Trust is a flower that blooms beautifully. Desire is also a blossom that has its own wonderful petals. Be wary of both, for once the seeds have been planted it is difficult to weed them out. More so when both of them bloom together.
The moon shone dimly casting scattered beams of its light through the twisted canopy overhead. Through the pale stone path the lamb makes his way timidly swaying his eyes back and forth being alert to every subtle movement or shadow. In the hellhole of the black woods any small shadow could cast fear. A small movement through the bush and the lamb jolted his head towards it blinking in surprise. For a brief moment he believed he had caught two distinct orbs of pale blue light that vanished.
“M-must had been my imaginations.” The lamb said weakly as he made his way forward though he kept his head low. From the shadows a set of barred eyes followed the lamb’s movements with careful gaze before moving deeper into the shade. The lamb kept his sullen trot when he stopped, smelling something on the wind. The scent of ripen berries mixed with sweet grass whiffed on the air causing a low rumbling growl within the lamb’s belly. “Food?” he said lowly as dreams of something good to eat raced through his head. For the past few nights since he entered the woods he tried nibbling on the bark and grass that grew here only to find the bark tougher than aged leather, and the grass had all the taste of ash and sand.
With hunger set within he raced towards the scent of tantalizing food when he stopped a bit off from the source. Lying on the side of the road was an Arapawna goat with curved horns and pale blue eyes. His mixed fur of black around his body was sagged by age unshorn fur, though the white fur that graced his chest made an unusual pattern looking akin to a blossom. Around his neck hung a necklace of sinewy vines with a purple stone in the middle, and through his goatly beard several petals of some red plant. The very edges of his under fur and the fronts of his legs were a dyed shade of faint pink, and he smelled pleasantly of fresh flowers. The Goat looked up and gave a kind smile. “Hello young one, are you lost?” he called out.
The lamb was taken aback by his voice and took a step away. “I-I am” he said timidly as the goat nodded. “I see, look rather twiggy you do. Haven’t had a good meal in days I suppose. No need to be afraid of me, I am soon to be dead.” The lamb tilted his head a bit confused as in his gaze the goat seem health enough. “It’s my foreleg boy, it is sprained and I am too far from my grove that shields me from the wilderness, I am soon to be done and made to be another’s dinner. But I have food with me. If I can trouble you for a while, you are more than welcome to eat your fill, I would rather like some company for a while before I am devoured.” The goat said in a calm tone seeming to have come to grips with his demise to be.
Thoughts of food race through his mind as his stomach grumbled for substance, and the goat seemed kind the Lamb thought. Slowly and timidly the Lamb went over sitting a few inches away from the goat as the goat used a hind leg to push a small bundle of berries toward him. The lamb dug in biting into the sweeten flesh of the berries eating his fill, savoring the sweet juices and skin of the fruit. It was the best meal he had in days and he was feeling content as the goat laid down. The lamb looked over his benefactor and saw a small bleeding gnash in the joint hinge of his foreleg, around the tendon. He ponders slowly before speaking up.
“Y-you have been very kind to me… for that I wish to thank you. H-how far is your grove?” the lamb asked as the goat lifted his head. “It isn’t very far from here, a few minutes of travel, but it pains me to walk.” The goat replied when the lamb went over. Carefully wedging his head under the goat’s injured leg he stood up having the goat stand with him. “I-I’ll carry you, the least I can do for the meal” The goat smiled a bit. “Ah kindness, it is a very rare trait in these woods, one not many prize. But you have my thanks little one, it is only to the north east from here.” He said as he walked with the lamb resting his wounded leg on him.
After twenty minutes following the goat’s directions the Lamb stumbled onto a wondrous sight, a garden amidst the twisted forest. A grove of red and pink blossoms that formed a ring around the grove and in small clumps around the ground the red flowers grew on a bed of fresh grass and violets. Not far from them running through the grove was a running brook that babbled contently. The air was full of an aromatic fragment that made the lamb recall to an earlier time, a pasture meadow where his family would spend time without the worry of stinging words and snapping bones. “This is my sanctuary here. These blossoms have miraculous healing properties that can cure wounds and mend bone, and the fragrance though sweet to those of peaceful souls, they are absolute anthemia to any with a malicious mind. We will be safe here.” The goat said as he nudged the lamb towards the brook.
Amongst the line of the brook were a few of the red flowers with some blooming and others were just buds still. The goat leaned down and snapped at a bud chewing it thoughtfully before drinking from the stream. The lamb ever curious took a light nip of the neighboring bud finding it sweet but with a strange metallic under taste that made him to stop. “It’s an acquired taste, not everyone can enjoy the wonders of these flowers but they are ambrosia to me. “The goat laughingly said when he noticed the lamb sputtered a bit. “Though it is darkening now, best we should get some sleep. Pay no mind to the horrors outside, in here we are safe” the goat said in a calm assuring tone as he had the lamb bring him to the middle of his grove before sliding off of him and slowly gingerly lying down to sleep. The lamb gave a small bleating yawn before falling asleep beside a new ally, perhaps his only one, in this dark place...
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