Garden Of Hearts

Chapter 3: Untamed Beauty

"Well, I'm right here," a female voice filled the air, "Eddy who is this? He seems to know a decent amount about plants."

Belle's tone was soft and calm, not scary like one would expect.

"This is Brett, he's new here so I wanted to show him around," Eddy explained. He could be thankful that Belle didn't kick the intruder.

Brett whipped around and for the second time in his life he saw the most beautiful thing in the world. Long black hair, tied into a bund, warm brown eyes, a soft expression and a hint of playfulness around the lips, a slender, lithe body and the same shimmering fur Eddy had. Belle was even a bit more slender than Eddy, probably because she was a female and smaller in height. She still felt gigantic from Brett's point of view because he was tiny. He never thought of himself as tiny but apparently he was. At least compared to the deerfolk.

The voice was like a melodical wind chime and the faunling had no blink a couple of times again. Belle was equally as winsome as her brother.

Brett turned to her fully and nodded to her before bowing slightly. He had no idea if they should shake hands like the humans did or if they went no contact, so he showed his respect like he had read about foreign countries.

"Good day, it's a pleasure to meet you. You are the being that takes care of this garden? It is delightful. I hope I can be such a good gardener and caretaker of plants and herbs at some point in my life. Everything looks so healthy and strong and vital! It amazes me."

The faunling smiled brightly at the deer-woman. His heart didn't throb and stumble upon itself like it did when he saw Eddy for the first time, but he still could see and appreciate the exceptional beauty this female deer-centaur was as well. Were all of them so beautiful? If so, he was really in heaven. Surrounded by friendly beauties - because no one was unfriendly to him to this point - was every man's dream, right? So Brett didn't mind at all.

"Yes, I am one of the caretakers of the garden. My brother helps out as well," Belle eyed Brett over, unlike Eddy she seemed to have seen creatures like Brett before. Her curiosity didn't linger that long, at least not when it came to Brett's appearance, "A little bit of magic helps to take care of everything, it's in the soil."

Eddy stayed quiet as he watched them both, his hooves just lightly scratched at the grass and the soil.

"One of them? So you and Eddy, and whom else? Or just you two?" Brett was happy to see that Belle seemed very nice. With the comments Eddy made he wasn't sure, but she was as sweet as the peaches he ate at the pasture.

"I handled my mistress garden a lot, so maybe I can help you, if you want any help that is. Eddy said you will decide on that. I want to be useful as thanks for letting me stay here. Ray brought me here." The name 'Ray' helped him with Eddy, so maybe it would help him with Belle as well. It surely couldn't hurt to drop it here. It was also the truth after all.

"Sometimes the fairies will help us in the garden, only in the spring though. You must have a lot of experience in gardens then if you helped around one," Belle smiled fondly at that name, more fondly than Eddy had when hearing the name. It was obvious that she also knew Ray, "Where did Ray find you?"

Surprised at the soft look at the woman's face he blinked. He never saw such an expression so he wondered what that meant.

"Oh fairies? You have real fairies to help you?", he only knew them from books so his new home was getting better and better every single second, "Oh, he found me at a pasture, kept as livestock. He said he witnessed that my master was killing off my brethren before me and it was now my turn." He looked down at the nicely kept grass and resisted the urge to scratch over it, "He helped me to get away then and so I am here."