THE ROMANTICIST | C. GRIMES

01 | CHAPTER ONE

Soft, sugary bird calls filled the air as leaves and twigs lightly crunched beneath Mollie McCloud's feet. The sour smell of the pine trees that surrounded her moved along the gentle breeze. Despite the golden sun rays streaking through the trees, her eyes were aimed at the ground. She abruptly stopped as her eyes a afixed to a mushroom that was growing along a stray tree root. She fell to her knees, uncaring of the mud her jeans were now pressed into. Her fingers moved carefully, pinching at the base of the stem before plucking the fungi from the ground.

"Perfect." She held it up, examining it in the glowing sunlight for only a moment. It was exactly what she'd been looking for. A rarer type of fungi for Virginia, she hadn't been able to find any for months. With this, she hoped to be able to cultivate her own garden of them within the kingdom's walls. As she rose to her feet she placed the mushroom in a leather pouch on her side, noting how full it was already becoming.

Instead of her usual longer route she took while hunting for herbs, she took a shortcut and was back at the Kingdom's gates in only twenty minutes. The gentle stream and soft bird calls were now replaced with the rumbling of carts, the laughs of children, and the distant sound of the training group working on hand-to-hand training. Mollie walked through the gates with her eyes no longer focused on the ground, happily waving and greeting the many familiar faces milling around on guard duty.

She cut through the gardens, quickly winding up in the doctor's office.

"Mollie, you're already back? You're getting so fast these days." The receptionist/nurse Sue smiled as Mollie walked in the door.

"I got lucky today." Mollie responded as she walked up to the counter. Sue handed over the medicine closet keys and Mollie went to put away all the herbs she collected with medical use. That was most of her stock today, and it didn't take her long before she was back outside. The building she called home wasn't too far from the center of town, though she still look her time getting there. She meandered through the vegetable garden, taking a few snap peas for the road when she saw they'd finally grown. From there she wandered through the small flower garden she'd recently started, taking note of how close the roses were to blooming.

When she finally entered her home building, she was already making plans of where to look for more types of flowers she could start growing next season. She knew Ezekiel would allow her to build a few more flower beds if they had the materials, and she knew just the boy to help her build them. A bedroom door suddenly opened as she stepped in front of it, and an arm swung out, latching around her waist and drawing her into the room. Mollie managed to catch a glimpse of messy blonde curls before a pair of soft lips pressed against her own.

"Ben! You scared me." She breathed out as he moved away, the door clicking shut behind her. "For a second I didn't know who it was."

"Who else would it be?" His smile lit up her field of view. "You weren't here when I got back, so I thought I'd be the one to surprise you today."

"How was patrol?" She asked, her hands moving up to test against the hard plastic body armor he was still wearing.

"Uh, a little eventful today, actually." He shrugged. "Ran into a pretty big group of dead, must've been like twelve or thirteen. And I took out three by myself."

"No way, that's so great Ben! I'm so proud of you." She gushed. "I didn't see any while I was out, but I find a ton of stuff we've been needing. I know that Dana and Kurt are really gonna appreciate it all."

"Looks like we both did some good work today." He said, loosening his grip and allowing her to move away. "I say we should have a movie date night tonight to celebrate."

"A date?" Mollie looked back at him as she pushed open the front door. "I thought you said for our next date, you'd take me to that treehouse you found outside."

"Yeah, yeah we can do that anytime." He waved his hand, following her out into the hall. "C'mon, what do you say? I've gotta go sign out the theater room if we want to-"

"Fine, fine." She giggled, interrupting him. "Go, sign us up. I'll come out and find you."

"Cool." Ben nodded resolutely, leaning down and kissing her one more time before flashing her a smile and dashing outside. She watched him for a minute, the slight ache of her cheeks going ignored. She pushed open her bedroom door, her hand fumbling on the wall for just a moment before catching the light switch. Someday she'd get used to that, she presumed. Someday she'd have it's location down.

She pulled the leather satchel off her body, pouring the remaining contents into a tray on her desk. Small plants scattered across the plastic tray, her fingers spreading them out evenly. She'd leave them to get some air, and then plant the ones she planned to keep before bed. She shrugged her jacket off, hanging it on her desk chair before taking her sketchbook and a pencil from their places. After pushing open the window to get some fresh air in the room, Mollie set off once again.

The choir had started it's afternoon practice, honeyed voices flowing through the open doors and windows of the practice hall. On the gazebo, the orchestra was just setting up for their afternoon practice as well. Mollie made herself comfortable under a tree near the flower garden, beginning to sketch the bloomed daisies as she listened to the nearby music begin.