Danceing with the Dead
A ear periceing scream and splash came from the lily pond garden. Rose being the oldest sister of tweleve ran towards it. Her firery red hair flying behind her and her vivide green eyes showing worry. He rpale pink lips were pressed into a tight line she got closer she saw her 10 sisters laughing at the third youngest whom was getting out of the water shivering. Her normally brown hair was almost black being soaked. Her skin was paler and showed off her now rosey checks and nose brightly. She was very mad. Rose and maids ran towards the freezeing girl with blankets. She was shivering vilently. It was in the middle of fall for crying out loud! Her twin, Dafidil tried her best not to laugh.
"Who pushed Lily?" Rose asked. All the girls were deadly silent. The only thing that could be heard was Lily's chattering teeth. "If you wont tell me I'll have to give you all extra lessons on how improper it is to not tell the truth and to push people." She simply stated emphising on the word all. The girls groaned in complaint. Daisy, the second oldest, raised her hand, head bowed in shame.
"I did it." She said. Rose sighed. It was always Daisy. She led Daisy to their room that they all shared. Daisy daily pulled a prank or joke somehow, but she could also be serious.
After her lecture, Rose made Daisy write a letter aplogizeing and stateing how wrong it was of her to do such a thing to poor Lily. After this was done Rose walked toward the now moon lite garden. Rose loved flowers, just like the girls mother. That was how they all got heir names. Each end every one of they were named after a flower; Rose, Daisy, Dafidil, Lily, Violet, Tulip, Honey Suckel, Clover, Sunflower, Morning glory, and Sakura. Rose sighed solomnly. She hated getting on to her sisters, but it was their mothers dieing wish for her to make them all into proper ladies.
As Rose walked towards the fountain in the middle and by the forest by their castle, a littel old gypsy lady popped up infront of her.
"My dear! What on earth are you doing out here on this cold fall night?" She asked crakely voice. Rose studied the woman. Her hair and face were hidden by a dark green cloack. She wore a brown dress that was almost completely hiddden by the cloack.
"Well, this is my fathers garden." Rose said calmly. The old woman laughed. Rose eyed her wearly and was aske what was so funny when the woman spoke again.
"My dear, do you like to dance?" She asked.
"Why, yes it is a very fun activity that enjoyable for proper young ladies." Rose said.
"Are you a proper young lady?"
"Yes, I will be nothing less then what I was born to be; a proper young lady."
"Do you enjoy walking under the moon at night?"
"Yes, it is very peaceful and relaxing." Rose said and looked up at the stars.
"Your father has killed 10 men in the past. They all range from different ages. You father will kill any man that can't find you." The woman said in an almost serious tone. She began to walk away; disappering into the shadows of the trees.
"Find me? Where will they be if they are not in the castle with me? A young lady does not need to be traveling without a gaurd or word to their father or mother." Rose was very confused. Worry, fear, and dread danced in her eyes with the shimmering stars. A deep frown was set on her lips.
"Why, you'll be danceing under the stars with your 10 dead men in the garden of life! Where else do you expect to be?" The woman's voice faded with her face.
"What? I don't understand?" Rose said running in the direction the woman disappeared in. She was gone. Not a single footprint or any sign of life left behind.
Suddenly her body acted of its own a-cord. She was forced to walk deeper into the forest untill she could not see the castle any more. Her feet kept on moveing without her say. With a jerk they stopped infront of a huge boulder. The boulder began to crack and split revieling a staircase that when down. Her feet began to walk down the steps. It soon grew to dark to dee where excutally see where she was going. Her feet still moved down the steps; one by one, down, down, down into the unknown. Not five minutes in the darkness, light soon began to reviel that the steps had turned from stone to gold.
When she reached to bottom, the grass was silver, kissed by ealry morning dew, that moved ever so slitely in the light wind. She began to walk past golden trees with golden leaves. She looked at all the different veriaties of trees. There was apple trees with golden apples, orange trees with silver and gold oranges, and sakura trees with bronze sakura flowers. She realised that she was in a orchard of trees. She looked up missing the stars and gasped. A floating silver mini-moon was surrounded by stars that where spining and circleing it. It looked as if they were danceing around it. It was truely a beautiful sight and magical place.
Gasps and giggles were heard behind her. Her feet made her turn around. Her 11 sisters were looking around in awe as the trees giggled with amusement. She waited for her sisters to catch up with her. They began to walk to what looked like a clear right in the middle of the orchard.
As soon as their feet touched to silver grass in the clearing circle they began to dance. Looks of awe, couriousity, and dread were painted on their faces.
10 young men from the ages of 13 to 18 walked out of the trees. they began to dance with the girls. Only Rose and Daisy, the oldest and youngest, did not have a danceing partner. The young mens skin was a pale as the stars and their eyes were closed as if they were sick and resting.
