Three Blue Roses sitting in a Fire
The Church of the Blue Rose was a wallflower in of itself. It sat on the very outskirts of Valyrdonn, brushing the red, fading woodland behind it. Despite winters constant clutch over the mountains above, the woodland of the Blue Rose retained the same cool winds of Autumn’s fading touch. The black brick Church stood in solitude amongst the trees, like an old soldier resolute in its endless, almost peaceful vigil. The back, right half of the church had crumbled away, giving way to the forest to enter through the way of vines, roots and flowers. A tree, almost as large as the Church itself had taken up residence at this particular corner, forming a natural roof. Griff parked the Church Chevy by the particular tree on a gravel road that wound around the Church.
“Expecting visitors?” Beau asked, looking to the other car parked out front.
“Uh, not exactly,” Griff replied, pulling up the break.
Ryon, Beau and the little fox Ren all sat in the back seat, more or less remaining quiet from the ride out of the city.
“Oh would you look at that, you already have guests. Seems there’s no room for us, at least for me -” Ryon began, pawing at the door.
“Ryon, would you rather be eaten by a witch or stay here for a night or two?” Griff sighed, looking to the cat in the rear-view mirror. He looked her dead in the eye.
“You live in a literal ruin,” He pled, two tails whacking Beau in the face.
“Yeah, sure. I mean, you’re not lying but this particular ruin has a very old set of markings made to safeguard this place against malevolent spirits. Witches leech of maddened spirits, thus, they can’t step foot onto Blue Rose land,” She explained, slowly getting out of the car with a wince. Beau, holding Ryon in his arms with Ren perched across his shoulders followed her through the wild garden of flowers and thorns.
“So…it protects against spirits?” Beau asked, his curious self looking to the tall roof of the Church. He’d shrugged on an old shirt of Rook’s from the boot, one that was about two times too big.
“Malevolent ones. You’ll be fine, Ren. Unfortunately enough, you too Ryon,” Griff grunted.
“Make up your mind whether you care for my wellbeing or not ginger,” Ryon hissed beneath his breath.
“I’ll give you a pass this one time for that, purely for the reason that I enjoy the sight of you being carried around like a house cat. It ah – brings me a great sense of ironic joy,” Griff smirked, opening the twin doors, each engraved with faded markings beyond recognition.
“Ironic…?” Beau wondered in a small voice.
“Don’t - ” Ryon began.
“When our local two-tailed gangster here was alive, he hated cats. I still have fifty dreccs on that’s how he died.” She explained. Ryon growled in reply, yet still remained cuddled in Beau’s arms.
When Griff stepped into the Church, her playful grin faded. Both Elaine and Rook stood by the table in the kitchen, arms folded with a look of seriousness on their faces. Two youths sat at the old table, both wearing old cloaks from the closet to protect them from the small bite of Autumn that poured through the hole in the right side of the roof. A small girl with blonde hair, wrapped in a coat twice her size sat beside a solemn looking boy, the glasses perched on his nose guarding his eyes. What have they seen?
“This is Kyra and Saul. They’ve come to us for protection against a malevolent forest spirit,” Rook said, straight to the point. He was a blunt guy, always had been. Always well dressed, always ready for work at the drop of a hat despite the ruins they lived in. He wore a black vest atop a white undershirt, always without a single crease, his dreads tied back with a golden coil, the same type of gold that he wore as piercings on both ears. Rook had the same yellow eyes as Griff and Elaine, but the markings from his eyes down his cheeks were a light grey, almost white against his black skin. He often scratched at it absent-mindedly, especially on the afternoons when they’d sit outside on the gravel patio reading in the fading, orange light. Rook also tended to scratch at it when he was under duress. Like he was doing now.
“Griff, in the kitchen,” He said, motioning.
She glanced back at Beau for a moment, then followed her fellows into the kitchen, nestled in the bottom left corner of the open floor of what once, long ago may have held church service. They stood in a tight circle, their backs to their guests.
“Ok, first of all, Griff why’d you bring Ryon here? I mean, how’d you find him in the first place, and the other two?” Rook asked, afterwards biting the silver ring on his middle finger out of habit.
“I uh, may have checked out that tip about the Witch in the city. Ended up being legit, nearly broke a few bones, nearly got crushed in half but she ended up taking off so now a multi-eyed door monster works for us and Beau the human, Ren the fox and Ryon the feline criminal is under our protection for the time being,” Griff said in a low voice with a shrug.
“I’m – I’m not mad. Well, I can’t be right now,” Rook grumbled, glancing to the two adolescents sipping tea, muttering quietly to each other.
“You wanna tell me about those two?” Griff asked, giving both a side-glance without a hint of subtlety.
“They showed up last night, an hour or so before dawn. Said something about some shadow monster them chasing them out of the forest. Killed a friend of theirs,” Elaine explained, sitting on a stool.
“Shit…so what’s the plan?” Griff asked, looking to Rook. Poor kids. Rook took a pause, giving his facial markings a thoughtful scratch.
“We’ll ask them more about what happened, like why they were there up there in the first place. And keep them here for now, safest place for them to be,” He suggested, looking back to the two. Rook gave a small jerk of his head, motioning to Griff to come and talk to them with him.
