Ariol and Renai ::: Thornless Rose

[Thornless Rose]

The date is too blurry to read

Off the beaten path of Kana, the girl known as Rose continued her path of "contained destruction", searching underneath every rock, branch and leaf she could find to discover and create her map of the area. Placing the parchment in her knapsack, Rose put a hand to her forehead and adjusted her hat for the harsh rays of the midday light. She hadn't had much success in finding what she had been searching for *besides her map, of course* but with her map getting closer to being finished, that was a satisfying conclusion for the day.

Getting ready to clear out and head back to the nearest town, Rose almost overlooked the crows constant chatter as she packed up her supplies. About to call out to try to gently scare the birds away, their calls drew her closer until she saw what they had been circling. Something shiny was in a nearby, seemingly deserted bird's nest. Of course the birds would be circling...it was a shiny object, so why not? Leaning down to reach, Rose attempted to snatch whatever the birds were so curious about, grabbing instead of a shiny pair of eggs or pieces of glass (her original thoughts of what could be there) ... a pair of bottles?

Turning the items over in her hands, she saw a couple of colored feathers underneath the bottles that she had just picked up. As she reached for them, a strong gust of wind came over the area; blowing dust and grass around. Covering her eyes, Rose grimaced and gripped the bottles tightly. The wind died as soon as it began, and as Rose opened her eyes ... the feathers, nest and crows suddenly vanished!

Standing up, as the rays of the midday sun shone brightly once again, she pulled her hat closer to her face as she stared at the bottles her hands held. Gripping them carefully in her outstretched hands, she started to head back to civilization, unknown to the two feathers flying with the wind in the distance...  

[Thornless Rose]

The date is hard to make out, scratched through a couple of times.

Rose sat with the dual bottles tied to her hips again as the sunlight filtered through the glass tubes. The shine and shimmer had all but vanished and the tubes had gathered a thin layer of dust but Rose had eagerly spent the day trying to clean and polish them both up, freshening the area.

For it was a fall cleaning of sorts, all the windows were open and a light breeze had been blending in with the room's objects, taking out the dust and small debris and bringing back with it a slight air of change. Rose sneezed on and off because of her allergies but happily dusted and cleaned what she could, hoping that somehow, it would brighten up things. With her mood brightening, so did the bottles; light shining through the newly-cleaned surfaces with a mischievious glimmer.

As the sun began to set, Rose stood back and looked at what she had accomplished; herself covered with gray dust and dirt but overall quite pleased with herself. She gently took the bottles off of her waist and set them near the window and the setting sun, preparing herself...to wash all of the dust off. As she left the room and started the hot steam of the shower, one could have almost swore the bottles moved a bit...but, maybe it was just the wind...