Gerda sat alone by her window, waiting for Kay. Waiting and crying and wishing he would come, but in her heart she knew he wasn't coming back. "Then I will go and look for him!" she shouted to no one in particular. She went outside to the streets, looking for the best place to start her search, when suddenly a horrible thought entered her head.

"Oh, he's dead, isn't he!"

"I don't believe it."

Gerda turned quickly to look for who had said it. The only other person nearby was a pretty lady with hair so bright it almost looked like the sunshine. She smiled and nodded at Gerda.

"He is dead and gone!" she fretted some more.

"We don't believe it!"

Two children dressed in brown, climbing trees waved at her. Gerda hurried on by, feeling quite unsettled.

"But, what if he's fallen in the river! Perhaps—perhaps the river will bargain with me." She walked the short distance to the river and stood looking out at it from the muddy shoreline. "I want Kay back," she called to it. "I'll give you my new shoes!"

Her shoes were brand new. Her mother had gotten them for her just a few days ago. They were bright red and still quite shiny with hardly any wear.

"I know they're a bit muddy right now, but the water will wash them off." She took them off, her anxiety for Kay hardly even letting her relish in the way the mud squished between her toes, and through them into the river.

Gerda was a rather small girl, so her throw didn't get the shoes far. The fell a small ways from the surf and quickly drifted back in. She went to pick them up and threw them as hard as she could. Again, they drifted back in. One third attempt came up with the same results.

"The river has nothing to give you in return," said an old man. Gerda was a bit frightened at first, but then when she really looked at him, she saw that he looked rather like Santa Clause, with his snowy white beard and merry smile.

"Please, sir, I'm looking for my friend. I'm afraid he may have drowned," Gerda said.

"And you thought that by giving the river your shoes, it would spit him back up. Well, little girl, the river won't take your shoes; it must not have your friend. You must look elsewhere. I wish you the very best of luck on whatever adventures you may find. In fact, you'll fair a good deal better if you have an efficient way of traveling. That there is my boat," he said waving a hand at it. "You can take it if you wish."

"Oh, thank you very much!" Gerda said, warmly, running down the bank and hopping into it.

Gerda sat in the boat for a long time, just letting the current take her where it chose. After drifting for a time, the sides of the bank became prettier and prettier until she was in a blossoming cherry orchard. Then, further down, she saw a strange looking house. It was all painted bright red with azure blue windows. It had gardens all around it with every sort of flower you could imagine.

By this time, Gerda was drifting very fast down the river, and she could see many rocks sticking out of it just a small ways further down from where she was. Gerda was very frightened and wished very much to leave the river and be on dry ground.

"Somebody, please, help me!"

Out of the house came an old woman, with long white hair, wearing a bright yellow dress and big heart with all flowers painted all over it. She was leaning on two wooden crutches, and she looked quite surprised to see Gerda.

"Dear child! How did you get here all by yourself? Come, tell me your name and your story," she said, coming a ways into the water and extending a crutch to Gerda, who grabbed it and jumped out of the boat, wading in to shore.

Gerda watched the boat swiftly get slammed up against the rocks and she felt very, very small. The old woman guided Gerda to a wooden bench where they sat down and Gerda told her tale. "Have you seen him? Have you seen Kay?" she asked the old lady.

"No, sweetheart, I have not. But I'm sure he cannot be far. I have always wished for a pretty maiden like you to stay with me. If you do, perhaps your friend Kay will pass by this way," she answered.

"But—but shouldn't I keep searching for him?"

"But child, what if you left and he came here, then you would miss him altogether." Saying this, she led Gerda into the house. The light came in through the windows and split into all the colors of the rainbow and there was a large bowl of cherries, the most delicious in the world, and she told Gerda she could have as many as she wanted. She combed out Gerda's long golden curls and Gerda began to forget about finding Kay, for the lady was fairy-descended and her soft singing magically made Gerda forget her past.

Then the lady went outside, leaving Gerda to the cherries. She stretched out her wooden crutch and made the flowers grow to incredible amounts. There were all of the flowers, except roses. She did not want Gerda to think of home, and her rose garden and Kay, for she wanted Gerda to stay with her.

"Gerda, dear, come and look at the flower garden," she called into the house.

