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 Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2011 11:32 am
xxxxword count ◈ 969.
xxxxIt was really all Sophia could do to simply run her shop correctly. She had no idea what was going on, but she hadn’t had a decent customer in weeks. She supposed that it was because of all those ridiculous e-readers, and that books were becoming a lost medium. The very thought struck sorrow in her heart, and she frowned quite deeply. She tucked a piece of platinum hair behind her ear, and, with that same frown on her face, resolved to simply browse her own shelves. She loved these books; why did no one else? Books could take you to so many places, an infinite number of places, without even leaving your home. She supposed that, technically, an e-reader could do that as well, but…she had always loved the feel of a book in her hands. The older the better, she always said; the older books were a bit more worn, but their character practically jumped down your throat. They always made her wonder where they had been and what their last owner had done while it was in their possession. She would often go into a trance-like state while thinking about these things, but she didn’t mind; she loved books in all shapes and forms. New ones were nice, too, but they didn’t have as much character as the ancient tomes on the shelves. But she was rambling again, and she forced herself to stop.
xxxxTo cure this incessant rambling of her thoughts, she decided to dust. She always sort of zoned out when she was dusting her shelves, but it wasn’t that big of a problem; again, she hadn’t had a customer in weeks. The sudden realization that her shop may just be going under for good struck her, and she sighed. Sophia loved this place; it was practically her second home! But running a bookstore in New York was a difficult life, seeing as everyone was right on top of the latest trends. She carefully ran a soft cloth along the spines of the books, sort of reading them as she went, and then went back to dust the tops of them. But she paused, hearing a noise in the back of the store. Was someone trying to break in? The snark in her thought that that was a rather stupid way to make money, stealing books. No one read books anymore, anyway; who would want to buy them if no one was buying them from an actual bookstore? She dropped the rag and stalked back into the back of the shop, grabbing her trusty bat as she went. She’d had someone break in before, and she was not going to let another get away as easily.
xxxx“Hey! Get out...” but she stopped. There was no one there. Not a single moving entity to be seen, which made her frown again. Was her disappointment driving her crazy? Maybe she was just so hopeful for a customer that she was hearing things that weren’t actually there? With another long sigh, Sophia put the bat back where she’d gotten it and made her way back to the front of the store. But there, sitting easily on the counter, was a little package. “What…?” She whispered, looking all around as she approached it. How had it gotten here? Oh, God, was it a bomb? She bit her lip as went to pull at the string to the little pouch, but she noticed a small note underneath it. It was printed on beautiful parchment, not simple printer paper. How strange. No one used parchment anymore… She tilted her head to the side as she read it, having to push a few strands of hair out of her eyes because of the angle.
Dearest Sophia,
I know that you are a kind soul with love in your heart, and therefore I have left this child with you.
Unfortunately, in order to properly take care of it, you will need to move away from New York City.
The way to do this will become clear to you when the time is right, but I know that you will see it, for you believe in fairytales.
You cannot deny that you do, my child, for I know everything about you.
I trust that you will take care of this seed like a mother does a newborn.
I hope to see you soon.
Voren
xxxx“Voren…? Who the heck is Voren?” She turned the paper over to see if there was anything else, but the backside was blank. The parchment really was beautiful, but that wasn’t important right now; the little pouch was. As she pulled the string, the layers of fabric unfolded and presented a small seed, a dark plum in color with silver leaves and a single black vine. A small noise escaped her throat, and she reached to pick it up, cradling it in her hands like something precious. It was most likely the largest seed that she’d ever seen; then again, she wasn’t much of a gardener. The only plants in both her home and her shop were plastic, after all. The seed gave off a rather cold aura, but something about it drew her in, and she knew that she could not simply get rid of it. This Voren, whoever he was, had called it a child. Was it really that important? Sophia chewed on her lip, remembering that she would need to move, apparently. She glanced around her shop once more, and at the bare, quiet sidewalk in front, and let out another sigh. Perhaps this had given her an opportunity to simply leave? She was going out of business, anyhow, so why not move? But first, she needed to plant this seed. After all, what sort of plant could grow without being put in soil first? Even she knew that.
