Maiden of the Flowers
Bare feet pounded against the dirt as he ran, his lungs burning with exhaustion but the wind in his hair fueling him to keep going. He could distantly hear the voices of the guards he’d escaped calling to him but he ignored them as he continued to fly across the flower beds.
When he finally reached a large patch of open grass he broke out into as fast of a sprint as he could manage, savoring the fresh air around him and the feeling of freedom it brought with it. Eventually, his exhausted legs collapsed underneath him and he dropped none to gracefully to the ground next to a large oak tree. Despite how tired he was, he couldn’t stop a grin from splitting his face ear to ear and laughter from bubbling up in between his gasping breaths.
He knew he looked like a maniac, with grass and dirt stains on his short light purple romper and his long blonde hair a tangled, windblown mess against his back, but he didn’t care. He’d escaped his mother and his babysitters for now and he was gonna savor every minute of it.
Once he finally got his legs to work again he started walking towards the edge of the garden, his fingers tracing lazily against the trunks of the trees as he passed them. He could feel the life thrumming through the plants around him, and while it could get overwhelming sometimes, it was also nice. It reminded him that no matter where he went, he was never really alone.
This point was further proved when a familiar nymph suddenly dropped down from a branch right in front of him, causing him to shriek loud enough that the nymph had to immediately cover his ears. Once he was done screaming and finally registered not only who was in front of him but also that said nymph was currently laughing his ass off, he promptly punched him in the arm.
“Gods damn it Kamui, you shouldn’t scare me like that!”
“I’m- I’m sorry but, you should’ve seen your face!” The nymph gasped out between his strings of laughter. “They probably heard that, back at the main house. Ha! Absolutely priceless!”
“If they figure out where I am because of you I'll use your branches in the next bonfire!” The young god tried to threaten with as fierce and angry a look as he could muster. However, the nymph knew him far too well to take the threat seriously.
“Okay, okay sorry Hizashi. Just trying to teach you to always keep your guard up. You never know when a dangerous villain might attack a poor helpless flower like yourself.”
“Just because my mother refuses to let me learn how to fight does not make me a helpless flower! Plus, you and I both know that nothing more dangerous than a snake can get past the garden walls, which is why mother never lets me leave. The only thing dangerous here IS YOU!” On his last few words the young god pushed his friend hard enough to knock him over and then ran off, dancing through the trees.
The nymph chased after him, laughing as they played a short game of tag that quickly dissolved into wrestling across the grass. Eventually they collapsed next to each other, still panting and laughing while also looking much more wild from their game. There were leaves in his hair, mud on his face, and more stains then he could count on his clothes and legs but Hizashi was the happiest he’d felt in days while he laid in the grass next to his only real friend. Unfortunately for both of them the moment ended when they were interrupted by several flower guards walking through the brush and into their clearing.
“Persephone, there you are!” The captain of the guard announced before turning to address the younger guard next to him. “Tell Lady Demeter that the young lord has been found.”
With that, Kamui sprang to his feet and gave Hizashi a pitying look, “Welp, think that’s my que to leave.”
“Ugh,” The maiden of the flowers groaned as he also moved to sit up, throwing his best pleading look at his best friend, “Please don’t leave me alone here to die.”
“Oh please my lord, don’t be so dramatic. We simply have to take you back to your mother in the main house, she’s been worried sick about you.”
“When isn’t mother worried about me?” Hizashi retorted as he hauled himself to his feet, half heartedly brushing some stray grass from his clothes and only really managing to replace them with mud stains from his hands.
“Well no offence, mY LoRd” Kamui said with as much snark as he could muster, “but you are rather accident prone.”
“Only because I listen to your crazy plans too often you threat to peace and sanity!” Leaning down very quickly, Hizashi grabbed a handful of grass and threw it as hard as he could at his quickly retreating friend. Only a blade or two moved far enough to even slightly touch the nimble nymph but it was enough to finally send him on his way with a laugh.
