The Rose



Gourry Gabriev walked out of the florist's in a joyful mood. Under his arms, he carried a bouquet of a dozen red roses. It was a beautiful gift to give his companion Lina Inverse over dinner that night.

"She's going to be so happy when I give these to her. Hopefully, I won't forget," he said to himself.

Along the way, he went to pick up a rose to smell it. Suddenly, he dropped the flower in pain. For Gourry had managed to prick his finger on a thorn, and was bleeding.

"Owwww. . .that hurt," he yelled, "And now the flower is ruined." But Gourry picked it up, and headed to find a healer.

* * *

The local healer worked wonders for Gourry's wound. But upon leaving, he forgot all the roses in the clinic. The only one left was the one he had dropped on the ground.

By the time Gourry realized what had happened, it was time to meet Lina for dinner. With no time left to retrieve them, he took the remaining rose with him to the fancy restaurant he had gotten reservations for. Lina stood in the door, waiting for him to arrive.

She inquired, "What took you so long Gourry? Did you manage to get lost in the town.again?"

"Ummm. . . yeah." He certainly didn't want to tell her about losing her roses in the clinic.

"Anyway, it's time to eat. Let's go inside and get some food," Lina stated.

* * * As usual, they each ate about 99.9% of the menu - - give or take .1%. With their recent good luck in the treasure department, Lina and Gourry could afford to eat like royalty and still have their usual portion size. After dinner, they had a large 10-tier cake for dessert.each.

In the middle of desert, Gourry pulled out the rose, and set it before Lina. "I would like to say, I'm sorry Lina. Originally, I had a bunch of them, but I sort of lost the rest. Only this one remains, and it's a mess. But please.accept this as a token of my love."

"Gourry," replied Lina, "Of course I'll take it. This one rose came strait from your heart. It's a lot like you, not the brightest of the bunch, but full of love all the same."

Gourry took a small box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside was a small diamond ring. He asked, "Lina, would you do me the honor of marrying me? Then, we can be together forever."

"Of course I will Gourry," answered Lina, "We'll never have to be alone, for we'll always have each other." Then, she leaned forward and Gourry gave her a loving kiss.

- - - -

This is a little story I had to write for a school assignment on brainstorming. We looked at a rose, and wrote our feelings about its meaning. Then I came up with this while I was changing my brainstorming exercise into a story.