The Willflower of a Handmaiden

Set in the time during the Geno-Kardanian Conflict, there lived a young lady with her father whom was one of Kardanian's finest Weaponsmith.

"Oh my, what a lovely flower,"

"It's a Willflower, miss,"

"What's a willflower, young florist?"

"It's a very rare, yet a very beautiful flower, blooming once in a hundred years, miss-or so they say in the medieval scriptures. But yet it has a very calming scent-a very strong one if you ever seen the most Colourful one, it changes its colour pattern once in a very fortnight, but it takes the colour of the feelings of anyone who cares for it, miss. That's why, one single touch, really changes the colour of that flower,"

"Wow, it really is beautiful,"

"It also takes the nature of the toucher's feeling into its flower petals, the happier you are, the silkier, and softer it will be, like fresh roses,"

"What happens if I touch them when I feel sad, or lonely, or angry?"

"Beware, young miss, as if you touch them with those feelings bore in your mind, it will turn hard, and the smell would be foul, and razor sharp petals would cut your little finger if you had those feelings; but I'm just a florist miss, I didn't even know which is which, besides, it's just a myth--these flowers are just bougainvilleas I assume--so I'm giving you these bouquets for free,"

"Hmm, I shall take it then, but please, don't try to frighten me with that story of yours, it's rude especially in this beautiful morning."

Packed in a big bouquet the flowers were given to Miss Elida, as she walked straight to her home froma nice morning walk in the middle of Spring. Step by step, her high-heel shoes--perfectly hand-made, or so that people passing by her assumed--touched the pavement in the outskirts of Jean-Ruthere. Walking around, with a long, one-piece blue satin dress, an elegant little blue coat covered her small, ladily shoulders, as she took a deep breath into the bouquet, with her little hands holding the bouquet firm. Winds were a breeze of calmness, as her cotton-braided dress waved softly, at certain times held back her elegant walk by a step or two.

Balancing herself on her pair of boots, along the pavements by the road, she held the bouquet by her right hand and her left spread wide to balance herself from losing control. The skies were quite bright that day; quite bright that the skies looked much blue than before. She then found herself at a junction to the right. Either she lost her way due to her concentration on her balancing, or either she tried to remember back the paths that she took earlier this morning, after coming home from her nice morning walk. She then took off from the pavement, and then she ran quickly to the right-right after she caught the glimpse of the  signboard showing to a blacksmith's house.

Sprinting along the way, she ran past along 11 houses left, 11 houses on the right, 20 poles of street lights, 22 mailboxes of different kinds, and then a few strangers crossing paths. About a few minutes later, she then stopped by a strange looking house--mechanical doors bolted the front of the house, with gear-like components, spinning clockwisey and counter-clockwise inside the huge door. Four-storeys high, with a huge chimney like structure towering the roof of that house. The whole street of houses looked actually like that - well quite look-a-like - but then again only that house in front of her got the biggest towering chimney. The clockwork-door was so huge that people couldn't notice a small window by the right side of the house. But the windows on the toppest floor were that noticeable even from the junction before, as that was why she quickly rushed towards that house.

Moving to the door which was carved in metallic gold, brass and silver linings, with chromic clock parts, silver-iron doorknobs, and a large "WELCOME" mat--quite furry-thick--lying in front of the door. She then realised that it was already noon, so she went inside. The doorknob was pulled open, slowly, and she took a peek inside; two large carpets covered down the hallway--just a small hallway going down to two junctions--left and right--right to where  the small kitchen was, and left to where the small greenhouse situated inside the house. Ironically the greenhouse was below the smithing room, so it was quite weird, to have a blacksmith in the upper floor of the house, on top of the roof.

As she enters the smithing room, she saw a figure hammering a long hot steel tube, taken fresh from the smelting place. Then, after a few moments, he dipped the long tube into the bucket of cold water, smokes of vapour rose up into the air, straightly headed to the exhaust  fume at the ceiling of the room. She waited for at least a few more minutes before that weaponsmith halted his tasks, and glared at the girl. She replied back with a smile.

