Darker than Blanc

1:4| Rosephayne ✦ Acceptance

Darker than Blanc
1st Life | Daybreak
©Emika_3206

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[1: 4] —Rosephayne ✦ Acceptance

It had been a routine for Rosephayne, to visit the boy after caring for her garden. She'd usually bring home cooked meals for him, which when she leaves she knows he would surely eat. It's like she has... a new animal to take care of. He's still wary of her, but a lot less hostile now since she is feeding him.

Less hostile meaning he doesn't try to poison her with his blood anymore. He just glares at her now.

"I mean...... you can't live under the bushes forever," Rosephayne remarked, as the boy stared up at her with cynical blue eyes. "Would you like to stay with me? It's almost going to be winter soon."

He growled at her.

"I'm Rosephayne," she introduced herself, pointing a finger to herself. "I'm a healer by the way. if you ever change your mind, I live in the hut over there." Then she pointed at the general direction of her house. Honestly, he should know the directions since he used to terrorize her garden before.

........
Rosephayne was chopping herbs, making a remedy for cough. She furrowed her brows, trying to focus on her task. It was futile, since the pitter-patter of the rain had been ridiculously distracting. She means, she made medicine before even when it's raining. It had never been a problem to her previously. She had a steady fire was burning in the hearth, keeping her warm even in the harshest of winter snowstorms.

Only, her thoughts keep straying back to the child, who was probably curled up outside and shivering.

He couldn't probably go to the caves, the bear clan would surely not welcome a seemingly human child. They agreed not to harm him, but it goes with the condition that he should not step a foot in their domain.

With the way the skies were grumbling, winter must be starting soon. Rosephayne had already stocked up supplies to last her the entire season, and she made sure that the other animals in the forest are well prepared as well.

Only that child....

She finally dropped her chopping knife, before deciding that she'd go out, before it hails. She broke the branch of a large leaf, and used it as a protection from the unrelenting rain.

True enough, when she got to the same place he usually hides, the child is there, in a fetal position, shivering.

"There should be a limit to stubbornness. It would snow soon," She stared, using her leaf to cover him as well. "Would you like to stay with me for a bit?"

How he managed to still glare meanly, while shivering like a wet kitten, Rosephayne would never know.

"Look, I'm the guardian of this forest and I already helped all the other animals to prepare for winter," She tried to explain, in a way that no, she's not after his blood. "I really don't care if you're a faerie, or a unicorn. I'm not going to use you as an ingredient to a potion and I'm also not going to eat you. I'm just a concerned citizen here. You could stay with me for a bit, then leave when spring comes."

He was shivering, like a drowned rat. Water droplets hang from his sooty lashes, and his hands were shaking. She took off her coat, and wrapped it around his small form.

"You don't always have to go through everything alone. I may not know what kind of life you lived before, but I want you to know that there's still so much good this world could offer."

His freezing hands held hers, and for a moment, his blue eyes studied her curiously, as if she was another species altogether.

Rosephayne just smiled at him in assurance.

She didn't know at that time, that this would be the start of lifetimes of tragedies.

To be continued...