"So, just present this to an establishment of your choosing and they'll give you a room." the wind-thorn tells me as he hands over a metal piece.
"And the sapling?" I ask him as I stare intently at my responsibility.
"He'll stay here until we can verify you are a suitable guardian."
"Suitable?" I scoff, offended by the claim, "The business of we aelenvari does not concern you!"
"So long as you are within His Lunar Majesty's land, it does." he answers me with a flat tone before he dismisses me.
"Suitable guardian..." I repeat quietly with my true-voice as I moved about this place. In comparison to the home of our thorns back in the flower... This place was quiet. There was a strange unease about this place.
Those without helmets kept their distance from those that had them. One side did not care while the others seemed to take it personally. But I suppose it was not my problem to focus on. I had a different issue to deal with, even if I was forced to leave it behind...
"He wants you, Dandel'lhia... He only wants you..." I subtly glow out before I make it back through the gate.
"Oh, look out, we got ourselves a lovely thing coming by!" some boorish humans loudly declared as I walked about the town. Yet, I did not think they were talking to me.
"Hello, why so down?" an aelenvari asked me. Yet, there was an odd thing about her. She had the qualities of a root but dressed like a petal...?
"What is this!?" I demanded to know, my voice full of disgust as I watched her approach me.
"Well, you looked down, so I thought I would tell you about about the Sweet Orchard where you'll only ever smile."
"Get away from me." I tell her as this nigh-blasphemous behaviour was revolting.
"Are you sure? I'm sure you'll fit right in." she giggles in a way I am quite familiar with. But that only made me want to go away more. I was not going to be playing pretend with some outcasts with no flower.
"Leave me be!" I start to tell her before she slips something into my clothes, making me squeal at the end. However, I focus foremost on getting away from her before I addressed it. I then briefly gave it a look over and sneered at it. Chucking it away nearly instantly.
But, I turned back around to look at it. This place, I had heard the name before... Sweet Orchard. Yet, despite that, I still let it be.
"Oh? Hello again, what're you doing back here?" one of those humans boys from that place we stayed at greeted.
"It does not concern you." I tell him before I move to walk away.
"You know, Mum wouldn't have an issue with you taking a room for the night!" he loudly told me, making me stop. But, I sneered at his offer. That place didn't deserve me for a single night, let alone more...
"Very well." I say anyway with a sigh as it at the very least solved one issue I had.
"Alright, see you there, then. I'll have Mum put on some tea!" he tells me before he runs off back to that decrepit place.
"No... A place like that deserves someone like me..." I say to myself quietly. With the kind of defeatism I would not let out openly before someone else. It didn't take long for me to get there either as the boy seemed to linger around each turn I would have to make. And then, I walked in through the front door once again with only the clothes I wore.
"See?" the boy said to his mother as he gently pulled her out of the kitchen.
"Oh, so it is! How is... Where are the other two?" she starts to ask me before she changes her question.
"That's my business." I tell them with a huff as she approaches me.
"Come on, Dear, come out back with me." the woman insists with a firm hand. Yet it was too weak to move me and I just glared at her small family. Before it all just suddenly vanished as I saw it once again. People no better than roots with something I did not...
"We'll make sure it is quiet outside."
"Thank you, Boys." the elderly woman says as she closes the kitchen door after taking advantage of my distracted state.
"What do you want?" I asked aggressively as she sat down on a simple wooden stall.
"Sit down, Dear. Tell me what happened." she says as she pushes forward a mug near where I was supposed to sit. The strength to argue, however, was not there anymore. So I sat down and crossed my legs. One hand lingered near the mug as she took hers into both her hands.
It was then quiet for a moment before my facade seemed to crack, "I've made a mistake."
"We all do, Dear." she says in a dismissive tone. But I did not latch onto it as I could see where she was coming from. It would not help, however.
"This isn't some simple mistake I can just rectify..." I tell her, expanding upon what I started to say. Pictures flashed in my mind as well, of how happy the sapling was with Dandel'lhia. How it was fine with a stranger but turned its back on me...
"Is it to do with why you are on your own now?" she asks softly before she takes my silence as a 'yes.'
"We made it as far as some ruins... And to protect the sapling, I cast its mother out knowing full well something bad would happen to her."
"I see..."
"I was happy to do so for that thi... No... I... I don't know..."
"Someone has made you change your mind?" she asks.
"That son of hers... He hates me and blames me for his mother being gone... And... And I know that I am to blame." I say as I try to hold in the tears my pride was trying to keep away.
"Do you happen to know what happened to her, that sweet girl?" she asked and as if to twist the knife in my heart. She spoke praises of Dandel'lhia... The good one was suffering while I was out here having tea...
"Some people came... They were after the sapling." I tell her quietly.
"Then I think I know how you could resolve this." the elderly woman says as she rises up from her stall. A clear sign she was disappointed was all over her face as well. But unlike with the sapling, it did not register for me.
"How? The thi... Dandel'lhia is gone. She's either dead or taken."
"You are a witch, are you not?"
"A former ivy-mother..."
"Then feel for them. I know you can."
"My magic does not work like that..."
"Dear, it does. As I might have said before, I am no expert on aelenvari. But I do know what an ivy-mother does. She's there to help out all those in her flower. She needs to be able to reach out for them. See if you can find his mother. Redeem yourself." she urges me as she shows off her own pathetic skills.
"Redeem myself...? No..." I mutter as I stand up. If I was to do that, I needed to appear before a council of Gilded-Barks. No one else would accept the burden of my admission otherwise...
"Dear, it's clear you care about the child. But he needs his mother." she urges once again as she places a hand on my shoulder.
"He does, yes." I say, fully aware of that fact as I hold my hand before my face. Staring at it for what seemed to be an eternity before my magic moved. My heart seemingly held a storm within its walls and my body trembled. And what came out of my palm was insignificant, but it flowed out gently.
"Is she...?"
"She is alive... The sapling's mother lives..." I breathe in relief despite who I was talking about.
"Then you can make amends, Dear."
"Y-Yes..." I say before I turn around to face where the magic was flowing towards.
"Okay, we're following it, then." the elderly woman says as we both get up and follow it. From out this place of hers and into the streets. All the way until we came upon a street full of roots playing pretend.
"She is within that place..." I comment as I stare at the place called Sweet Orchard.
"There are bad rumours going on about this part of town. You best be in and out as quickly as possible, Dear." she warns as she starts to take me back to her place.
"Why are you taking me back?" I ask as this meant distancing myself from Dandel'lhia.
"You need to rest, Dear." she tells me warmly as we walk upon her business once again. And I look down at the ground with uncertainty. It mattered more so that I just got this over with...