Gerda came and smiled at all the flowers and played in them for a long while. There were all the flowers she could ever think of that bloomed in any season of the year. She loved the flowers so well that she decided she would stay with the strange old woman. So the woman gave her a room with a bed with crimson colored pillows and a bedspread embroidered with violets of many colors. Gerda was very happy and stayed there from the time when she was ten until she was fifteen. She grew into a lovely young lady and many suitors sought after, though she disliked her attention.

"Gerda, I love you so deeply, I think we are soulmates, meant to be together from the beginning of time. Will you marry me?" the young man, kneeling at her feet asked Gerda.

"But sir, you've only known me for three days!"

"And those three days have been the best of my life!"

Gerda shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. "Sir, I—I'm sorry, but I don't know you."

"That's alright, we'll get to know each other."

"Gerda! Gerda!" Gerda was glad to hear her adopted mother calling for her.

"I must go," she said quickly to the young man, running for the house.

"Another of those young men after you?" the lady asked.

Gerda made a face. "He thinks we're soulmates. I hate suitors, they all want to marry me, but I—I feel like I was made for someone else," she laughed, "now I'm starting to sound like them, saying I was made for someone else. I don't know, I'm just starting to feel so—restless here."

"Hmm," the woman said. "Well, I'll go get rid of him for you."

"Thank you," Gerda said, and as the woman was going out the door she happened to look at her hat, the one with the flowers on it, she was wearing it again, and Gerda saw that the prettiest flower was the rose. Gerda frowned, trying to think of what it was. "Roses," she said finally, but she could not recall seeing one in the garden ever.

So she went out into the gardens and searched through them all, but roses were nowhere to be found. At the end of her searching she was feeling very frustrated and started to cry. Then out of the ground, watered by her tears, sprang a beautiful rose bush. "Oh!" she said in delight, but then she remembered her gardens at home and playing with Kay.

"Oh no, I've stayed here far too long, it will be impossible to find him now!" She cried for a long time until she fell asleep in the gardens. "Do you think he is dead?" she asked of the roses, though she did not expect an answer.

Out of the roses sprung a lovely maiden dressed all in rose red. "We have been dead in the ground," she said, "but Kay was not their with us."

"But who are you?" Gerda asked her.

She simply smiled and faded back into the rose petals. Gerda looked around and saw that there were several of these maidens all dressed in the color of the flower they were sitting next to.

"Have you seen Kay?" she asked to a tiger lily maiden.

"Hark, do you hear the drum? Turn, turn. The Hindoo widow, in scarlet robes, at the body of her husband, consumed in flames. Her son, who lit the fire. Can heart's fire be extinguished by the ashes?"

"I—I don't understand," Gerda stammered, but the maiden drifted into her flower, just like the rose-maiden.

Gerda asked an innocent looking girl dressed in white, standing by the snow-drops, "Have you seen Kay?"

The girl smiled and closed her eyes. "A swing hanging from a tree. Two little girls dressed in white with green ribbons that flutter from their golden hair. Their brother standing nearby, blowing bubbles that glisten like the rainbow. A little black dog wants to swing, but he cannot. The bubbles burst. This is what I see."

Gerda nearly gave up then, but she decided she would ask the hyacinth lady if she had seen Kay. "Three maidens, dressed in red, blue, and pure white. They dance in moonlight by the lake. Attracted by the fragrance, they disappeared into the forest. Three coffins that maidens lie in, glide across the lake. Fire-flies float around them. Do they sleep, or have they died? Bells toll as they drift away."

Gerda felt very sad. "Dead maidens, so Kay is dead then? The rose-maiden said it was not so."

"I tell not of Kay, I know him not. This is my story as I see it in my dreams, it is what I know of life," the hyacinth lady told her, before drifting back into her flower.

Gerda looked at the other flower maidens, but she had not the heart to speak to them. "I must go, I cannot wait any longer. I must find Kay." She walked to the edge of the garden, where she found a gate. "Open," she said to it. "I go to find my beloved." It swung open for her and she went through.

Outside of the flower garden she found that the leaves were falling from the trees and all of the plant-life was dying. Only the garden had been bloomed, for it bloomed all year long. Gerda felt very small and alone and the world looked very dark and bleak. Still, she pushed forward for she knew she had to find Kay, years had passed, and she could sit and wait any longer.

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Does anyone actually like this story, cause I've had 71 hits and only one person has reviewed, it kind of makes me wonder... So if you do like it and want me to keep writing it, I would appreciate a review!