"How's your day, sweetie?" asked the man in his mid-30's. He has a sternful look in his eyes, yet when people stared him right into those eyes, it'd make them think either he's a brave soldier, or a strict father teaching his kids about the harsh life. He wiped his eyebrows and his hands with a handkerchief before walking straight to the girl, and gave a kiss on her forehead.

"It's wonderful, father. I managed to pick up a bouquet of these sweet-scented flowers on the  way home. The florist who gave me these flowers is surely nice. The weather's outside is bright too, father." She walked towards the resting table at the corner of the smithing room, quickly poured a cup of fresh water from the jug and handed them to him.

"My dear daughter, how will I ever live on without you by my side," sighed her father as she watched him drinking the glass of water gulp by gulp, while she wiped away all those sweat mixed with dust and coals from his smithing works. "It's been days since I managed to spend my time with you. Burden isn't it, my daughter? Free and lots of ample time to waste when you didn't have any tasks, but when you do, you'll be busy for the whole time around. I'll need my rest a bit before resuming my smithing." He watched his daughter calmly and lovingly, as she reminded him of his late wife, Aletta. Her blue eyes flashed into his old, tired eyes as he reminisced his days with his maiden who bore the child of their hopes and dreams. Her hair, as silky as her dress, matched perfectly with her eyes, bright silvery-blonde hair with braids decorated on her head and burns like a crown covers her head. Her hand, strong as a swordswoman, but gentle as a lady as she wiped the dirt and dust off her father's face with a cloth. No other men in the world had been very lucky to have a daughter such as her - Elida Jones, the daughter of the once famed Alex Jones of Kardania.

As Alex Jones rests on his lazy-chair, Elida went downstairs to prepare for dinner. She managed to order some groceries online and delivered to her home via the house droid. The droid has always been a great companion to her family ever since she was a child. She planned to serve chicken stew with some bread and salad. She took all the ingredients that she needed out of the refrigerator, and put them on the serving table, and she quickly took the recipe book at the side of the fridge, since she's still learning the recipes from her late mother. Yes, she was the best cook in the family. Even though she's busy, she's always managed to come home to make dinner for her family. The kirchen's still blooming with the sweet scent of flowers of many kinds, and one flower that still had the strongest scent inside the kitchen-the roses-the most beautiful flower that she loved so much. She always managed to buy a bouquet or two, fresh from the florist, on her way back. Sometimes, she liked to put a rose into the crystal-like glass and watched it afloat inside it, glittering and blooming quite a strong sweet smell. But now, she's gone forever, and all that's left was her memory that she'd left behind; and her daughter, Elida, that lately resembled like her in some way or another. She's always be a responsible daughter, caring for her father and managing the house as if her mother was alive. She snapped out of her hallucination, and she quickly resumed her cooking.

It took her quite awhile to prepare the dinner, and as soon as she finished, the clock showed that it's about three hours before her  bedtime, and her father had already sat down on the dining table, with another companion - a uniformed army personnel. From the ranks of medals on his shoulders, she assumed he was a high-ranking Officer. He sat across the table, facing Alex, while she faced them both from another corner of the table. She could only hear a few words coming out from both men's mouth, as she tried to remember what she did today to be written into her journal.

"It took me quite a week to finish your orders for the Army's new weapon systems, my Lord," Alex munch his way into the most serious talk ever in his life, but still in a calmly manner, and without any food splurted out of his mouth. "I would be gladly do another four to five patents of rifles and muskets, and also a few for your fellow Officers' cuirass and sabers. Oh, not to mention daggers, they're quite useful when you're in a pinch, my Lord."

"And I shall not be too hesitant to know about it, because we're still in a safe situation with the Opposition," replied the Officer, "And as far that I can see, even you could join in the fun, collecting loots and treasures from those hoarding rascals. They even seized a Capital-class ship full of ancient weaponry and schematics of machinery of some kind, plus cargos, and cargos full of ancient gold and currencies the former crew ransacked from other colonies.  Those fools, they've even captured them people as slaves, and you did know them evil beings trying to make those poor people as offerings and sacrifices for some gibberish-lunacy-like hooligans that wasted their time and effort for something that their idiocy drived them to do so."

