The story lives!
"By the Empire!" Maeraid woke to Berk's loud exclamation. She opened her eyes and gasped. Wisteria flooded her senses. The pink blossoms blanketed her body. The purple flowers were a barricade around her. The white blooms dangled above her head, brushing her cheek as they swayed in a breeze she couldn't feel. If it wasn't for Berk's continued tirade, she'd have thought she was still in a dream. "Blasted flowers have got me surrounded! Quit your laughing boy! General, something happened on your watch and I demand an explanation!"
Maeraid sat up and parted the wall of purple flowers, poking her head through. The first thing she saw was Arash looking at her. She saw in his eyes the shadows of something she couldn't name. As though she could sprout wings or disappear and it wouldn't surprise him in the least. There were no flowers around Arash.
Berk was pacing about. His bedroll was surrounded in flowers, broken and trampled. He was still exclaiming about waking up surrounded. She couldn't see Jekko but she could hear his laughter. Berk stopped pacing at last, pointing a finger at Arash. "Explain!"
Arash's eyes never left her face. "They came from her."
"From me?" her voice sounded awed, but not surprised. They were her flowers after all.
"Yes." He sounded strangely grateful, and exhausted.
Jekko suddenly appeared through a wall of flowers to her right. He ran over to the blossom window she held open and peered in at her bedroll, as though she had hidden secrets he might find there. "How did you do it, m'lady?" he asked in awe.
"Yes, I think we all deserve an explanation now, Miss." Berk crossed his arms and furrowed his bushy red eyebrows at her. Arash continued to stare at her with a blank expression.
Maeraid looked at the three of them waiting for an explanation. "I didn't...do anything," she finally stuttered, as much at a loss as the three of them apparently were.
"You said Wisteria was the flower of dreams," Arash remarked slowly.
She thought this over. She couldn't remember any dreams, just the pleasant sense of a night well slept. "That's what Gardener told me."
"And what else did the gardener tell you?" Berk asked gruffly. Every inch of his manner seemed to display his discomfort. Discomfort, she gathered, not so much with their situation itself, but with not understanding it.
"That Wisteria is...my flower." She said this quietly, unsure of what she was implying. For the first time she had real proof that Wisteria was more than just a flower she grew in her garden. But she was no closer to understanding what that meant.
Neither, apparently, were any of her companions. Jekko stared in awe, Berk looked dubious, and Arash thoughtful. Then Arash bent and began to pack up his bedroll. "Break camp, we move out," he said as though all had been settled.
"But General," Berk protested uneasily, "We don't know a whit about these – these – Wisteria. Assess the threat first, General. That's how you run a proper campaign. Assess the threat first."
"The threat," Arash countered, "is that someone will find us if we don't get on our way. Break camp. We can assess later, when we're on our way."
Jekko winked at Maeraid and ran to do as Arash ordered. Berk grumbled but began to pack up as well. Maeraid let her hand fall and the flowers closed around her. She packed up her bedroll. Slipping her hand into her bag, she fingered the book on Wisteria from Gardener's library.
"I don't think they're a threat," she heard Arash rebuke Berk's continued grumbling. Though she had found Arash thus far to be cautiously distrustful in all matters, he didn't seem to question the flowers. If she wasn't mistaken he even seemed grateful for them. And yet the flowers hadn't touched Arash.
Deciding to leave the book in her bag, she grabbed her pack and stood. As soon as she was on her feet the flowers retreated. As though pulled by the roots they all disappeared into the ground beneath her feet. Jekko's jaw dropped again and Maeraid cleared her throat awkwardly.
"Good," Arash commented. "We won't leave a trail." Then he turned and began walking. "Maeraid," he spoke as though calling a meeting to order, though he called from over his shoulder. "Berk has questions for you."
Maeraid looked at Berk as they began walking. He straightened up, trying not to show his surprise that Arash was letting him do the questioning. "Yes. The Wiseteria - " he paused, seeming not to know how best to approach the subject. He stuttered a bit, grasping at his beard and saying "well" over and over again indecisively until she began to feel awkward for him.
"It's never done that before," she offered. "But I've never slept outside before either."
"Right," Berk commented, trying to sound knowledgeable.
"I think we ought to ask Arash what happened," Maeraid stated. "He was the one who was awake after all."
"Yes," Berk agreed vehemently. "Arash, you were the one awake. What happened?"
Arash continued walking forward purposefully, as though his destination might lie around any corner. Maeraid was about to repeat the question when at last he spoke. "They protected you. I don't know how, and I don't know why."
"Protected us from what Arash?" She had the feeling Arash knew something about her flowers that she didn't know. She was determined to figure out what it was.
He stopped and turned to face them, a ferocity in his face that frightened her. "From the nightmares."
Berk walked with his eyes straight ahead, arms crossed in front of him. He was not pleased with the current state of affairs. He could hear Maeraid and Jekko whispering somewhere behind him, and the sound annoyed him. And as for Arash – he glanced at the man who was several yards ahead of the rest of them – well, he just wasn't turning out to be much of a general.
