Rose Monster: Blanchfleur (special preview)

My cheeks grow warm again. “Thank you.” I smile to myself. “Not many people realize that.”

“Shame on them,” Blanchefleur sniffs.

I giggle and beam up at Blanchefleur. “Anyways, has the wedding driven you crazy yet?” I ask them.

“Hmm, no,” they sigh. “Personally, I enjoy a bit of chaos every now and then. Besides, I am excited for all the royal guests to see my garden, especially now that it has joined with Rosenrot’s, it is the garden it is supposed to be. At least, the one the King intended.”

“That’s right, he planted the garden when they were born,” I murmur.

“Along with the pink roses for Merah Muda,” Blanchefleur replies. “Our other sibling tends to that one, and they must be laughing at us. Merah Muda is offering up just enough roses for bouquets, she’s not letting anyone take her roses.”

“I don’t blame her,” I scoff. “One of the best sights on all the grounds is looking out on a crisp morning to see the fog laying over the white rose garden. The way it all looks, it’s almost as if the world is devoid of color, but the white roses glimmer so brilliantly in the fog like radiant beams of light.”

Blanchefleur clasps one hand over their chest. “You’re making me swoon.”

I giggle softly. “I mean it. I often wake up early on cold mornings just so I can see the sight. It has become my most favorite thing in the world.”

“You are doing my heart a world of good hearing this praise,” they sigh. “Have you painted it then?” Blanchefleur asks.

I scoff and lean back. “I have tried, dozens of times. I have so many half finished canvases from my attempts.”

Blanchefleur lifts up their chin. “Why only half finished?”

“Because,” I grumble, “I can’t get it right! Of all the things in this world, I cannot paint the one thing I love most.”

“That is what you love most?” Blanchefleur remarks, astonished. “There is no handsome knight who has whisked you off your feet? No baker covered in icing and she lets you lick her fingers?”

I frown up at them. “No.”

“No cat?” They scoff.

“No!” I growl. “I’m not all into that sort of thing,” I sigh. “I love beauty and I adore looking at it, but I’ve never been into romance that way.”

“No one has made your heart strings sing like the sight of my roses?” Blanchefleur purrs.

“Exactly,” I say with a nod.

Blanchefleur turns to look at me. “Then by all means, come visit them up close next time you get a chance to come to the garden. They would love it if you did.”

My heart is hammering, not because I am looking at the roses, but because I am looking at Blanchefleur and enjoying their words.

Once we arrive at the white rose maze, we both set to work. The maze is giving one thousand roses to the wedding, so while I paint five hundred, Blanchefleur is gathering another five hundred which will remain white.

As I paint, I realize these roses are nothing like the ones in the royal garden. They do not have the same glimmer and shine that the ones Blanchefleur tends to have. These are just ordinary roses while Blanchefleur’s are some deity version of roses. 

“Wonderful work, not a petal bruised.” Blanchefleur remarks as they come to examine my work.

“Have you gathered five hundred already?” I ask.