The first step was to survive here. He needed to learn more about his new environment. Hopefully he'd be able to find some friendly people. Failing that, at least he needed some food and shelter. He didn't relish the thought of filling up on blue berries and sleeping in his car in the blue grass field all night. He might wake up at two in the morning feeling suicidal. He shuddered.
Arwin picked a direction at random, which turned out to be north-west, and set off. Having always enjoyed forests, he entered a thicket of tall, blue spruce. The trees had blue-tinged bark and the needles were a dark pastel blue, similar to blue spruce trees back on Earth. Soft ground strewn with dead, brown needles sank gently underfoot with each step. The clean smell of evergreens, er, everblues, permeated the air. Luckily, the sorrowful mood brought on by the blue grass field quickly faded behind him.
Gazing around, the forest floor seemed oddly tidy, as if — ah. He got it. Blue spruce — spruced up. To spruce up meant to make neat or trim, to take particular care in external appearance. The magic of the trees evidently included keeping their immediate environs clean. It seemed to apply to them too as each tree was a model of its kind with no sap dripping from wounds nor bug infestations to be seen. Even the branches seemed to have taken special care in where they’d sprouted so as to grow in an orderly fashion.
The blue spruce eventually mingled with other, non-blue trees too and the forest appeared more normal in most respects. Arwin heard voices ahead and soon came across two lovely young ladies. They wore elaborately embroidered dresses evocative of renaissance France, but more slender in shape, without the wire frame inside that women on Earth had used to flare out the bottom of the dress. He was elated to have come across other people! The girls sat together on a log bench in a small clearing in the woods. He paused at the edge of the clearing, surprised. The skin of both girls was shades of light blue!
One of the girls looked up and gave him a sad smile. “Oh, hello.”
The other made a melancholy wave. “Hi.”
Arwin approached, the excitement of encountering literally blue ladies putting a slight Captain Kirk-ish spring in his step. Both girls had the most stunning blue eyes. Lips that might have been tinted with lipstick back home to get this blue hue, here appeared to be natural. In all other respects, the girls seemed perfectly human, and very pretty examples of their gender. In fact, being blue was a refreshing change.
“Hello,” Arwin replied, unable to stop himself from grinning at the sight of them. Yep, he definitely felt like Kirk on a foreign planet at the moment.
“You must be a traveler,” stated the first girl.
“I suppose I am,” Arwin affirmed. “How did you know?”
“You’re not blue,” replied the second. “This is the Blue Region. All of the human folk here are blue by nature.”
“You mean they’re sad?” Arwin asked.
“Perhaps a little more prone to being down than some,” nodded the first, “though not terribly so. I meant our skin colour.”
“I see.” He nodded politely. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you ladies. My name is Arwin.”
The first girl rose and met his gaze with bright, round eyes that sparkled like sapphires, as clear as a winter’s sky. Watery-blue curls fell in swirls and waves about her delectable, bare shoulders. Her fancy, sky-blue and white dress was festooned with ribbons. “I am Bleu, a belle of the Blue Region.” She offered her hand and, when he took it, she daintily curtsied.
The second girl rose and looked at him with fine, mysterious eyes shaped like almonds. They were the shade of lapis lazuli with flecks of gold, and one look made you feel like you could drown in her mysterious gaze. Her hair fell long and straight to her waist, such a dark blue that it was nearly black. Her silk dress was two-toned, black and cobalt, and hugged a lithe figure. “I am Aoi, also a belle of the Blue Region.” She, too, curtsied, though in a more sultry manner.
“Blue belles,” Arwin noted. “A pun.”
“We are,” Aoi confirmed.
“Two of the most beautiful girls in Blue.” Bleu twirled, the hem of her dress riding up high enough to show two perfect feet in white high heels.
Arwin wasn’t sure how practical high heels were in the forest, especially white ones, but they sure made her feet look cute. He opened his mouth to ask one of the one hundred and two point six three million questions on his mind, but a faint tinkling of bells interrupted him.
At once, both girls drooped.
“What’s wrong?” Arwin asked.
“It’s the sound of bluebells,” Aoi answered.
“They are the most beautiful of musical flowers,” Bleu continued.
“But, why would that make you cry?” Arwin asked, confused.
“Because the sound so touches our hearts,” answered Bleu, despondent.
“And because they are forever beyond our reach,” Aoi added with sad frustration.
“Beyond your reach? Can’t you just go over there and see them?” Arwin looked towards the source of the sound but thick forest and a rising hill prevented seeing the flowers themselves.