“I’ll make another pot of herbal tea,” Elaine said, a note of strain in her voice as she clenched and unclenched her fists. She’s probably made about six pots at this point. 377Please respect copyright.PENANAmcmr3x3CE5
Elaine, as she made yet another pot of tea, adjusted her honey-blonde braid. She was a girl of creation, of tonics, potions and of course, tea. Where Rook found comfort in the history and sigils of their Order, Elaine found her place in the protective tonics created from the many stems, flowers and succulents found about Valyrdonn and the valley itself. While Rook and Griff would spend their afternoons bathed in the sun reading, Elaine would inspect her wild garden of flowers and thorns alike, oft ending with her sitting amongst the tall grass, conversing with the hive of spirit honey bees that made one of the oak hollows their home. The little bees would bring her the best of the flowers, tucking them into her hair and dropping them in her lap so that she could make teas for a broken heart, to warm skin and soul, spark a lovers embrace and even heal what had been broken or torn. And right now, Elaine was trying to do what she was best at. Brew something to mend their broken, frost-touched hearts.
Griff sat with Rook at the table, looking to the youths downcast, exhausted eyes.
“If we’re gonna help you two, we need to ask a few questions first,” Griff said, gentle as she could. Kyra and Saul exchanged a small look, then nodded weakly.
“Ok so, why were you up in the mountains?” Rook asked, examining Saul. Yet it was Kyra that answered.
“It was a school trip, our entire complex was up there. The three of us went out last night to go for an ice skate on the lake it – it was a short drive from the cabins. We didn’t…we didn’t know what was beneath the ice…and Ava…fucking Ava. She just – it got her,” Kyra wept, barely able to string those simple sentences together. She held her hands to her shaking chest, blonde hair in disarray. She needs sleep. Maybe more of Elaine’s tea.
“Will your school be looking for you, can we ah, make a call to your parents…?” Griff asked, slightly distracted by Ryon prowling the kitchen benches, specifically the one at her back. He wove between the collection of old pots filled with dirt and planted with herbs and cacti, observing the four. Beau had found a stool where he sat with Ren, his curious eyes gazing about the Church still.
“No…we’re with a schooling complex, staying in the apartments in town. The others will be back within a day so we can just meet them there,” Saul interjected, his voice weighed down with the shackles of solemnity.
“You said it, came from beneath the ice…?” Rook asked with a small scratch to his markings.
“Yeah. It was dark, long limbs, fast too. Didn’t get the best look, but, that’s what I saw,” Saul said, slouching and letting his head rest against the chair. Rook tapped his fingers against the table.
“Alright…here’s what we’re gonna do. All of you will stay here tonight, under our protection. Tomorrow, Elaine and I will head up into the mountain and search the lake and surrounding area. We’ll try and hunt down whatever that thing was, figure out why it attacked you guys and how to appease it,” Rook reasoned, standing and going to the library tucked into the opposite corner of the church.
“Appease it…?” Saul hissed, his eyebrows scrunched in confusion.
“We’re not just hunters, we appease a spirit instead of hurting it if we can,” Griff explained, combing her hair up into a bun. She followed Rook over to the small city of stacked books, papers and unlit lanterns. Saul and Kyra watched them both.
“I need you to go with those two back to their apartments, make sure they’re safe,” Rook said, looking through the library.
“Alright, what am I supposed to do with Beau then?” Griff asked, glancing back to him. He sat on the stool, giving Ren a pet and enjoying the sight and smells of the many herbs and flowers of the kitchen.
“He can tag along. Find him some other place to stay if you can while you’re in town,” Rook shrugged.
Oh, joy. 377Please respect copyright.PENANAxKWkKC6orH
~377Please respect copyright.PENANAZpcHRWpJ3p
The three of them would get no sleep that night, that was for sure. Rook would spend his hours pacing the library, going through every book he could find about forest and dark spirits. Elaine would sit in her room in a nest of cloth, sewing and eating an entire pack of red liquorice. Griff, however would make her way around the outside of the Church, pacing he length of the wild garden by light of the lanterns strung on the awning. Beau, finding he couldn’t sleep either, sat on one of the old chairs on the patio.
“Do you always do this?” He asked, breath clouding in the cold night air. Griff sat, surrounded by a thicket of strawberries. “I suppose. If I go to bed too soon, I get too restless and feel as though I’m wasting time. Patrolling outside the Church gives me comfort, I suppose,” Griff shrugged. Drawing it from her back, she formed Archeus and watched the moonlights reflection glint of the blade.
“It is…calm here. Can’t blame you for wanting to spend your time out here,” Beau said, looking around at the calm stillness of the garden.
“It’s a time that’s entirely my own,” She said, far off from the wild garden. Beau flinched slightly, looking away. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s actually nice having someone else out here,” Griff assured him with a small smile. Beau’s look softened and he offered up a nervous smile in exchange.
“So, what is it you do out here, other than sitting in weeds and walking back and forth?” He asked. Griff stood and with a single twirl of Archeus, answered his question. Frost formed from thin air, forming the most beautiful patterns akin to that of spider webs and snowflakes.
“I like to practice, meditate, even dream,” She said, looking to the stars and letting Archeus return to lines.377Please respect copyright.PENANA7GqKEkL1hS
“Why dream, if your home is a place like this?” Beau wondered, standing to join and sit with her in the strawberries. “Because dreams end. They’re a taste of something entirely different, nightmare or daydream,” Griff shrugged.
“You enjoy nightmares?” He squinted his eyes.
“They simply reflect what I’ve seen in my waking hours. After all, dreams and nightmares are made to help us during the day,” She sighed, laying back onto the grass, weeds and strawberries. “True. But…fighting witches and freeing slaves isn’t exciting enough for you?” Beau chuckled, plucking some of the weeds from the dirt. Griff sat up, crossing her legs. It’s never not exciting, but sleep is downright amazing,” She said, giving his shoulder a small push. She stood and helped him get to his feet. “C’mon, I’ll find you a place to rest your head,” Griff said, her smile warm despite the ice running in her veins.
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