ADRIEN, MARINETTE ET LA REINE DES NEIGES

III. Le verger du printemps éternel

In the meantime, poor Marinette shed bitter tears for the absence of her darling friend, whom she loved most tenderly despite his change of heart, and sought him all over the place.
When Adrien didn't come home, Marinette asked the bad boys and the bad girl if they had seen him. They shrugged their shoulders and couldn't remember. "Oh dear..." said Marinette to herself. "He often played with his sleigh on the frozen river. I hope he didn't fall into the water..."
In the weeks that followed, Marinette could not even dare to shed tears for poor lost Adrien. In the evening, she often looked out of her bedroom window at his empty one and missed him terribly.
Everyone believed that Adrien must have fallen through the ice on the river and frozen to death before he could drown. But somehow, in her heart of hearts, Marinette didn't really believe he was dead.
And thus, when springtime came, she walked down to the river, and asked its stream:
"Is it true that you took Adrien away from me? If you bring him back to me, I will give you the loveliest pair of red shoes that I own... You may keep them, if you tell me where my friend is!"
In her hand, she carried the brand new footwear she had received for Christmas and Adrien had never seen.
But the stream kept on its course, flowing towards the ocean, without taking the pair of scarlet Mary Janes that the girl had left among the riverbank reeds, and the shoes returned floating through her little hands.
Perhaps it was because she had not given the stream the thing that she loved best, she thought. And so, in response, she tossed her dearest Christmas gift, the first one Adrien had given it for a lucky charm, among the reeds: a wooden scarlet yo-yo, which Adrien had painted by hand, decorated with a quincunx of black spots.
"Is it true that you took Adrien away from me? If you bring him back to me, I will give you my lucky charm, which I will no longer have a need for... You may keep this, if you tell me where my friend is!"
But the stream kept on its course, flowing towards the ocean, while the yo-yo bobbed like a buoy among the riverbank reeds, and back towards the bank and Marinette's hands. Seeing how the river would not even take the first token of his affection, she crouched and picked the yo-yo up, putting it in her pocket, promising herself to always keep it at hand for good luck, as she made a vow, the sun being her witness, to seek out Adrien across the wide world until the soles of her Mary Janes were completely worn.
And thus, another day later on in spring, Marinette decided to go forth in pursuit of his friend, drifting downstream in a little rowboat. The girl was very frightened, because she saw that she was drifting further and further away from home, far, far downstream, through grassy meadows, along wooded banks, and further than she had ever been before. After many days, when she was nearly exhausted, the current took her into the pier of a fruit orchard in full bloom, in a strange region inhabited by an old lady, who, in spite of her advanced age, was still youthful when it came to health and high spirits.
Upon beholding a thatched cottage with a pretty garden full of flowers, upon the riverbank, Marinette screamed, at the top of her lungs:
"Hey! He-e-ey!"
Right then, the old lady, who wore a black doublet with a prism embroidered on it and kept her silver hair short, heard the screams from the river was surprised to see an adolescent girl drifting alone in such a desolate place.
"Please tell me who you are, and tell me what brings you here," she asked Marinette, as she held out a broomstick for the maiden to take hold of and land safely on the pier. "Poverina! So far from home, you must be exhausted! How come you have made it this far in the wide world?"
After landing, Marinette told her story and asked the old lady for help. Nonna Gina, who lived very alone ever since her husband and son had left her, and who had always dreamt to have a young girl of her own, told her, smiling sweetly at Marinette:
"Follow me home, be my guest, cara mia. Maybe I can do something to help you find your friend... Come inside, stay for the night, refresh yourself, and tell me what has happened to you!"
Every imaginable flower was growing in the garden outside the cottage: there were sunflowers, daisies, honeysuckle and marygolds, foxgloves, freesias, lavender, rosemary, thyme... and, of course, rosebushes and narcissi.
Marinette entered the little whitewashed and thatched farmhouse, elated, thinking that the old lady would help her for sure. Inside the cottage, there was a pitcher of lemonade on the table, next to a little tin of sweets. "Help yourself," the old lady encouraged the little maiden. While she drank deeply of some cool lemonade and ate some rounded sweets from that little tin, and her host combed her long raven hair, Marinette told her what had happened to Adrien, and of her search for him, in more detail.
"What a lovely ragazzina, and what glad company she will be!" the old lady tittered to herself.
When she had finished to comb those lovely tresses, black with a blue sheen like a real raven's wings, Marinette had forgotten Adrien and home and village and even, obviously, her quest. The more lemonade the girl drank, and the more the old lady brushed her hair, the more distant Adrien seemed to become, and in the end, in fact, she forgot why she was there at all.
For Nonna Gina, who knew a little magic, had laced the lemonade in the maiden's cup, and thus made the memories of her best beloved classmate fade from her mind. She didn't mean any harm. She was lonely, and just wanted the pretty little girl to stay and keep her company, before showing her into a guest bedroom with warm, soft, lavender-scented bedclothes. And so, Marinette slept a deep, tranquil sleep all night long, as happy as any young queen on the eve of her coronation, without a thought in the world for Adrien.
And, while the girl slept, Nonna Gina thought that if Marinette saw any roses or narcissi, she would remember her quest and resume her pursuit of Adrien, and make her want to leave her; and thus, the old lady made those flowers in her garden disappear under the dark soil, tapping them the edge of her magical broomstick, which made narcissi and rosebushes sink beneath the ground.
But, as the dawn broke up the skies the next day, Marinette awoke with a gasp, all startled, remembering Adrien once more, for her feelings towards him were far stronger than any enchantment. That morning, she had seen a golden star-shaped brooch which reminded her of a narcissus, and suddenly all her memories surged back. Then, all at once, everything flooded back to her - she remembered her home, the roses and the narcissi, and her dear Adrien. "What am I doing here when I should be looking for Adrien?" she gasped. It was then that she understood the old lady's intentions, and decided to flee.