Page 136 of The Dark Rising
Crouching down, I feel the stalks between my fingers, the summer breeze making them pass through them gently. Looking over my shoulder at Darius, he stands there, arms folded as he watches me with an intensity that makes fireflies swirl in my belly.
Without taking my eyes off him, I place my palm to the ground and immediately feel life pulse through me, greeting me. I wiggle my fingers before I guide my power into the earth, watching as the glow of my tendrils seep down before I lay my hand flat on the ground. The grass lengthens.
“What now?” I ask him.
“Keep going.”
“Why?”
“Just do it.”
I look down and do as he asks, calling more power and tingles spread to my fingertips, flowing through my hands. They connect with something deep into the dirt, and I tilt my head, pushing a little more into it. Something tickles my hand, and I snatch it back, watching as a stem appears out of the ground. It sprouts up, coming up to below my knee if I were standing. My head turns sharply to Darius when I see a bud form at the end.
“Is.. is that…”
“More,” he says gruffly. I look down at the bud, wondering how it got here. “More, little wolf,” Darius says again, this time more demanding.
Taking a deep breath, I do as he says, pressing my palm back down to the ground and pushing more of my power into the earth. I feel it spread out under it, like roots moving and twining, connecting with others. A stem pops up next to the one in front of me, then another and another. I pause, hesitant and not quite sure what’s going on.
“Keep going,” Darius whispers, but I hear it all the same.
With shaky hands, I press my other palm to the ground and push more and more power into the earth, feeling my markings appear as sprout after sprout shoot up around me, spreading out. There are hundreds of them, if not more. The green stalks keep coming all over the clearing while I look at Darius.
“Just a little further.” He keeps his eyes locked on mine as I force more power into the earth, unable to look away until my gaze snags on a color out of the corner of my eye.
Blue, a blue I know so well. I gasp, rising to my feet on unsteady legs. My eyes widen as blue flowers after blue flowers bloom, too many for me to count. They start glowing under the moonlight, and tears sting the back of my eyes.
“Lesia flowers,” I breathe, reaching down to touch their petals, feeling the breath releasing from my lungs like the force of a wave against a cliff.
My eyes take them all in, feeling a homesickness wash over me briefly, but then replaced by a giddiness that I can’t contain. I stalk through them, feeling them on the tips of my fingers as happiness unfurls inside of me, the feeling strange after so long. They reach up to my knees, and I make sure not to crush any as I move. Stopping beside another one, I caress its petals and marvel at its beauty. A laugh suddenly comes from me, and then, I’m running.
I run through the flowers that were my childhood, that remind me of my mom with a smile on my face as I laugh in delight. I pick a flower and twirl around, smiling down at it as I bring it to my nose and smell its scent. I can’t believe this, I can’t believe the sea of blue I’m surrounded by.
Still smiling, I pick a bunch of them, my bare feet covered in dirt as I don’t stop running and twirling in the field of lesia flowers. The moon shines down on them, making them glow and lighting up the way, making me feel like I’m gliding through them on water.
I pick one last flower and spin, and then stop short. Darius stands a few feet away from me, having come closer at some point, his eyes alight as he takes in my appearance that is no doubt covered in dirt and frazzled.
“How?” I ask Darius, closing my eyes and taking in the sweet scent surrounding me. It feels like I’m wrapped up in a blanket of happiness and safety.
“You missed them,” Darius says. “I saw what they meant to you when you realized they got rid of them at your old pack home.” Is that why he started bringing me a flower every day?
Gratefulness fills me. “Were they always here? Just hidden deep below?”
He looks off to the side. “No.”
“No?” I ask, surprised. “Then how did they get here?” He hesitates in his answer, and I tilt my head at him curiously.
He shrugs. “I bought seeds from a merchant.” My eyes widen, and he looks around the field, his jaw ticking like he’s uncomfortable. “I spent any time I could coming out here and putting them into the ground.”
“You… you planted every one of them?” There are hundreds. Is this where he has been going at night?
“Yeah,” he whispers, and I look back at him with tears in my eyes.
“I…” I look around in awe, and my chest warms at the fact that he did this for me. Darius, the Alpha of the Elites, planted flower seeds, for me.
“It’s yours now, little wolf.” He nods to the flowers. “Do with it what you wish.”
A smile spreads across my face and he looks over my features, his shoulders tensing. I walk back over to him, Stopping a few feet away. “There are so many of them,” I tell him, and he grunts.
