Gift of Hyssop Flowers

Leni had a small pout hanging from his lips, along with his small stature, making him look even younger than ten years old. Yet, his childish aura was disturbed by a frank and ridiculing "stupid" towards the villagers.

The crowd was startled into silence as no one really expected a meek boy to confront the old man. Whispers started to echo throughout the village, reprimanding Leni for his harsh word.

The elder, however, simply raised a brow.

"Do tell, how is saving your fellow peers... stupid?" The wrinkly man looked down on Leni, with mocking eyes.

"Well--"

"You two should be honored, being chosen out of hundreds! Do you not want to stop the curse?" The senior said with much granduer, his words were met with chattering approval from the citizens.

Some citizens unconsciously touching some part of their body that had turned into timber. This included the kneeling Mara who subconsciously rubbed her stiff toe and Leni who pulled on his wooden pinky finger.

Regardless of how he would rather have a fleshy finger, Leni jutted his bottom lip even more from being interrupted. Mara inwardly taunted the old man for forcing two youths to their deaths, rather than sending himself if it's such an honor.

But, the duo were given no time to absorb the false righteousness they had just heard. As when the elder waved his shriveled hand, a group of young men and women came forth and dragged the two chosen ones away.

"Prepare them for their travels! And let them depart at the first break of dawn." These were the last few sentences from the senior that Mara and Leni heard before being brought to separate buildings.

Mara, while being pulled to a women's bath house, watched the lethargic Leni being carried into the men's bath house.

Before she was pushed into the room, she saw Leni look up at her from the distance with limpid eyes, his hands strongly clutched to the hem of his dirty shirt. When they made eye contact, Leni seemed to find some comfort and raised his hand in greeting to her.

Before Mara could respond to his small wave, the door was shut by the group of women who forced her into the bath house. The ladies immediately started to strip her.

"Uh. W-Wait!" Mara, although she knew why and what was happening, could not help but become startled.

Before she could let out another squeak of protest, Mara was already naked and thrown into the bath.

She was tossed around for quite a few hours, and when the women were done washing and dressing her, the sun had already sunk beneath the horizon.

Mara's chestnut hair was straightened and shiny, her rags were replaced with a pine green sleeveless shirt and black pants with leather boots. The teen felt refreshed as she was restricted from the bathing area for a couple of days.

Despite her being pampered heavily by the women, she felt no joy. Her heart was filled with grievances. She wanted to spew curses at these women, but still held her tongue in apprehension. Mara knew that it was unwise to waste her energy trying to struggle.

She sighed in exhaustion as she was led to the Main Hall where a banquet was happening. Loud cheers and jubliant laughter could be heard beyond the closed doors. Outside was slightly chilly as the sun had nearly set, some of the accompanying women complained about the cold.

Mara grasped her arms to gather some heat, when she heard a small "Oh."

She swiftly turned around and saw Leni. He was dressed in a blue shirt and baggy black pants. His black hair was fluffed up and accenuated his half closed eyes that gazed at Mara.

The boy only reached up to Mara's waist, being very short and small. His tiny stature was further exemplified by the tall men that surrounded him.

The boy left his encirclement to use his stubby legs to totter over to Mara. When he approached the teen, Mara noticed that despite his calm manner of walking, his eyes were filled with apprehension of what's to come in the future.

Mara felt her heart fill with even more hostility towards the people who are forcing such a young child to do their bidding.

The moment the boy arrived in front of her, he reached out with hesitation to her hand. Mara, noticing his action, immediately grabbed his hand. Softly grasping his small hand to comfort Leni. Despite being complete strangers till now.

"Let's just get this over with." Mara spoke through gritted teeth.

Leni was still basking in the warmth that Mara's hand offered and nodded absent mindedly.

Seeing this action, Mara slightly crumpled her eyebrows.

'He's so weak and small. He seems so tired too. Will he be able to handle anything?' Mara thought seriously as she looked at Leni.

This thought only took a few seconds as Mara stepped forward with Leni and the group of men and women opened the doors for them.

Before the duo could go forth to join the banquet, one of the women stopped them.

Mara cocked up an eyebrow and stared down the lady. She remained unfazed as she simply smiled.

"I will have to ask our two heroes to bow down a moment." The woman took out two violet flower crowns with beautiful handicraft to show them. The flowers seemed to be newly picked as they still looked perky and fresh.

Mara narrowed her eyes and an cold glint passed through them.

"No need." Mara stated, exuding an icy aura. She used her magic capacity to give the woman slight chills before Mara tried to go through the doors.

But, the chilly maiden was determined.

"I beg for your forgiveness, but I was told by the elders to give you these flower crowns." The lady insisted while she chattered her teeth.

Mara ground her teeth together so hard that Leni, who was right next to her, heard the sounds.

The teenager then harshly snatched the pretty flower crowns that were already covered in frost from her cold aura. Mara brushed off some of the ice from a flower crown to place gently on top of Leni's head. On the other hand, she left her frosted flower crown alone to place on to her own head.

Mara spared one last glare to the insistent woman and went through the doors with Leni.

The moment they came in, the party grew even wilder. More people passed around food and beers. There were no delicacies nor wine, if one were to ask for the reasons. They would say that their heroes are young and common, unused to a rich life. These pathetic excuses of people fervently thanked them for going to lift the curse. They bombarded these two with compliments on their looks and how pretty the violet flower crowns looked on them.

But, within a few minutes, the duo was ignored by the entire party. As everyone felt like a few words and pampering would be enough to repay them. Allowing them to retreat towards a quiet corner of the room, they ate with a plates full of food. For as indignant as they felt for the party, they were still hungry and chewed with both anger and relish. Though, most of the anger coming from Mara and most of the relish coming from Leni

Leni noticed Mara's dark face and scooted closer to her as they ate together. The fluffy boy had noticed that Mara's mood took a turn for the worse when she saw the flower crowns.

He tugged he hand, causing Mara to look questioningly at him, her previous anger dissipating slightly.

"Miss--"

"Just call me Mara." The teen laughed slightly at such a young boy acting so polite.

"Oh, then Mara, why are you made at the flowers?" Leni pointed at the flower crown with his right index finger, but because of the curse, his wooden pinkie was stuck in a straightened manner.

Mara's anger flared out again at the mention of the flower crowns adorning their heads.

"Do you know what flowers these are, Leni?"

Leni responded with a slight shake of his head, sending his wavy bangs to flop around his face. Mara chuckled at his small actions.

"These are Hyssop flowers. In the past years, when the village sends out so-called heroes like us, they didn't give these flower crowns. So why now? Wanna guess?"

Mara asked with mockery and resentment. She shoved more food into her mouth to grind them into smaller bits, while waiting for his reply. Leni gazed at her with eyes full of curiosity.

"Tell me?" Leni asked in a soft voice.

Mara sighed lightly and swallowed her food. Then, dazedly poked at her food with a fork.

"Hssop flowers, as pretty as they are, are a representation of sacrifice." Mara wryly smiled as she points at his flower crowns.

"And with us wearing these..." Mara trailed off.

"We're labelled as sacrifices?" Leni asked, though he had expected this from an uncaring community. Nor was Mara surprised at him knowing the end result of being heroes of the village.

"Yup. Like I said, they never gave these till now. It only shows that they just don't care about the ones leaving now." The female youth sighed and continued to stab her food with her fork.

For the rest of the banquet, Mara and Leni stood side by side in silence as they absorbed the label they were wearing.