And he'd barely explained anything. Nightmares, he said. Chased him from his desert home all the way here. Killed his family. His entire tribe, maybe. It was never made quite clear. They chased him, and every twelfth night they killed somebody, which should've been him but for some reason they didn't abide by the rules with him and killed everyone he knew instead. It would've been them, if it weren't for the flower protection.
Flower protection – ha. Absurd phrase. Absurd happening. And of course, the girl couldn't explain it at all. His life was suddenly becoming filled with unexplainables. If it wasn't for the fact that he'd woken tangled in the stuff, he would have thought the rest of them all just needed a bit of help. He still rather thought so.
And in any case, none of this mess was helping him in his quest to rule the world. The Empire – that's what this was really all about. If it wasn't for the Empire, he might have up and left this crew immediately following that strange flower encounter.
But this man at the top of the world, if he existed, could help, perhaps. And he liked travelling – liked it more than anything else, except maybe giving orders. Well, no, not even that. Traveling the world – his empire – it was wonderful. It showed him what the world was really all about. The people, the terrain.
The terrain here was gorgeous. Green plains spread out to the horizon. Like a sea, but more visibly alive. The grass swayed in the wind with a rustling, whistling sound. Little wildflowers near the bottom of it, tiny splotches of pink and yellow. And butterflies like maple seeds, drifting through the breeze, then suddenly snap! They darted upward like tiny arrows.
Most people didn't notice all the details of the world. Or if they did, they just didn't care. He, Berk Benderdaster, of the Ludil Benderdasters, noticed. And he loved it. And that's why he was the one who was fit to rule it all. Someday, everyone else would understand.
He noticed, suddenly, that he was actually gaining on Arash. This was perhaps because Arash was no longer walking, or perhaps because, ultimately, he had much more stamina than Arash.
"What?" he asked, uncrossing and recrossing his arms when he reached the general.
Arash pointed; he looked and saw. A tower. He didn't know why he hadn't seen it before. It was right in front of them. Overgrown, though. Very overgrown with little crawling, vine plants so that it fairly blended into the grass. A bit taller than the grass, but still. Anyway, he'd been too concentrated on the details to pay attention to thinks like towers.
Maeraid and Jekko reached them now, glancing with wide eyes at the tower. He looked at all of them and cracked his knuckles. "Well, is this it then? The tower at the top of the world? I'd expected it to be a bit more...at the top of the world."
Arash glanced at him. His eyes had the sort of verging on murder look in them, but Berk wasn't fazed. In fact, this was the reason he still had some faith in Arash as a general. He could clearly give orders effectively. "This isn't it," Arash said. "It doesn't match the legend at all. The land's supposed to be lush. Full of every kind of plants and flowers. Not just this grass. It's just another tower."
"Maybe there is a princess in the tower!" Jekko said, clapping his hands together. "There are always princesses in towers! They are in all the stories I used to hear in my country."
Berk rolled his eyes at the boy. "Another princess. Just what we need."
"I'm not a princess!" Maeraid refuted, shooting him a dirty look, but he paid no mind. Lady, princess, it didn't matter. Nobles were all the same. Clearly, they needed a real leader in this situation. And he was just the man for that.
"I say we investigate," he said. "This may not be the tower we need, but it could have valuable information inside of it. Perhaps it's some kind of landmarker on the way to the real tower. We should definitely investigate."
Everyone looked at him, but nobody moved. He sighed and considered how young people really needed direction in their lives these days and began walking toward the tower himself. Hopefully, they would all follow. If not, well, it hardly mattered. If you wanted something done right, you had to do it yourself.
Everyone did follow, but rather behind him, and he reached the tower first. He crossed his arms at it and frowned and then stroked his beard a few times and walked around the whole of it. There wasn't a door.
Then he heard a voice. "Hello! Hello? Are you...a person? A real, live person?"
He blinked several times before looking up. And there she was. A girl. Leaning out a window. Blonde hair. He couldn't make out much else, given the height she was above him. Arash and Maeraid and Jekko were all coming up to him now, and he rather wished the girl would just go away; he didn't want Jekko to get the idea that he was right about the tower.
But of course, Jekko saw her and seemed to nearly jump out of his skin. "Look, look! I told you! I know about towers! She is a princess. See, see? Am I right?"
Berk frowned at the boy. "You don't know she's a princess, Jekko. Just because she's in a tower does not make her a princess."
"Excuse me," she said, in a light, airy sort of voice. "Are you all talking about me?"
He glanced up at her.
Jekko did the same, and asked, "Are you a princess, my lady?"
She laughed. "No! Not even a little."
"See, what did I tell you?" Berk said, turning to Jekko. "She's not a princess at all. We might as well leave."
"No, don't leave!" the girl said, loudly, with a sense of urgency. "Don't leave. You – not all of you, but you with the loud voice and crossed arms – you were the first one to see me. That means that you're the only one that can get me out of this tower. And if you do get me out and take me with you, wherever you're going, I'll bring you good luck!"