“We can’t.” Aoi looked hopeless. “They grow only in the garden of one of the local blue bloods. He killed off all other such flowers in the region, keeping only a few for himself, so only he may enjoy them. And he guards them zealously.”
Arwin raised an eyebrow. “Blue blood? You mean, aristocracy?”
Bleu nodded. “Yes. One of the vile nobles of the Blue Region. They are wealthy people who abuse their power and seek to keep treasures like this to themselves. They’re the worst villains in the land. Except for the Dark Enchantress maybe, but she lives outside the Blue Region in pun-free lands.”
“Dark Enchantress?” Arwin asked.
“Wickedest witch in western Heartstone,” Bleu darkly informed him. “Maybe in all of Heartstone. They say her heart is as black as the evil creatures whose company she keeps.”
Aoi scowled prettily. “She’s bad, but a recluse, rarely venturing to our lands, whereas the nobles here oppress us every day. They’re active tyrants. They keep everyone in the Blue Village as peasants. They force us to build them fancy mansions and to slave away for them in the fields and mines. We are kept busy from dawn until dusk cooking feasts and sewing fancy clothes for them, while we submit on meagre fare and most wear little more than rags. The commoners barely scrape by while the blue bloods live like kings.”
“But, and sorry if this is rude, but both of you appear to be dressed very well.”
“The belles and the beaus, our male peers, have it slightly different,” Bleu said. “From a young age, the most attractive of the villagers are kept like birds in gilded cages, spared any and all work as children. We spend most hours of the day learning all the ways we will need to please our future patrons once they take us on as playthings.”
“Playthings?”
“We’re raised for the sole purpose of becoming pretty toys meant to entertain them. That is, until we become too old or boring to keep around anymore, after which we, too, shall become peasants no different than the rest.”
Aoi sighed. “Breeding more belles and beaus for the future.”
Apparently humans could be just as unfair and selfish in this world as in his own. A surge of rebellion and anger rose within Arwin. He instinctively wanted to strike out at these blue bloods and make them pay. This was, no doubt, an emotional reaction due in large part to some of the events that he’d been through recently, but it also stemmed from who he was.
“As children,’ Bleu stated with a sour face, “life isn’t so bad. Although, we belles and beaus are a bit outcast from others in the village because we aren’t allowed to help with the workload lest it give us unwanted scars or rough hands. But once we become of legal age, our lives will no longer be our own.”
The girls glanced at each other, communicating sorrowful frustration.
Arwin's brows rose. “Ah, so you two...”
Aoi nodded, shoulders tense, her anger rising. “Yes. We’ve both become of age. We are both to be plucked soon, to become the temporary playthings of blue bloods. We’ll spend the next decade closeted in their mansions, deprived of all freedom.”
Arwin frowned and his heart went out to them. “That really sucks.”
Bleu gave him a sad smile. “Sorry. We’re not usually this negative. But the way things are about to change in the next few days…”
“I understand.” Arwin felt frustrated too. He wished there was something he could do to help.
Aoi frowned for a moment, then shook herself and took a breath as if to wash her negative feelings away.
Bleu threw a longing glance towards the tinkling bells in the distance. “I do wish we could experience the bluebells up close. I know it seems silly and small to want something so inconsequential when there are bigger things in life. But it would cheer us up. That’s why we’ve been sitting here, listening. The flowers are in the garden of Lord Azamont, just there.” She pointed towards the thick part of the forest.
A breeze picked up and a wave of tinkling bells carried to them. It really was a very pretty sound.
Arwin disliked seeing any lovely maiden, er, young woman in distress. The sight of their sorrow immediately compelled him to act. Sure, he probably couldn’t do anything about the bigger picture of their lives, but perhaps he could bring them some small measure of happiness right now, however temporary. Wasn’t that a worthy goal? He opened his mouth and began to offer his services when heart-rending images of the recent past popped into his head. Suddenly he felt very blue again himself.
Betrayal.
Lies.
Pain.
His thoughts turned ugly. These two were probably just using their beauty and charm to manipulate him. They would probably lie and use him, encourage him take risks on their behalf, then throw him away as soon as they got what they wanted.
But a voice in the back of his mind told him that he knew better. He forced his depressing thoughts away. Deep down, it wasn’t fair to treat these ladies as his enemies just because of what others had done to him. He wouldn’t be one of those people that painted everyone with the same brush just because a few bad apples had spoiled the bunch. Hmm. Was he mixing metaphors?
He took a deep breath and smiled, determinedly returning to good cheer. “Belles, it truly makes me blue to see such lovely ladies lament,” he told them, feeling bold. “I shall fetch these flowers for you.”
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