The Last Open Window

It was a nightmare, it just had to be a nightmare.

The young woman stood motionless in front of a forest. At least it was supposed to be a forest. As long as she could remember there were huge wild trees their. Each with its own defining trait, each with a different kind of leaf, each with a spirit. Now they were all gone. Each mismatched tree had been brutally cut down.

It would have given her comfort if there had been a forest fire. At least nature would have taken its course.

But no, it had to be the rich people who wanted mansions. They ruined her paradise, and every other one in existence. 'Why must people mess with things so majestic?'

With a slight growl the girl spun on her heel and headed away from the new mansion that had practically replace a whole forest of around fifteen acres. The disgruntled woman unlocked the case on the back of her moped, and fastened her helmet securely. With a few more adjustments she was off heading towards a little dirt road.

"Mezzo! Where on earth have you been?" A young woman, about the age of twenty, asked the young woman on the moped.

The woman dubbed as Mezzo snapped off her helmet. It revealed a soft face, which was tanned nicely from the sun, and hair that seemed to be permanently in a rushed bun, that was held up by a pair of chop sticks. Her unnatural dark blue hair complemented her dark brown eyes nicely, leaving anyone impressed at first glance. 

She looked at the younger woman, "I was at the old forest. The one where we used to play as children. Eris, Why does this happen?"

Eris brushed her strawberry red hair out of her face. "Well, why did all the elves start to disappear? How about the dragons? It's because things change, people grow, and there's nothing we can do about it."

"Oh you really know how the make a girl feel better," Mezzo sighed as she began to walk somewhere with the moped.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to put my moped out back, and them I'm going to the garden."

"Which garden?"

"The big thing in the backyard."

"Are you positive?"

"Um.... YES."

"Well I'm sorry!" Eris growled, "You tend to get carried away sometimes. We aren't children anymore so you cannot go running around on other peoples property tending to flowers and other things. Hey! HEY! Are you even listening to me?"

Mezzo had managed to carefully sneak away with her moped. The gate latched behind her with a nice click. Now she would not have to listen to her housemate's ranting. They were best friends, they had lived together for years, but they always found a way to push each others buttons.

With tired eyes Mez locked up her bike and headed to the garden. It was the envy of all the members of the community. They all said that she had a gift for growing things, and it was true.

Flowers of all kind grew in her garden. From rare exotic flowers that could be poisonous if you touched them in the right way, to common dandy lions. They were her pride and joy, her true reason for breathing. But they could not pay the bills in the long run.

At least for now she could get away from it all.

She hummed to herself as she trimmed the tropical roses. Now that she had cooled down things didn't seem as bad. 

As long as Mezzo lived no one believed her stories of elves and other magical creatures. Her grandparents ( her parents had died of unknown circumstances ) had always been strict, and tended to severely punish her whenever she spoke of a dragon.

All her life she wanted to get away from them, and at the age of fifteen she did. It was not in the way she had hoped though, for her grandmother had died of a stroke, and shortly afterwards her grandfather died of a heart attack. She would have cried, if it was not for her grandfathers garden. For a while, when people she did not really care about were fighting over her, she tended to that small garden. And she turned it into the most stunning garden in all of the town.

That is what mattered the most to her. As long as she had a place to tend to flowers she was happy, and she didn't care if she would be the old woman with a hundred cats in the future. 

Of course with the way things were going she may not have a place to grow her garden. 

She sighed. Not even a miracle could save her now. 

The trimmers fell to the ground with a thud. Hastily took off her gloves and threw them in a near by bin. Any minute now Eris would be calling her for dinner, and if she was late she would be given holy hell. 

As she made her way to the back door she spotted something out of place. Immediately she stopped to examine the strange thing that had invaded her private sanctuary.

She picked it up and twirled it in her fingers. "A cherry blossom? That's not right...."

"Oh really?" Said a man's voice. It was quite confident of itself.

An eyebrow twitched in response to the voice. "Who are you, and why are you in MY garden?"

"Tch! I'm the bearer of good news and you treat me like this. Maybe I should just leave without giving you the news."

"Go then."

 "Heh. Yeah, Right." The male voice was starting to become annoyed. "Just turn around."

At this point Mezzo was not about to push her luck, so she slowly turned around. 

"You're! Oh my... you're!"

"An elf," The man rolled his amber eyes. His hair was long and well kept, and he had an air of mysticism about him. His pointed ears were quite large and pieced all up and down the rim. And he looked oddly familiar. With a small smile and began to speak once again. "You know that my name's Dole since we've met before."

Mezzo paused. "You grew up QUITE a bit, didn't you? You seem a bit more flighty though."

"Well thank--I am not flighty!" Dole said defensively.

She could not help but tease the young elf. They had met once before, but she was not entirely sure if it was real. She was pretty young at the time. "Relax," she told him through giggling, "I was only kidding."

The elf snorted in disapproval. "Right. I'm here to send you on a mission."

Hold up. Did he just a mission?

"This is the most important quest you could go on in your life. You have to find all of the forgotten."

"You're being a bit vague..."

"I'm sorry. That is all the information that was given to me. You are the only one who can complete this mission, as silly as it sounds. Your talent with plants and animals will come in handy." Dole stuffed his hands in tight pockets. "You are better than any elf that ever existed."

"I'm flattered. Really I am! It's just... have you gone mad?" Mezzo was rather flustered to a major degree. This made no sense whatsoever. Maybe she was insane and Eris had been right all along. That voice in the back of her head begged to differ. This was no dream, and she could find answers to all her questions. 

"You have to go! The queen would have my head on a platter... or much worse." Dole had started to fiddle with the buttons on his coat. He obviously had trouble staying still for more than two minutes.

'I have to think. This could be more trouble than it's worth. For all I know I could be imagining this whole thing. So it was all real ... they were real! Focus! Foooocus!' Mezzo mentally shook herself. She turned to Dole with a solemn expression, "How can I tend to my garden if I have to go on a silly little quest?"

"Silly... little quest. I know you aren't the adventurous type, but... if you change your mind go through that open window." He pointed to the large window that was originally a door. The frame was worn, and had grooves where fingers had opened it countless times. It now was permanently open, and not a single person could close it. 

Mezzo had heard him correctly. She had followed his finger's line of sight. Why and how is it she did not comprehend what he was telling her to do.

So she turned around to ask him. Only to come to the shocking conclusion that he had left. 

What would she do? Go through the window just to test her insanity or go through the door like a normal person?

With a roll of the eyes Mezzo grabbed her sunhat and climbed into the window. With quite a bit of effort she made it through, but as she was about to confirm her insanity something strange happened.

The window slid down with a clatter and a thunk.

For the first time in over a hundred years the window had been closed.

Background, buttons and bars came from KAGARIBIGENTOH. The storyline (as bad as it is) and characters (>_> shut up you.) created and copyright © by Geraldine (Kari Muffin) Nonnewitz. The Bishen is copyright © to Indy and comes from the Bishen Realm.