For the Rose

[false_kyllikki]

Kyllikki has moved the furniture in her room today, using all of her strength to press the bed into a corner and to move her boxes and her mirror while the Rose bathes and adorns herself. She has laid a soft rug on the floor so that it will not make their bare feet slip to walk it When the Rose returns, she will find the room quite ready for

Comments

[herfourthorns]

The Rose likes to take baths -- they remind her of being watered, the same cooling feeling against leaves or skin -- or perhaps of the earth coming up to embrace her roots, and now her whole body sinking to the bottom of the tub. It feels safe, somehow, to be covered in water, and sometimes she doesn't want to come out. But it it's never too long until she feels lonely and has to fancy herself insulted that no one has thought to keep her company; with wounded vanity and braided hair, perhaps she'll deign to come out.

[herfourthorns]

She looks shy herself, not sure if she's done it correctly -- that's why her little prince ran away, after all, because he never knew how she loved him, she never knew how to show him. Perhaps if she'd known how to dance, how to kiss ... but that's a silly thought, now, and it makes her pale cheeks blush.

[false_kyllikki]

And she looks so sweet, so shy (so lost, and one can never forget that everything is foreign to her here), that Kyllikki tightens her hands on the Rose's and presses the smallest of kisses to her cheek.

[herfourthorns]

"You must dance with me more often," she says after a moment, trying to make herself sound more regal through a command (but it's too much like a plea).

[false_kyllikki]

"Oh, every day, if you wish me to--! And I will teach you the steps to the dances of Saari, and we will dance them together on the grass ..." Her eyes are shining at the idea, not concerned at all with whether she has been commanded or entreated.

[herfourthorns]

And it's undeniably beautiful, the way her eyes shine, the way her voice flows full with hope ... The Rose could almost kiss her again ... ! But she simply smiles, and perhaps she's still shy. "Oh, then teach me everything, take me everywhere ... you must, really, you must! I won't be left behind. "

[false_kyllikki]

"And I would not leave you." She dances a few, hesitant steps again, unsure whether to dance more, and then offers softly, "Would you come to eat with me, flower?"

[herfourthorns]

"What shall we eat ... ?"

[false_kyllikki]

Oh, dear--! She has never really thought about what flowers might eat. "What have you eaten since you became a human, flower?"

[herfourthorns]

"Water, and the fruits of other trees, sometimes, from his ..." It's strange to call him by a name -- the world she came from was too small to need names, only one boy and one rose. "From Percy's garden."

[false_kyllikki]

"Then we will eat fruit and honey, and milk. This place is so rich; there is enough for all here--!" She takes the Rose's hand, swinging it just a little, to take her downstairs (and isn't it a marvel, that the Rose can walk down stairs now so much more easily? Almost more a marvel than dancing). At the door, though, she pauses, and realizes that although she doesn't mind that the Rose is wearing little, others might. "But you must dress first, flower ..."

[herfourthorns]

Sweetly, proudly, "I braided my hair."

[false_kyllikki]

She laughs in pleasure at that, taking the braid in her hands and looking over it. "You did--! And it is very fine, flower. Would you ..." and she tries to use the Rose's words "... arrange yourself, in a dress, to suit your hair?"

[herfourthorns]

"Oh, I must ... ! I must, and I shall look so pretty, and you even prettier for being seen with me ..."

[false_kyllikki]

"I will," answers Kyllikki immediately. "You make me smile so, and smiling makes a woman ever so lovely ..."

[herfourthorns]

"Does it?" She laughs, and gives a little twirl on her feet. "You are lovely, for a woman ... even if your petals all yellow like a sunflower's, you have a face something like a rose ..."