Private Tales He Who Poses with the Flowers

[Olyssa]

It had been centuries since she had been here.

Spring.

Olyssa let her fingers trail through the waist high tulips as her mind wandered back through the years. A being as old as she, it took time for those cogs to turn, to remember, but eventually they came back as clear as though they had been yesterday. Younger and in love, at the start of her career as a beastologist and determined to discover every unknown creature within this part of the world. She'd been struck with the symmetric beauty between this court and her own, and how together they brought a necessary balance the world as a whole. Now she was wiser, had several books under her belt and was respected in her field amongst the fae kind. Had her opinions changed? Not really, but they had lost their rosy edge, and now she saw the danger and the sharp thorns sometimes before the beauty of something.

Today, however...

The small sidhe brushed past the tulips to the faerie pool beyond; a series of small rocky outcrops that held the rainwater that had fallen the night before. The sweet petrichor had faded and left behind a clear crispness that filled the lungs and woke the senses. Today she intended to reconnect with that lost youth and spend today not looking into the darkness she had been sent here to destroy, but to enjoy the beauty in even the smallest of creatures. Rummaging in her satchel she eased off her shoes and then sat down on one flat rock that was mostly in the sun. At this time of year it was not the blazing hot of summer but still warm enough that she gave a contented sigh when it began to seep into her skin. She took her time in setting out her things - the paints and brushes and inks - then, casting her eyes around, she sought out her muse for the day.

* * *

He Who Chews The Flowers​

 

[He Who Chews The Flowers]

A shattering howl broke through the wood that lay beyond Olyssa’s gaze. One that spoke of hundreds of years of agony. A complete diversion from the serenity found in the faerie pool.

Birds flew into the sky in panic from the monstrous screech. A twisted, mangled voice that reverberated from the trees and foliage acted as an impending threat to the quiet and peace this frail grotto offered. The willows and oaks shook from the gravity being thrown about by whatever menace walked in its plane.

He Who Chews The Flowers, a beast of misfortune and lost history, sprinted unwittingly toward the pool. He didn’t know it was there. He didn’t know where he was at all. Flowers just knew he was scared. Scared of his own head that would not leave him be. The voices that spat vileness throughout his skull.

ABANDONED HER
WORTHLESS CUR
ROT WILL STIR IN YOUR MATTED FUR
COMES SOON THE DAY THAT YOU WILL BURN ​

And so the creature ran, unsure of what to do. Panting and howling as a wordless plea to be left alone. The trees bent side to side as he pushed them out of his way with his tremendous might.

His leg caught at the edge of the wood, and He Who Chews The Flowers clumsily exploded from it, falling face first into the faerie pool.

He rolled over and put his hands to his ears, unaware of the faerie who had intended to pain prior to his intrusion.

“Leeeeavvveeee me beeeeeeee pllllllewwaaasssseeeeee.”

He begged, to seemingly no one.

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa's head snapped up at the distant sound of crashing trees growing steadily louder and, apparently, heading in her direction. The sidhe, despite being small and slight, had taken thorns from the paws of the Jabberwocky and had tended to the young of the volatile Hresh birds. She did not shirk from danger. Especially not when it sounded as though a creature of some kind were in pain. With care she set aside her sketchbook and had just slid it back into the protective leather satchel when the beast revealed itself and sent water flying everywhere as it crashed into the rocks and weeds.

Soaking Olyssa in the process.

Hissing out a breath through clenched teeth she pushed her now sodden hair back from her face and tried to force the thought of how cold the water was from her mind. Instead, she took in the creature at her feet. At his words she also glanced about the clearing but there was... well, no-one.

"There's nobody here," she soothed very softly and with caution descended from her perch to the pools. "This is a place of peace, you are safe, friend."

 

[He Who Chews The Flowers]

ARBITRARY NOTHINGNESS
A CURSE YOU ARE, MEANINGLESS
RETURN TO THE STONE FROM WHENCE
SO YOU MAY BEGIN YOUR PENANCE ​

The words of the stranger were barely heard as the sounds of that violent, endless song continued to betray his reality. The beast did not thrash now that he was in the pool, he instead covered his eyes and weeped his tearless sob. He was currently incapable of calming down as his hands trembled against his damaged deer skull.

