Thorns of Roses

Season 2: Chapter 25 - Where It All Began

*16 years ago*

It was a beautiful day of spring. The sunshine sent warmth throughout the whole city - turning everything bright and lively. The trees were sprouting and the flowers started to bloom - painting the parks and streets with vivid colors. The birds were chirping as they made their way to their nests to see their eggs slowly cracking by tiny peckers, letting out the newborn nestlings.

Everything came back to life after the winter's merciless weather. Light breeze traveled across the streets - sending the promises of a new beginning, a new chance, a new life.

Paris was mesmerizing during these times. The streets were filled with people, shops opened, on the roads appeared countless carriages and horses as people from the near villages visited the capital city. Exactly like a resurrection, life came back into Paris. Everyone gathered on the squares, talking and laughing with each other and just enjoying the new year.

Everyone but a little, five-year-old girl.

Ever since she could walk, it was her biggest dream to go outside of the Palace to see Paris in her own eyes and not only on those old book pages her mother showed her. It was one of the main rules her parents had made to never go outside, even with guards.

In the beginning, she had always tried to break this rule, to somehow convince her parents to let her out. She even tried to sneak out but someone would always catch her. It made her desperate.

Marinette wanted to see the people, the flowers, and the Seine in her own eyes. She had always envied the servants around the Palace who could go out whenever they just wanted. It felt like she was living in a gold cage. For strangers, it looked like a magnificent building full of luxury, but for a little, curious girl, it was something that kept her from exploring the world.

She couldn't understand why her parents wanted her to keep between the Palace's walls. But in time, she gave up all of her attempts to let her out. Eventually, she got used to only seeing the park and the little forest in the Palace estate.

And here she was now, at the age of 5, making her way with her mum to the garden with a wide smile on her face, ready to let herself be captured by the beauty of this season.

As soon as she stepped outside - Sabine holding her tiny hand - she escaped from her mother's hold and giggling - she ran straight towards the rose bushes - her favorite spot in the garden. Sabine watched smiling as her daughter vanished between the red flowers near the lake. She turned right and made her way to the arcade where she was supposed to meet with a new noble family who just moved to Paris.

Sabine had always hated this kind of meeting that would happen only for business matters. She wouldn't be excited about today's meeting either - although she had heard only great things about this family - if it wasn't for a fact that they had a son.

It was a rare thing among the nobility to bring their little ones on business roads like this, so Sabine was really happy when she heard that they would bring their son too. Ever since Marinette was born, Gabriel wanted to protect her from everything. She wasn't allowed to go anywhere without at least one servant by her side. Even at night, there was always at least one guard at her door.

If it wasn't for her and Marinette's secret, she wouldn't allow this. No child in the world would be happy without anyone in their age, playing with them. Sabine knew this well, and she tried to fill this emptiness they caused by spending as much time with her Pumpkin as she just could. She knew she and Gabriel might have had another way to keep her away from any harm but this seemed the only solution.