Learning the Circle

Yeah, I’m back to cutting it down to the wire again. I have a good reason this time. I got distracted working on a bunch of spring cleaning in my office. You know – the kind where you’re cleaning out the filing cabinet and sorting through old paper files and all. That’ll be a project that takes a while. Anyway, #SwiftFicFriday had another great prompt for us. Two characters who have to work together. After reading mine, please be sure to stop by and read other responses too!

Learning the Circle

The girl stood on the cliff’s edge, hands on her hips, glaring at the much larger robed figure. “Seriously? Must you keep killing everything? I worked hard to build that garden into the beauty it was.”

He bowed his head, still feeling the weight of her glare. A multitude of options crossed his mind to explain why things had to be this way before an answer came to him.

“Please come with me as I would like to show you.” His deep voice filled the tense space between them.

With a sigh and one more sharp look, the girl took his proffered arm. As she did, the world twisted and blurred, stopping a moment later. They still stood on the cliff, yet the garden below looked as if it belonged in an alien world.

The girl dropped the robed figure’s arm, reached out as if to touch the garden, then put her hands to her mouth.

“What happened?”

The plants were a tangled mess, sickly and blighted. Nothing bloomed. Vegetation grew matted and knotted, where each plant had become so enmeshed with the others the garden took on an appearance of a moldy mat.

“Nothing dies here. Ever.”

She blinked, one tear slipping down her cheek. “That’s no way to live.”

The robed figure bowed his head again. “I know.”

The girl sighed. “I get it. We must work together to make things live and be beautiful.”

Beneath his cowl, the robed figure smiled, his pleasure at her understanding coloring his voice. “Yes, death is part of life, just as life is part of death.”

She tilted her face up to his. “Can we go home now? We have a garden to grow.

The robed figure offered her his arm. “It would be my pleasure to assist you.”