31 Days

19 - Collect

Warning(s): none

"We'll be arriving in Geneva shortly," a voice announced over the intercom, first in French, then German, then in English.

Allison had picked up a little bit of the languages in her time in the beautiful country of Switzerland. She understood the announcement in all three languages, but it barely registered in her mind. She was mostly excited to visit the beautiful town of Montreux near Lake Geneva. She'd heard about the beautiful flowers in the town and surrounding areas, and she wanted to collect enough flowers to make a flower crown.

She put away her sketchbook and held her bag tightly in anticipation.

Several minutes later, the train came to a stop at the station. She hopped off the train excitedly and began the process of finding a way to get to Montreux. She took her luggage to a nearby hotel and checked in, where she was given a free public transit pass that waived all transit fees for the duration of her stay. She had barely gotten her luggage in her room before she took off again in search of a means to reach Montreux. She finally found a train that was departing soon that would take her directly into the city after asking a couple locals and set off happily.

The day was half over when she reached the picturesque town on Lake Geneva. She smiled as she entered the town, already feeling like she belonged there. She wanted to wander the streets, but knew she could do that after sundown. Right now, it was time to find flowers.

Allison asked around a little and found a place to rent a bike for a couple hours.

"Sightseeing?" the shop owner asked.

"You could say that," she said with a kind smile.

"Well, have fun!"

"Thank you, sir!"

With that, she set off, reaching up every now and then to make sure her sunhat was secure.

She hiked aimlessly for a while on a road leading out of town. Within twenty minutes, she'd found a field of beautiful white and pink flowers. A woman stood in the field near the road. Allison got off her bike and propped it up, then walked towards the woman, who greeted her with a gentle grin.

"Good afternoon, ma'am!" Allison ventured in French.

"Good afternoon, miss," the woman replied in German.

"Ah, excuse me," Allison said in German. "I didn't mean to assume-"

The woman cut her off with a laugh and a wave of her hand. "It's quite alright, dear. You're here for the flowers."

It wasn't a question. It certainly implied that Allison wasn't the first to stop at the field.

"Yes," she giggled awkwardly. "I was hoping to collect some for a flower crown?"

The woman gestured widely towards the field. "The field is yours."

Allison smiled. "Thank you, ma'am."

"Of course, dear."

She went off into the field directly for one of the larger patches of flowers. She sat down in the center of the cluster, her sundress fanning out around her. She couldn't control her smile as she began to pick the flowers.

She sat for hours picking the dainty flowers in a lovely world of her own. Her long, delicate fingers worked diligently to weave the stems together in a crown. Any passers by would have thought her to have been out of a Renaissance painting.

After she finished her flower crown and a second for the kind woman, she simply wandered in the field until the sky began to tint orange and pink. She hopped back on her rental bike at sunset, thanked the woman profusely again and presented her with the flower crown, then rode back into Montreux. As she sat outside of a restaurant and watched Lake Geneva become an elegant display of red and orange and pink and gold, a far away smile crossed her face. 

A/N: Hi! I know this section is shorter than the previous one (and probably than all the other ones) but I didn't get a whole lot of inspiration from this prompt, so we just have a happy woman doing her thing (:

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