CHAINED FLOWERS ( z. dragneel )

06 | "the monster"

It has been a long time. I cannot fathom how many decades it has been but you have blossomed.

She stumbles a little bit back. The deer spoke and animals speaking were not very uncommon in a continent filled with magic, but it was inside her mind. Like a parasite crawling across the flesh of her brain and invading her system.

I was something trifling to him that is why it was easy to cast me away, but you, you are different.

"You are speaking to me?"

"Esen, what's happening?" Zeref asks from behind her, worry lacing his voice.

You resemble her so much, I wonder why he let you dwell in this abominable place.

Creases surfaced in her forehead as Esen views the deer with inquisitive eyes. It's a deep blue like sapphires glinting underneath the moonlight. "What are you saying?"

Zeref's footsteps grow closer, thuds echoing in the silent forest, but Esen's eyes remain pinned on the majestic creature right in front of her. It breaks away from its marble like facade and for a moment there, Esen sees a grin, but she must have imagined it, because that was such a preposterous notion.

You have forgotten, child. The very threads that wove your destiny, the very stars aligning, the very essence of your being.

Let me remind you.

The deer moves closer and cuts her skin with its antlers. Esen endures the sensation coursing through her veins, but the next thing she knows, she has fallen to the ground while embracing the deer. Her eyes sag with every moment and they shut close.

She is walking in a hallway of white marble, the ceilings and columns around her made of ivory. Flowers adorn every column with intricate carvings.

She hears a voice and she runs. The marble floor feels familiar with her feet and she hears laughter escape her lips. More voices trail after her and she turns, climbing flights of marble stairs and giggling.

She whips her head back to survey her pursuers and she heads to the balcony after seeing them close. Nimbly, her feet climb the structure. Her pursuers are dressed in gosammer, their faces stricken with worry.

"Your mother will be worried, please."

Another round of laughter echoes throughout the compound and she readies to jump.

Then, a voice.

She sees a man walking toward them and his appearance, raven hair and dark eyes loom over her visage and her pursuers leave with a bow.

Startled, she falls from the structure and lands on the floor, her knees scratched in the process. Golden liquid drips from the cut and through the fringes of hair that fell on her face, she looks up.

He bends his knees to level with her and darkness emanates from his palms. It makes its way to her knees and begins eating away the blood. The wound closes by itself leaving her bewildered. She meets the eye of the man who places a hand on the top of her head.

"Caution yourself, my dearest," he says.

A smile forms in her lips, bright and gleaming. "Thank you, father!"

Yellow.

How the scene melds together like delicious sunny side-ups, like lake water being sucked into a vortex and yellow is the color of the sun up above, always watching and alone like Esen is— was. She thinks of Zeref. One  day, she will wake up and the yellow sunflowers will blossom and she will forget his name, let it be carried away by the river of time and there will be a new lover and he will be warm like sunlight slipping through the cracks in the walls and the windows.