Theme 14: Bed of Roses (213 words)
"Ouch," King Endymion yelped as a sharp thorn sank into the skin on the back of his hand. Stopping to remove the thorn, he wished again that he had remembered his gloves. There were many gardeners he could call on to plant this flower bed for him, but he wanted to do this himself.
His and Neo-Queen Serenity's hundredth wedding anniversary was coming up tomorrow and he wanted to do something special for his sweet Usako. After one hundred years, he had bought her every gift he could think of. This idea had come to him a week ago when they had been wandering through Crystal Tokyo's botanical gardens. The queen had been spellbound by a simple bed of white roses. Three rings of roses had been overlapped with a small fountain bubbling in the center.
Now the king knelt in the dirt, planting roses in their private garden. He hoped that his Usako would be pleased with his gift. Patting the soil around the base of the last plant, he stood back to survey his work.
There, at the bottom of the curved grew a small ring of delicate white roses, each petal perfectly formed. Around these was another ring of larger velvety red roses, encircling the white roses like a husband's loving embrace.