wriggled in an attempt to get more comfortable on the stones, giving up on that rather quickly Tia moved to the ground where the stony shore ended. More comfortable there she fell back asleep, her arm being used as a pillow once again, unfortunately for Tori the only way to get more blankets was to enter through the door that lead to the rest of the mountain. As he drew closer the door opened and the dragon appeared he’d found it quite interesting to watch how the imprisoned faerie had proceeded to manipulate the girl he’d picked up, it was fascinating to study how they wound spells around humans to bind them to their wills, what he had planned would test the faeries imposed bond on the girl to the limit and he was looking forward to the show. Blocking the way so that Tori couldn’t go past him to get whatever it was he wanted Erisidr studied him noting how gaunt and pale he looked, it wouldn’t do for his test subject to die on him so he made a mental note to up the faeries calorie intake. Not one for monologuing or talking when he didn’t have to the male merely quirked a brow in a silent question, he wasn’t about to let Tori just wander wherever he wanted, there were plenty of sensitive things he didn’t want disturbed, the girl was harmless enough and knew better than to go where she wasn’t allowed but faeries not used to such constraints seemed to struggle more. The fact that Tori continued to tell him to let him go during experiments was starting to wear thin, he’d already decided that the next time Tori started bleating the pathetic sentences during his next series of experiments he’d do something to hurt him more to emphasise his point that he wasn’t going to let him go until he was good and ready.

The faerie gave him the answer to his silent question, studying him for a moment he turned and left closing the door behind him, gone for about ten minutes the dragon returned with a couple of heavy wool blankets that he passed to the faerie and once he had a good hold of them the dragon proceeded to pass him a container that was heavy and filled with a thick sticky substance “Mix it with water” was all the dragon said in relation to the molasses, it was sugary enough to give the faerie a bit of a boost. The red headed girl that Atrel hadn’t been that interested in had a bottle that Tori could use to mix water and molasses together they’d figure it out and if they were smart they might even figure out that he didn’t particularly care if Tori took the girl back to his room that he’d been kept in on and off. It all depended on how the faerie that now knew he couldn’t escape or leave used his brain, with a quiet grunt the dragon in the shape of a man wandered off to study the stars and make notes on their positions.

Dimly registering the extra warmth, Tia fell into a deeper sleep time passing quite quickly for her until the suns morning rays hit her face, screwing her face up in protest Tia huddled under the blankets for a while until she’d woken up properly. Sitting up with a wide yawn and spotting the blanket with a sizeable lump under it, she deduced that it must be Tori, adding her blankets to his single one she got up and went to go find some breakfast returning with the food that’d been left out for her and thoughtfully she’d brought along the food that had to be for Tori, setting it down next to him while she polished off hers it wasn’t long before she wandered into the lake for a swim and a wash. As far as she knew this was how life was going to be from now on and as far as lives went she supposed it wasn’t bad although her heart still yearned for knowledge when it came to plants, once she’d washed herself as best she could once again she returned to the already warmed stones that made up the lakes shore to dry off.

Smiling when he greeted her, the human girl nodded “yes thank you, How are you feeling?” he still looked so pale and frail, wishing that she could do more than provide food for him, Tia fiddled with the collar about her neck unsure of what else she could do to help him. The warm stones had dried her off already, tucking her pale ginger hair back behind her ears out of her face, Tia didn’t say much else thinking of home again, remembering the plants that she should probably water the girl fiddled a little more not wanting to leave Tori who looked so unwell still. Reaching out to where some grass was managing to grow amongst the stones and starting to braid it to keep her fingers busy, unsure of what to do and feeling a little anxious because of it, what should she do what should she say? She’d never been good at talking to people and right now she felt incredibly self-conscious, trying to ignore the nervous fluttering in her chest she continued braiding the grass.