Rose and her sister were falling asleep while danceing. Theier feet were still moveing, but their heads were hung. If you were looking from a distence it would look as if 10 young couples were danceing in their sleep with 2 girls danceing in circles around them. They were all in a perfect rotating pattern.
After about a week of vanishing in the night their father grow frustrated and asked for men from all over to try and find them. After a month of this and no one finding anything he threaten to kill whom ever could not find them. One man was a brellent tracker and had a fancy for Daisy, so he took a shot at looking for her, even if dieing was to consicince for not finding her. He would follow Daisy all day and attempt to follow her at night. He failed the first three days. Their father had given him a week to find them. He begged for Daisy to tell him where they went. She tried to tell him and lost her voice for a whole day. they could not tell the secret and could not say a thing about danceing. His time ran out before they could even proper learn his name.
As a punishment for vanishing inthe night all girls were forced to watch as the man had been beheaded by their own father. Daisy had cried non-stop and repeated about how much of good hearted sweet man he was. After a week of greiveing and danceing with her young tracker she began to become more active as usall. She pulled pranks and joked, but she still had that dead look that had dulled even more over the past week in her eyes. You could still tell that she loved that man even if her was dead and they could only be togeather at night when danceing. Unlike Rose, the girls beganto call the curse a blessing, even Daisy began calling it that after being pursuraded by the younger sisters.
Every night poor Rose was the only princess without a danceing partner. Her sister had begone to love their danceing partners, even if they were dead and they never said a word. Rose began to despise danceing and grown very moody. Her mood effected her work at the castle and her sisters. She bgan to yell and grow irritated easily toward her sisters and the maids. She was very touchie about the subject of danceing.
Rumor of the curse on the girls began to spred across the kingdom. Their fathers hair turned white from the stress of them vanishingand the war with the other surrounding kingdoms for power.
One day a young man of bearly the age of 20, came to the castle and said that he would free the girls of their curse. His name was Jack. Jack had been in the war and loved to tell the girls of the his fantastice adventures on the front line. That first night Rose wanted to tell him about the danceing and the gardenof life, she told her sisters of this.
"What! Why would you tell him tis! This is a blessing not a curse!" Daisy had yelled on their was to the boulder.
"Do you not see the pain and worry we put on father? Do you not seet that that man will die trying to find us?" Rose demanded. Daisy was taken-back by this. "I cannot watch another innocent man die for us. He has told us nothing but the truth, so why should we keep this a secret from him? Why should we watch another man die in pain and suffer for not nowing the truth."
"If I didn't know any better, Rose, I would say that your in love." The youngest, Sakura, stated planly. All the girls, but Rose giggled.
"What! Don't be redicilous! Rose would never fall in love! She's too square!" Daisy said in a fit of laughing. Rose looked away. She didn't want o fight with her sisters about a man and how she loved him or not.
That very same night, while they danced, Rose felt as if she were being watched all night. She heard a twig snap. She twisted around to see nothing in the trees.
The next morning the girls awoke to their fathers booming voice as he burst into the room.
"Explain what this is!" He demanded. He held out his hand which held a golden twig and silver leaves from the tree orchard in the garden of life. Eleven of the girls paniced. Rose looked at the door where Jack stood, looking intently into the room.
"It's simple, father," Rose spoke up. "we had a curse that made us dance at night with eleven dead men you've killed." Their father stared at them astonished. He was about to speak before Rose quickly cut him off. "The curse is gone now. Sir Jack has freed us. We shall never again dance with the dead. I'm very grateful. Thank you, kind sir." She said standing, ignoring her aching feet, which was caused by dancing all night.
"Rose! You can't be serious. Being this not a curse, but a blessing." Daisy spoke, shocked.
"So you'd like to call the curse that killed all those men, including your suitor, a blessing?" Rose asked, daring her sister to agree.
A flash of mental pain swept over Daisy. She blinked back unshed tears.
"No! It's indeed a curse!" Daisy whispered as she held her tears. All the girls soon agreed and rose to courtsey before Jack.
"So it's final! Sir Jack will marry any girl whom he chooses." Their father said. "Whast will your choice be?" He asks Sir Jack. Jack stared over all the girls. Only four girls were of legal age to marry; Rose, Daisy, Dafidil, and Lily, all the ages of sixteen to eighteen. Jack already knew whom he wanted. She was brave and motherly towards her sisters.
"The eldest, Rose, seems like she'd make a wonderful wife. Don't you agree?" Jack said smiling. Rose was surprised be Sir Jacks choice. She was sure he'd choose Daisy, for her sun blond hair, or Dafidil, for her being the eldest twin, or, even, Lily, for her crystal blue eyes. Never the less, she areed to the marriage. After the wedding they rode off into the sunset in a white and gold carriage and lived happily ever after... Or did they?
The End