Once he was gone there was no one to stop the guards from dragging Hizashi all the way back to the house. Fortunately, they allowed him to walk back with only a very close escort so he could retain at least some of his dignity. He mentally prepared himself for the all too familiar scolding he’d get from his mother for escaping his guards… again and the inevitable grounding he’d receive as punishment. Not like grounding him made much of a difference when he wasn’t allowed further then 15 feet from the house on a good day.
Gods he just wished for some freedom, some excitement, Zeus help him maybe even some adventure.
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To say that his mother was upset would be an understatement. After about 20 minutes of shouting about how stubborn and irresponsible he was acting Hizashi was pretty sure his mother was ready to chain him to her side so he couldn’t run away again.
He wanted to be annoyed by how much she was overreacting, but deep down he knew it was just because she cared about him. He was the only child to a habitual worrier who was absolutely obsessed with being a better parent then her parents had been, so even though he wasn’t 500 anymore, she was always gonna see him as her baby. Still, it didn’t mean he was content to live the rest of his exceptionally long life trapped in the same house he’d grown up in.
The main house and the gardens that surrounded it were absolutely breathtaking, but a gilded cage was still a cage, and he wanted more than anything to fly off and see the rest of the world.
His train of thought finally returned to it’s track at the same time his mother was finishing up her yelling the same way she always did: by reminding him the rules were for his safety and telling him she was only doing all of this because she loved him.
Just as he expected he was grounded and sent to his room to sit by himself until his diner was brought to him. He wasn’t sure if his mother had figured it out or not but being by himself was by far his least favorite part about being punished. He could handle being locked in his room and unable to leave as long as he imagined he was a princess from one of the fairytales he’d read, simply waiting for a knight to come and rescue him, but he hated being alone.
If there was no one for him to talk to then there was no point in talking at all, and if he wasn’t talking then he was just sitting in silence. His mind could come up with whatever dark and strange things it wanted to when things were silent.
He could imagine that his mother didn’t actually want him around because she loved him, but because he made the flowers bloom just by being around them and without him the garden would die. He could imagine that all the guards hated him because he was constantly running away and that one day a guard would push him out of a window so that he broke his leg and couldn’t run away anymore. His least favorite thoughts were always about what could happen to Kamui if someone dangerous ever did get into the garden. He knew humans were very fond of lighting fires, what if they decided to cut his tree down and actually use it for firewood?
Hizashi once tried singing as long as he could just to keep the silence away, but he’d lost his voice far before he ran out of terrible what if’s to think about.
With a familiar sort of resignation, Hizashi moved around his room putting books he’d finished reading back on their shelves and watering the many plants littering his room. He paused, his head half out the window he’d opened to water his outside flower box and stared out over the rolling fields nearby. He could still remember how freeing it’d felt to race across that field just a couple hours ago and his eyes slowly drifted up to the woods just beyond that.
The garden was laid out in a large ovular shape with the main house sitting in the middle, it was surrounded by the small gardens of rare flowers that Hizashi knew by heart from his allowed wanderings through their rows. Surrounding the rare gardens where the fields, large squares of corn, wheat, and even grass that where rotated every year to allow better growth. The next layer was the orchards and woods, home to dozens of nymphs from just about every kind of tree they could grow, and finally the much larger common gardens and the wall.
Hizashi had never actually been able to escape far enough out to make his way through the common garden and see the walls surrounding them but Kamui had described it before. Apparently it was a rather short wall, only coming up to about hip height, drenched in warding spells and protective magics that turned away any mortal before they could even get close enough to see the wall as more than a grey blur. Hizashi wanted to see it with every fiber of his being. He wanted to run his hands over the rough stones and walk all the way around the perimeter and beyond, but his mother’s words of warning echoed in his head. The outside world was dangerous, especially for a young god like him, he needed to stay behind the wall, the wall kept him safe.
Except, the wall only ever seemed to keep him safe from adventure and excitement and he was tired of missing out on seeing the world. So with a watering can in hand he vowed to the flowers around him that the next time we could break free he would make it to the wall, he would touch the stones his mother claimed kept him safe, and he would see the world his mother hid him from, even if he could only steal a glimpse.