OUT IN A ROMANTIC GARDEN

Haku was most insistent and I eventually found myself following Hayao through more cave passages, back into white stone buildings in the same elongated proportions as the first tower I had awoken in.

"This is the main house." Hayao was a polite and reserved guide, "His Highness, Prince Jin is currently residing in the West Wing. The East Wing houses several branch families."

I nodded, even though I had zero idea which side east or west was.

Hayao led me to a darkened room, "Our family's private garden is just through here."

There were no lights, just a fireplace with a blue flame. Haku's Tyger flame resided here!

Hayao didn't seem to notice or worry about me seeing the flame. He snapped his fingers and the lights around us instantly blinked on.

I looked about in astonishment. We were in what looked like a personal library or office, except that it was littered with opened books and scrolls, lost in the landslide of regular printed documents.

And tucked into any other standing space were jars and vases of strange tortured looking plants. I remembered how Haku could force a stalk of rose to bloom and root and bud again just by holding it. That was like a beautiful magic.

The plants here looked like they were forced to sprout in twisted contortions and other less beautiful kinds of magic. For example, right in front of me. There was a large sunflower with 1, 2, 3... 8 heads.

It looked like it was in pain. It's a good thing plants didn't feel pain. Right? Plants don't feel pain, right?

"This is my father's private office." Hayao explained.

I nodded again. I used to think my Dad's office was bad... This... The papers covered not just the desk, but also sofas and coffee tables. There were books and scrolls stacked on chairs. There were papers fallen over the floor which looked like they had been there for a while.

There were cups too - most of them had some sort of plant sprouted in it. But there were some which looked like they were for drinking from and were abandoned permanently here.

I wondered if Haku knew that Hayao would take me to their garden through his private office.

Hayao pulled open an ornately carved wooden door on the other side of the room. I hopped gingerly over a small pile of scrolls someone left sticking out from next to the sofa and carefully tip toe in between a trail of vines crawling across the single pathway from the front door to the desk.

From the desk, it was a little harder to navigate the chairs piled up with books and the literal mountain of papers at the foot of the desk. Hayao offered me his hand, but I shook my head and using a large book as a stepping stone, I got to the small clearing in front of the second door.

A glass sliding door was , this one made of glass. Hayao pulled that open too, and then gestured politely for me to step out, "Please."

Well, since we had come all this way. I nodded again and stepped outside.

I was on a white stone patio covered with what I thought at first was snow. Was it still snowing? I looked up at dark starry sky and the white moon.

It wasn't snow. Noting the foliage surrounding us, I walked automatically to the edge of the patio, and realised I wasn't on a patio at all, but a balcony. We were on the second floor - eye level to the canopies of the white flowering trees, even though I didn't remember climbing stairs to get here.

Cherry blossoms! The balcony was blanketed in cherry blossoms. I knew they were cherry blossoms because the tree also sported the dark red fruit and leaves. I just didn't see it straightaway in the dark. Actually, even in the light of day, I wouldn't have noticed it immediately either. Not under all the puffy clouds of blossoms that dominated the trees.

It was very much like the white trees that were in full bloom in winter around Heller's castle. But I didn't remember seeing fruit in Heller's trees.

"It's cold." Hayao noted, his breath coming out in a puff of white smoke. He checked his watch, "I think we still have time to go down into the garden though. Would you be alright with walking outdoors Princess?"

I nodded again. As long as he wasn't going to put his coat on me, I'm okay with anything. (In Hayao's case, it was the dark green heavy robe though)

Hayao nodded, "Thank you for your trust. Do not worry, I will ensure your safety."

Wait, what?

"Is the garden dangerous?" I mean, just in case we were going to meet a man-eating vine or something like. I just wanted to be mentally prepared.

"Not usually." Hayao smiled tightly, "But no where outdoors is entirely safe at night. Particularly near the woods."

"Rogues?" I asked.

Hayao looked surprised and decided he must have misheard, "Pardon me, Princess?"

"I mean, what's in the woods at night?" I rephrased. And then I quickly added because Hayao was suddenly looking concerned, "I mean, surely its safe so near the main house."

"Oh." Hayao smiled again, "I see. Yes. I suppose it should be safe enough. But our garden faces wooded land and we had a few unfortunate incidents with gyaaras."

