Chrysanthemums For You [A Twisted Wonderland Fanfic]

Chapter 1

My mother called me Spring. She named me for the season of my birth. 

My father called me Breeze, for the wind that had embraced me upon my birth. 

My brothers called me Sister, for I was their only. 

My friends called me Flower, after the blossoms that appeared on my mother's windowsill the morning of my birth.

But my true name was the one no one used. It was the one that Nisi had given me.

"Spring! Spring, where are you darling?"

A young girl looked up from her book, peering through the shadows of the willow to her small house at the edge of the forest. Her mother stood at the door of the cottage, wiping her hands on the apron around her waist. The checkered fabric fluttered in the breeze and the girl smiled at the familiar sight. Her mother had just finished baking something, no doubt, and would be expecting her and her brothers home soon.

The girl pushed herself up from the world and slipped a dried flower between the pages of her book. She had just gotten this book from one of her friends, and she was greatly enjoying it. The story of the daughter of a goddess and a legendary god who fought to hold onto their forbidden love. She did not quite understand why these stories were her favourite, and yet, whenever Wind brought her another one, she fell in love with the stories all over again. The stories of forbidden love, where the two were forced to fight just to hold each other. Wind always called her a romantic, and she couldn't disagree.

"I'm coming, Mother," the girl called. Her bare feet skimmed along the ground beneath, flowers blossoming at the touch of her skin. Her dress seemed to flutter around her ankles and legs as she moved, as though the wind was stirring up the light fabric. 

"Call your brothers, please," her mother said, turning to return to the house. 

The girl turned to the fields that stretched beyond her little farmhouse. Her brothers, three in total, were working in the fields of wheat with their father, toiling beneath the heat of the sun. No doubt Sun was watching their every move, ensuring that Storm did not hinder their work. 

From the small bag that hung at her side, held by a simple cord of rope, the girl pulled out a whistle, carved to the form of a dove, and pressed her rosy lips to the end. She gently blew into the musical instrument, signalling to her family that the day was over, and it was time to come in for supper. Sun would be leaving soon and would allow his twin, Moon, to take over for him. 

"Brothers," she called. "Father!"

"Coming, sister," her brothers answered, as they always did. They hoisted up their bundles of wheat on their shoulders and tied them tight, before picking up their sickles and walking through the marks of their harvest to where their sister was waiting for them on the bridge. As they reached their sister, they bent and placed a kiss on her cheek, thanking her for summoning them home after a long day in the fields. She returned the gesture and kissed each brother on the cheek before sending them off to the barn. They would have to ensure the wheat would last the night before they could go have supper.