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Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:08 pm
xxxxword count ◈ 587.
xxxxIt had been a few months since Sophia had first come across the little purple seed (or, rather,since it had been given to her by a mysterious stranger), and she had since uprooted her little bookstore and moved to the world of Enfaya. Upon learning that there were so many different places to live in this new world, she had largely left it up to the seed to decide. She had briefly traveled around, and while she admittedly avoided the drastically hot or cold places, she had stopped for a while to see if the seed seemed to enjoy the current location. Unfortunately, it seemed to have favored the darkest, most sinister of all locations over all the rest. Great.
xxxxIt had taken a bit of work, but Sophia had managed to buy a small little building in the lantern-lit area of Vritra, and had started to set up her bookstore again. However, she had yet to plant the seed. She resolved to do it today, if she could get her hands on a pot and some soil. Luckily, she was able to find a flower store of sorts, even if the storekeeper was slightly…creepy, and managed to buy a pot and a bit of soil to plant the tiny thing in.
xxxxIt was actually quite a few days before she managed to find time to plant the poor seedling, as she seemed to be so busy trying to set her shop up. But when she did, she set right to work, determined to actually attempt to give this thing a fighting chance at life. The note she’d found it with had said it was very important, after all. Now, granted, Sophia had never been much of a gardener. But, after reading a few books in her possession that pertained to gardening, she realized that, yes, you did need to actually dig a hole in the soil for the seed and cover it. She did so, and then proceeded to simply stare at it for a while, unsure of what to do next. Oh, plants needed water, right? Yes! She went to fetch a cup of water from the back room and fill it with water from the bathroom, both of which were little more than rooms slightly bigger than a broom closet, but it served its purpose well enough. She had also managed to purchase the small apartment-like abode above the shop, so getting to and from work was rather convenient.
xxxxHowever, when she returned from the bathroom with the cup of water, she noticed a small, rather dark piece of wood poking out from the surface of the soil, which was dark itself, much like…well, everything in Vritra. But she only noticed the wood in contrast to the soil due to the fact that it was rather shiny, like someone had coated it in tar or oil, instead of normal wood. She stared at it for a few moments; how could it have started growing so quickly?! Something didn’t quite seem right about it, but she resolved to simply water it and see what happened. After doing so, nothing happened immediately, so she set it on the corner of the counter, but far enough away from the edge so that it wouldn’t fall if bumped, and decided to watch it for a few days. She hoped she hadn’t done anything wrong and ended up killing the poor thing. It was actually rather pretty; she wanted to see what it would look like if it grew.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:41 pm
xxxxword count ◈ 646.
xxxxRecently, Sophia had noticed the little plant on the front desk of her shop beginning to change. It happened slowly at first, with a new bud stretching up through the dirt every few days, perhaps a leaf unfolding the next, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise. She had been watering it religiously, every day, and trying not to let it bake in the light of a lamp, but she had always heard that plants liked sunlight. This one, however, seemed to do much better without light, and so she resolved to keep lanterns away from it. It went for a week or so with those types of slow changes, before the thing practically exploded with growth.
xxxxOne day, she came downstairs from her apartment, intending to water it like usual, and found it to be a considerable sprout, nearly doubled in size from the previous day. There were a few little clusters of purple-black berries, and quite a few more silvery leaves than yesterday. “Erebus? Wow, you’re sure growing quickly,” she remarked, exhibiting her strange habit of talking to the plant. It still was not a very big tree, but it would soon become much too big for its pot. She resolved to build a small garden of sorts on a corner of the shop, and possibly fill it with little flowers (if she could get her hands on any). She would have to pull up a few floorboards to do it, but she supposed that it could be very pretty if she tried hard enough.
xxxxA few days later, and quite a few hours of elbow grease and painful fingers invested, Sophia had successfully ripped up a few boards, outlined the space in large gray stones, and filled it with potting soil acquired from the flower shop where she had purchased Erebus’ little pot. Now came the task of actually transferring the little plant to the bitter plot of dirt, and she hoped that this wouldn’t kill it. Biting her tongue, she carefully pulled the plant from the pot, finding the roots to have grown so much that they were perfectly shaped to the outline of the pot, and transplanted it into the corner of the flower garden. Covering it with dirt until the roots were nicely hidden away, Sophia sat back and admired her handiwork; not a bad job for a complete newbie to gardening! She dowsed the thing with water and stood up, wiping her brow. Perhaps that would be helpful to the little sprout. She should really get some flowers, though; it looked dreadfully lonely all by itself, surrounded by black dirt and stone. Unfortunately, she could no longer take it with her when she wanted. But she supposed that it was probably for the best. It probably wasn’t good for a plant to constantly be hauled around willy-nilly; it needed stability and consistency. Hopefully it would be happy here, in what seemed like the darkest corner of the bookstore. She would normally be worried about the light, but the thing almost seemed to recoil when it came into contact with any sort of light.
xxxxShe had also noticed, in the past few days, that it seemed to pulse with a strangely draining energy, one that made her a bit weary when she was near it for too long. It was only very weak, so it wasn’t too much to worry about, but she worried that it would become stronger as it grew bigger. Chewing on her lip, she began to wonder if this plant was good for her. It obviously seemed to like her (or at least the way she treated it), so maybe it wasn’t all bad? She would just have to go about her business and not spend too much time obsessing over it. Speaking of which, she was feeling rather tired; a nap sounded really nice.
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