Nodding and continuing to braid the grass absently his question about her home life caused the girl to glance up, “I grew up in a very small village in France, with my mum, dad, and five brothers. The girl next door June is my best friend and we’ve grown up together, her mum Folly is like my second mum and her partner Nathan is super nice, in my last few years at school I worked part-time in the local florist and that’s where I learned a lot about plants. My room was at the very top of the stairs in our four-hundred-year-old house, its mostly made out of wood and creaks a lot in certain weather, I had lots of planter boxes on the window sills of my room where I’d grow things and I grew up growing all sorts of flowers. I really wanted to go to university but mum and dad didn’t think that was a good idea for me and suggested I settle down and have a family, my dream as a child was to create my own type of plant that no one’s ever seen before. For my tenth birthday folly gave me a ring binder with heaps of pages and dividers in it and I’ve spent hours ever since drawing flowers and writing down notes about them and often times pressing flowers if I manage to do it right. Mum and dad were always a bit old fashioned, and I was never allowed to do half of the things my brothers were, I got a lot of the chores and they didn’t, but that’s just the way things go” Tia shrugged quietly, very accepting of her world and what her limitations were. She’d grown up with plenty of them and had settled into the fact that it was her place to do the chores and keep whoever married her well looked after, she did want children one day but felt a little hesitant for some reason to tell him about those particular plans. So she kept that nugget of information to herself  “Folly taught me how to sew and make my own clothes, my mum taught me cross-stitching, knitting, embroidery and other stuff like that, mostly domestic sorts of things I guess” it was clear from how she spoke that she was closer to Folly and June than her actual blood-related family “Mum and Dad care about me a lot” she added very defensively as if realizing it  “They just want me to be the best I can be and that’s why they get so strict” it was easier to talk while focusing on the grass she was expertly braiding, for a long time they’d forced her into making eye contact and told her off for stuttering and made her go over everything from the top which had only made her worse.

When the dragon had captured her she’d been sitting out in a field of sunflowers by herself out of the town after they’d gotten angry with her again. It was the most she’d ever said to him at once, and seeming to grow aware of how much she’d said, she flushed a gentle pink colour “I’m sorry I probably ju-just bored you” frowning at her nervous stutter she bit her lit and hyperfocused on braiding the grass as if that was the only thing that was going to stop the earth from magically detonating. It’d be good to get out of here and go home, she loved her family truly she did but she wanted to go home so she could see Folly and June and let them know that she was okay, there would be so many chores she’d have to catch up on as well. Now that she really thought about it did she really want to go home to them? The only people she’d really miss would be her best friend and Folly, shaking her head all of a sudden as if realizing what she was thinking, Tia berated herself for thinking of her family that way, she shouldn’t be so ungrateful some people had no family at all and would kill to have a big one that cared about her. Fidgeting when she finally ran out of grass to braid, Tia sat with her hands in her lap, fiddling with the end of her shirt chewing lightly on her lip trying to keep busy.

His simple response was enough to lift a lot of the anxiety that had settled over her in response to the information dump that had fallen out of her mouth without her really wanting it to. Glancing over at him from underneath her lashes she wondered what was going on in his head, fiddling a moment she decided to reach out and see if she could find out some more about him, if he didn’t want to she wouldn’t press but she was curious. Despite her father consistently telling her she needed to nip that curiosity in the bud Tia sometimes just couldn’t help it “um” she began a little hesitantly looking down to fiddle with a lock of her hair “What’s your home like? Do you have any siblings?” she was stuck here with him and had little idea if she’d ever see folly and June again, but he’d been kind to her and thus she wished to know more about him. A large part of her wasn’t expecting to be told anything, he didn’t owe her anything and she was just a silly young girl with too many dreams and her head in the clouds instead of keeping it firmly on her shoulders, so many times she’d been told that it’d get her into trouble and now it really had. Feeling rather lonely all of a sudden, she tilted her head back to look up at the sky wondering if Folly and June were looking up at it wondering where she was, where were they and what were they doing? Surely they missed her as much as she was missing them, and now it seemed all the more likely that she wouldn’t see them again, feeling her eyes start to prickle she jerked her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them resting her chin on them and closing her eyes trying to fight the tears and the horrible feeling welling up in her chest. She just wanted to go home, to snuggle down in her bed, bicker with her brothers, let her parents correct her, escape out the window when grounded to see Folly and find June, to go back to her job at the florist. Thinking about it all made her heart hurt and chest feel empty, tightening her arms around her legs she started to focus on her breathing, all the way in and slowly letting it all out, shutting her eyes. It wasn’t fair to cry in front of him, it was none of his business and father had said it was better she stayed bright and happy, that her smile made everyone else’s heart happy and filled with sunshine so to keep on smiling. By now, she’d completely forgotten she’d asked Tori a question most of her focus now on not crying in front of him it was hard fighting the painful feeling and took most of her attention.