Summer should have already be here
I waited in my favorite meadow plucking flowers and holding them in the air. The soft pink petals were like velvet between the pads of my fingers.
A soft rustle pulled my attention behind me and from the ring of trees the prince of summer staggered out, blood staining his t-shirt.
"Thought I might find you here, Maia."
I rolled my eyes as I sat up, "Theros," his golden-brown eyes illuminating like their own tiny suns even from a few feet away. "You're late for your season."
He pressed his hand into his side and winced. "I got sidetracked." he held up a crown intertwined with branches and flowers both budding and blossomed and dowsed in pale gold.
"Why do you have my crown?" I asked.
"I thought–" he winced, "I thought you might be missing it."
I sighed, pushing myself to my feet and sauntering over to him. He glanced behind him, blood slipping between his fingers. "I was actually enjoying human high school."
"What happened to the human you chased after?" he asked the left side of his mouth turning down into a grimace.
I shrugged. "I didn't like him as much as I thought I did. I think I like the idea of being in love but I didn't feel anything." I reach for my crown. "Now what trouble–"
An arrow pierced through the branches of the crown and pinned it to the ground. I pursed my lips and let out a breath as I glanced at Theros. "How bad is this?" I dropped my eyes to his side, his hand still pressed tight to the wound.
"You definitely needed your crown." He and I met each other's eyes as the fog lifted from the ground and crawled toward us. We both bolted, I ran ahead aiming for the crown trapped on the meadow floor amongst the fresh blossoms.
A sickly air rushed through knocking both of us off our feet. I rolled passed my crown just barely missing it.
"Theros!" a thunderous voice clapped like thunder, the sound of hooves pounding into the ground carried through the fog
Darkness sprouted up around it as the poised arrow burned through the crown.
Theros drew his sword and glanced back at me. "Get your crown." he charged forward, still clutching his side. I scrambled over to my crown the dark cloud swiping at me when I reached to pull the arrow free. Pain seared across my wrist. I reached again and this time a black vine wrapped around my wrist barbs cutting into my skin. The vine flinched when it touched my blood. I searched the fog for Theros but the giant figure looming through was Prince of Autumn, Chard. He raised his bow and aimed his arrow at me. With my crown, I was the most powerful among the seasons. Each of us played our roles well and did our jobs perfectly but spring brought life, meaning, I decided what got to live... and what didn't.
The arrow aimed at my heart would be nothing if I had my crown. The giant trees of hundreds-year-old forests answered to me. The roots of fields came to my voice but without the crown linking me I was almost as bad as any mortal.
Chard smiled as he aimed a steady point at me, he never missed. "Don't worry, Maia. I'll be a fair Prince of Spring."
My mind scrambled for a plan but everything it reached for hung on my needing my crown. I lifted my chin and held my hands up. "You're such a coward you'd fight a mortal?"
He chuckled. "I'm not stupid, Maia, I know you can beat me." he shook his head, lowering his arrow half an inch. "But this is really your fault, I mean. A season's spirit chasing after a mortal? Abandoning everything to live as one of them." his nose wrinkled.
"The humans are not nearly as bad as you think. You're just mad they worship pumpkin spice more than the harvest now." I let a grin crawl across my lips trying to catch sight of Theros in the fog. "And I didn't give it up, I just took a break."
"And left your domain in the hands of a child." he hissed. "You don't deserve the crown of spring."
"And you do?" I asked.
"More than Theros." he raised his arrow again. "And more than you." His fingers uncurled, the arrow flying forward heading straight for my arm. I was almost completely powerless without my crown. Almost.
"Maia!" Theros called my name, I snapped my head to the side as he crashed into me knocking me and him out of the way of the arrow just in time.
"Theros you idiot." I pushed him off and scrambled for the arrow before Chard had time to notch another one.
"Idiot?" he scoffed. "I just saved your–"
"You ruined my plan." I snatched the arrow from the ground and held my arm out over my crown. "Whos' blood calls to life itself?" I smirked as Theros and Chard's faces recalled a vital piece of information about me. I slashed the arrow across my arm. My blood poured down, seeping into the ground, dripping over the arrow. Every drop of blood that touched the black smoke and barbed vines chased them away, I snatched my crown up and met Chard's eyes. "I hope you're done with your temper tantrum because you will be going back to your realm."
He notched another arrow as I placed the crown on my head. The arrow pierced through the air right for me. Theros stood, always trying to be the hero, but a root snatched him back before he had the chance. I called a tree to grow from the seeds that were barely sprouting in the soil. Within microseconds, the tree aged fifty years erupting up from the ground catching the arrow. I walked around the tree tendrils of vines lifting up from the ground behind me, fresh blossoms opening as I passed over them. I stood in front of Chard his eyes wide as he–once again–, witnessed the power of spring wielded through my hand. He slid from his horse and knelt in front of me.
"Forgive me." he pressed his face into the dirt. I held a hand out. Flowers grew up an invisible wall, and branches above reached down to form a door, an archway leading back into the gold and reds of the Autumn realm.
"Go home before you really get a taste of what I can do."
He bowed and mounted his horse riding back to his home to wait his turn. I strode over to Theros as butterflies fluttered around me tickling my nose. I sneezed. Theros quirked a smile.
"Let me guess, allergies."
I sighed exaggeratedly "you've been saying that for over a thousand years, you know that?"
"It's still funny." he chuckled.
I pressed my hand to his wound, harder than I needed to, my ability to heal plants and bring life to seed also heals bodies, a bright white light filling the puncture and leaving behind smooth unmarked skin, although it didn't fix his shirt.
"You and Chard are always so dramatic, you know that?" I stood and pulled him to his feet beside me.
"He's the one that gets all huffy every hundred years." he adjusted his tattered clothes and headed over to my portal, the doorway shifting from autumn to the bright greens and blues of summer.
"You're already running late, you know?"
"I'll be back, I have to fix a few things, and then Summer will be here." he opens his arms wide and dips into a bow. "You've got this until then, right?"
I waved him off. "Sure, why not?"
He stepped through the door and I called the vines back, I let the tree I summoned sink back into the ground to grow on its own time, the arrow it caught for me following it down. I lifted the crown from my head and stuffed it into my white crochet bag before laying back on the meadow floor and enjoying the final days of spring.