Rose's Arc

Chapter 2 of 8

Dawn came gray and cold. Rose met Luna at the edge of the black pines, and the fairy led her into the twisting trees. They walked for hours. Then Luna landed on a stump and crossed her arms. "We're close," she said. "But I'll tell you now. The spirit turns away anyone who comes with empty hands. It expects a gift. You have nothing." Rose checked her pack. A flask. A crust of bread. A torn map. Nothing a spirit would want. Her chest tightened. Three days of walking, and she would fail at the door. "Then help me find something," Rose said. Luna shrugged. "That's not my job. My job was the path." A rustle came from the ferns. A small man stepped out, no taller than Rose's knee. He wore a floppy red cap and heavy boots. His beard bounced as he walked, and he hummed to himself, cheerful as a bird. He stopped when he saw them and grinned. "Lost, are we?" the little man said. "Everyone's lost out here." Rose knelt to his level. "I need a gift for the spirit. Something worth giving. Do you know of anything?" The gnome scratched his beard. "The spirit loves rare things. Pretty things." He pointed a stubby finger past the pines. "There's a flower that blooms once a year in the shadow of these trees. Blue as a summer sky. Grows near roots, low and hidden. The spirit hasn't seen one in an age." Luna's wings twitched. "That flower's guarded by thorns. You'll bleed for it." "Then I'll bleed," Rose said. The gnome led her off the path, humming again. He stopped at a knot of dark roots. Down in the shadow, one bloom glowed blue, the color of clear water. Thorns wrapped the stem like wire. Rose reached in slow. A thorn bit her thumb. Blood welled up. She gritted her teeth and pushed her fingers past the sting. She closed them on the stem and pulled. The flower came free. She held it up. The blue petals caught the weak light. Even Luna stared. "Well," the fairy said. "Now you have something." The gnome tipped his cap. "The spirit will look twice at that. But looking twice isn't saying yes." He winked and shuffled back into the ferns, humming as he went. Rose wrapped the flower in a scrap of cloth and sucked the blood from her thumb. She was no longer empty-handed. She had a gift rare enough to buy her a moment at the pool. But the gnome's words stuck in her mind. Looking twice isn't saying yes. She had earned the chance to speak. Now she had to find the right words, and she had no idea what a spirit would ask in return.