His knees brought up to his mighty chest, Flowers looked a fetus in his cowardly position. His fear permeated in the air despite the calming nature of the place he found himself.

“Maaaakkeee thhheemmmm stoooooppppp.”

 

[Olyssa]

Olyssa's hands fluttered just above the creatures skin as she debated how she could help. Her magic had wonderous benefits but none of them would be much use here without knowing what it was that ailed the thing. She cast another look around and did a more thorough check to rule out something physical and once she was convinced it must be an ailment of the mind she shifted her small statue to crouch beside Flowers' head.

"Let me try," she pleaded softly, for matters of the mind never worked unless the patient was willing on some level to receive help, and gently pressed her fingers to his temple. Taking a breath she then closed her eyes and delved into the consciousness she could feel beneath her hands.

 

[He Who Chews The Flowers]

Flowers did not want to refuse the nice lady. She was like the lady with wings she met. Kind without his deserving of it. His crumpled form expanded slowly and a large hand extended towards her in a pleading manner.

The creature did not display any hostility or desire to harm Olyssa, could she sense it. Much more like a child lost in the woods without a parent. Afraid and confused about its blight.

DIE ALONE YOU WRETCHED BEAST. ​

The song was losing strength but its volume was still eruptive.

“Plllleeeaaassseee.”

 

[Olyssa]

"I'm trying," she murmured softly as she tried to pick her way through his consciousness. It was a dark maze she had not travelled before but she decided to follow the thrumming sense of despair that beat to the tune of a song she couldn't quite hear. Perhaps the poor thing had been bewitched by another and driven into insanity. Or... it was something darker. Olyssa drew her lip between her teeth as she pushed on.

Like a golden light she tried to give off only warmth and pleasant feelings as she travelled through his mind on towards the source where the song was strongest.

 

[He Who Chews The Flowers]

The song continued, just slower. He couldn’t make out the words anymore either, which he was grateful for. Flowers could not feel the traversing of Olyssa. She waded through his cloudy mind without interference from the beast.

His weeping becoming distant while she made her way in, and eventually she would hear it. It was much less a song and more a hateful poem. It was shouted from a form a ways off. An older male.

Yet the voice was that of a younger female.

 

[Olyssa]

"Hateful, hateful words," Olyssa tutted and her brows drew down into a deep frown. Was this the source of all this pain? In her physical body her hands gently released their soft hold on his head and her fingers began to dance and weave. Similar, inside the creatures mind she copied the motions though she did not really need to in here. Threads of gold and green magic wove together to create a shrine of sorts in the very centre of Flowers' mind. To her psychic eye what appeared to be a grove took shape in a desolate desert. Trees and fauna, a gentle spring, song birds. The noises of calm tranquillity which would shield this poor dear from the sounds of hate that plagued him so.

"There, sweet child. Hush now..."

 

[He Who Chews The Flowers]

The voice continued to dampen as the magic formed its mosaic inside his troubled mind. In tandem, his body reacted as such. Flower's breathing became slowly steadier. His appendages ceased their shaking. He as a whole welcomed the calming magic and thus it worked doubly against him.

Outside, his hand clenched against a fistful of the rocks that lay in the pond. He squeezed them tightly as it gave him something to hold. He could not hold a human, or whoever this was, in fear that he may decimate their body in the process.

"I waaaaasssss noooooot owwwweeddd thiiisssssss kindnesshhhhhh. Thhhhhaaankkkk youuuu."

 

[Olyssa]

"We do not have to be owed in order to receive," Olyssa intoned with the weight of a being who had been alive for centuries, who had herself suffered moments where she believed herself to be beyond deserving of kindness herself. With care she removed her hands from his monstrous head. Her body, whilst small, was tougher than a humans owing to what she was but she had not survived this long chasing fantastical beasts across the land by being reckless and arrogant.

"One day, you can pass the kindness on. That is all I ask," it was what she had been told by the woman who had brought her back from death. At times she found it hard to adhere to the teaching but perhaps now, here, she had finally met that debt. It made her feel lighter. "I know not how long it might last, demons of the mind..." she pursed her lips. "They are things only you may fight. When you are stronger, perhaps."