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Singing of Daisies

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Featuring Rhoda and Dalea (NPC)
Winter, Y762 NA
Glenmore, Glenwood


    In the dark, warm depths of the family den, Rhoda came awake suddenly to the sound of wet, hacking coughs. She rose quickly, making her way to the smaller offshoot of the den where the noise was coming from. It was her mother, Dalea, who was coughing so badly.
    As she passed through the den, Rhoda snagged a bowl filled with snowmelt and herbs. Rho had made up the concoction under the strict instructions of one of the more experienced herbalists and healers.
    "Here, Mum, sip this" Rhoda murmured quietly, offering the bowl to the older doe.
    Dalea coughed again and spat phlegm into a small hole dug for the purpose. Her body was much frailer now than it had been a few weeks ago, and despite the warmth of the room she shivered spasmodically. She sipped from the bowl obediently, swallowing the liquid slowly. When she finished, she lay back down with her head fully extended across the ground.
    "Thank you, dear." She whispered weakly.
    Rhoda felt something sharp and painful squeeze inside her chest as she looked at her mother, who should be enjoying the prime years of her life, and instead was bed ridden and feverish.
    "Of course, Mum," she answered shakily.
    Dalea coughed again, this time a little softer and less wet sounding. Her breath hitched mid throat when she tried to draw a clear breath afterwards. Rhoda's brow furrowed with concern. The potion was losing its effectiveness, it was plain to see. But the healers had told her that this would work!
    Rhoda knelt down next to her mother and gently began to groom the doe. Her mother sighed hoarsely. Rho knew it was a certain kind of dangerous to interact with the ill, but she couldn't stand the thought of Dalea suffering alone in the dark.
    "Will you stay by me, for a little while longer?" Dalea asked in a small voice, sounding like a fawn. Rhoda's heart contracted again.
    "Of course!" She responded quickly. Anything to help her mother and improve her mood. Rhoda curled up alongside the shivering doe, willing her body heat to warm the space further. They didn't speak for a time, as Rhoda worked on grooming Dalea's mane into a tidy braid to keep it out of the way. She hummed under her breath as she worked.
    "That's a song about daisies..." Dalea whispered faintly. Rhoda paused, trying to think back to where she'd picked up the tune. "I've always loved that song." Her mother continued slowly.
    "You must have sung it for me before, mum, it's a lovely melody." Rhoda replied warmly. Her words were drowned out by another set of hacking coughs. They made Dalea shake and shudder, and when they finally subsided she lay sprawled across the floor of the room in exhaustion. Rhoda quickly brought over more of the herbal remedy for Dalea to drink, but the doe was too weak to lift her head.
    "S... sing it for me?" Dalea whispered instead. Her voice was a ragged tear. There was blood flecked on her lips. Rhoda swallowed.
    "I'll sing if you'll take another sip of this brew for me, Mum." She bargained weakly. Both does knew that Rho wouldn't deny the request.
    "For you, love..." Dalea rasped. She lipped at the potion tiredly as Rho cleared her throat and began to sing:

"I cast my eye on a maid so fair / with palest pelt and golden hair,
She wanders through my every dream / on hooves of pink and legs of cream,

Oh darling Lady, won't you look at me?
I'm waiting, waiting, for eyes as blue as the sea,

In each of her steps a flower grows / A prettier daisy than any rose,
I keep them woven on my head / a lighter crown than any I've shed,

Oh darling Lady, won't you stay with me?
I'm waiting, waiting,-
"

   
Dalea's head slumped to the earth, knocking the bowl of potion aside. Rhoda broke off singing as the bowl tipped and clattered.
    "Mum?!" She asked frantically, scrabbling closer.
    The doe did not respond. Rhoda pressed her head against her mother's neck, listening for breath, for blood pulsing through veins, for the beating of life. And found nothing but silence.
    "No!" Rhoda cried, jerking away. She stared at the familiar face, relaxed in death.
    "No..." She whispered again.

    ---
   
    Rhoda stood over the mound of raised earth and snow that cradled her mother's form. Family had come from all walks of Glenmore to help her bury Dalea, but the bitter snowstorms whipping through the land kept anyone from staying outside too long to mourn. Everyone retreated to their homes to grieve in small groups or in private, all except for Rho. She was frozen to the spot, legs sunk into the piling snow.

"In each of her steps a flower grows" Rhoda sang brokenly into the ice and the wind, "A prettier daisy than any rose..."

    She rolled all of her shock, her stunned grief, her keening loss and regrets for words left unsaid into magic. Into one thought. The dark, concentrated energy fell into the earth like a sinking stone. It reached through the frozen ground, searching. A single seed. A daisy.
    The tiny flower burst upwards from the earth, marking Dalea's resting place. For a glorious, fleeting moment, the flower was vibrant and bright. But then the wind blew, and the cold reasserted itself, and the fragile life froze on the spot. It withered and crackled, rustling in the sharp air.
    Rhoda felt tears slip down her face, burning hot against her winter numbed skin.



+2 magic (+1 - art // +1 - lit)
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Comments24
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MusePony's avatar
WELP I'M CRYING
That was beautiful. Goshdarn, Frosty, you're too good at this.