With what? I frowned, it was a little bit like hearing someone insist Santa Claus was real. Gyaaras only existed in the Colored Mountains. Okay, I had met some in the Warlock Lands, and there was the "rat king" in our dungeons too. Still, it's not like they were going to be popping out of every bush... and then I remembered, oh right, we were in the colored mountains.

"Are there a lot of gyaaras around here?" I asked. Boo was immediately piqued. She liked gyaara. They were yummy.

"Don't worry. These incidents do not occur frequently." Hayao felt he should assure me, "And I have my sword with me. I will protect you, princess."

I took pause at that. Did I look like I needed protecting? I guess Haku hadn't told Hayao everything about me huh? Hahaha.

But I decided that with Hayao, it was easier to play along and not rock his boat too much.

Hayao slipped out of his robe and dropped it over my shoulders, "Please."

Again he gestured to a short flight of stone steps that joined the balcony to the ground below, but this time he walked first, his wolf alert and his hand on his hilt.

But I was just too shocked by the robe dropped over my head to care about the fact that the guy had a long sword hidden under that robe.

It was a seriously heavy robe too - like it was even heavier than it looked. I don't mean warmer. I really meant it was like 10 pounds heavier. Not that big a deal since I'm strong and the weight settled across my shoulders and down my arms and back.

The other shock came from the density of magic that was woven in the robes. Okay, so they were high-level healers, healing took a lot of magic. Magic that they either got from their environment, or from their own internal reserve... Or, they could wear a robe ladened with so much magic it had a physical weight.

I really should find out where they bought these things. It would be like a power bank for Ki. If Ki could charge up enough on Moon Light, he would never have to use the power from his mother's bloodline (which required sleep repayment.) Not that taking a nap to pay for a heal sounded like a bad deal, but his mum did die from it, and I've noticed that Ki would never use it if he had a choice, so I'm just going to assume there was a catch he hadn't told me about.

I knew Ki well enough by now to know when he was hiding something from me.

So this robe would be the perfect thing for Ki... Except for the design. Maybe I should just get the fabric and let Ki use it to make a magic slim-fit suit. Lol.

And of course, for Bell too!

{Mine! ~❤️ }

Not that Bell needed it, but he was my mate so of course, I wanted to give him nice stuff like 10-pound magic robes.

I imagined him opening the gift box (yes, I would give it to him in a nice box), how he would look puzzled and then surprised, and then REALLY surprised when he realized how magical and cool and special it was.

"Princess?" Hayao was looking quizzically at me from a few steps down.

"Ah!" I felt my cheeks flush at being caught fantasizing about Bell again. Face it, it was a fantasy. Firstly, because I had no magic robe to give him, nor was I likely to be able to afford one. Secondly, Bell didn't own any of those expressions I had imagined. And thirdly, Bell was more likely to accept the gift like I owed it to him.

Hayao realized belatedly that perhaps I was unable to come down the stairs on my own. He offered me his hand, "Please be careful, the steps may be slippery."

Ben would have said, "Hurry up, Sam. Quick zoning out."

Ki would have said with a touch of humor, "I will wait upon your leisure, goddess."

Harvey... Harvey probably would have just waited, or asked, "Is something the matter, Alpha?"

Because he would assume the best of me - that surely his alpha would have had a good reason for stopping in front of the stairs.

My point was that no one I knew would have thought my pause at the top of the steps was because I needed help to get down them. But Hayao not only came to such a conclusion, he even came up with a perfectly logical reason why someone who had come down a tower of stairs to get to the Olive Room just a while ago was suddenly completely helpless in front of 8 steps.

The stairs were slippery.

Once again, I shook my head to refuse his hand. I was perfectly able to walk down a flight of steps on my own. And no, the stairs were not slippery at all.

To prove it, I skipped down all of them, reaching the ground before he did. There was a white flagstone path that meandered through the small cherry orchard. There were lights too, from beneath every tree. Like the floodlights shining outside the fancy country club Abigail had her birthday pool party, each light shone up into the clouds of white flowers.

I watched the petals dance and swirl in the dancing wind before eventually floating to the ground around us. It was a beautiful sight - like in a natural cave made of flowers and lights. Was it because I was a wolf that just at this moment, it felt really comfortable?

"This is perfect." I heard myself say, "It's so strange. I didn't expect to feel this way."

Maybe heaven was like under a cherry tree in full bloom.