"Hahaha, it's always their dumb excuses my Lord, but unfortunately we all knew what those people intended to do. They only wanted to make money out of selling people, that is why they made up that story, so that the crewmen couldn't touch them in any ways. Young people always itching for women that easy to obtain." sighed Alex as he closed his eyes in dissapointment. "The moment I've retired from my work, I'd already seen the mischieves and troubles made by the freshmen in my company. Maybe its time they knew that every trouble made always return back to its root. That's why I 've started to make it to a full stop, ever since Aletta had our child." He stared for a moment at Elida who suddenly noticed him, and she smiled back at him, continued with her dinner.

"Hmm, I guess we're not on the same boat nowadays, my former crewman. Even the strongest man cannot buy the strongest love when it comes to building a good family," the Officer exhaled deeply in humble apology. "Even my young lads at home quarrel over who's get to impress their mom better." he suddenly smiles bitterly, thinking deep in his head, realising that he's also tired from the wars outside, while trying to "control the peace" inside his house, where his three young boys live energetically everyday. Then he noticed Elida, still eating slowly and politely in front of two old men talking. "You don't need to be shy young girl, since I'm only a passerby of your ship, trying to settle conditions with your father. Also, imagine me as a stowaway, in seek of shelter from the famous Captain of the Fleet, and what would you do if I intended to take control over your shi~ I mean your house."

"She's seldom like this. Maybe something came across her this morning. Sometimes, she even played a sexy, notorious pirate sometimes and chase out the salesman out there, so that I wouldn't be too bothersome to bring out the smelted cuirass in front of them." laughed Alex, as he tried to resume back to where they started about the weapon inventions. Elida didn't bother at all, since she noticed all those talk about "work" really made her feel tiresome. She viewed his father's talking with the Officer as somewhat "leisurely, and manly-childish-like talk", since all that she knew was that every single boy she met always ended up being brutish and aggresively annoying, that's what she thought of.

"Father, I've finished my meal. Can I be dismissed into my bedroom since it is time for me to sleep." Elida stacked her dishes, stood up from her sitting, pushed the chair into the table, took the dishes into the dishwasher, and walked gently into her bedroom, and she curtsied gracefully to the Officer, and gave him her sweet smile like she used to.

Once inside, she changed her clothes into her sleepwear, and brushed and combed her hair before she started to write in her journal. While she writes, she gently untangle her crown-like braids and made sure it stays naturally straight. Her father always said, that to prevent your hair from falling, since he admitted to her that his genetics had dandruff problems, and his head becomes almost bald as he ages. Unfortunately, lucky for him that he met her mother, who always the home's best physician, who always take care of her father's welfare, and also the technology achieved in that Kingdom has always been beneficial to its people. Weird aye, to have such a sweet person like her mother. She then started to turn the pages of her journal, and she began to wrote things down-every bits and details of what she did today-and she wrote them neatly using her favourite blue-colored ballpen. Finally, she wrote down to the moments that occurred tonight. Surprisingly, she wrote it down like a report since she could vividly hear what his father and the Officer said during that dinner.

Before she ended her daily journal, she suddenly remembered about the flower bouquet that she bought earlier from the florist at Jean-Luthere Shops District. She quickly, walked towards the vase of today's flower bouquet, and sniffed the sweet scent of bougainvilleas mixed together with some roses that she bought yesterday. She then closed her eyes, and her fingers ran gently all over the flower bouquet, trying to make herself a lucky flower draw, which was the luckiest flower that she wanted to put inside the crystal glass.

She felt one flower was quite different than the other flowers-since she closed her eyes-she then felt that she touched such a beautiful flower; it's much smoother and silkier than any other flower that she ever touched, and she could feel that it's a rose, since the thorns she touched were quite noticeable. She opened her eyes, and she startled as she really got the flower out of the vase bouquet, and she noticed that it was the bougainvillea, not the rose that she touched. Sighingly, she put the flower gently on the glass foundation of the crystal. Then, slowly, the crystal formed into a glass-like lid around and on top of the flower. She felt a little bit confused as how it turned out that the flower she picked was blue this time, and she never had any wrong guesses before. But then, she finally felt very, very calm and content as she put the crystal glass by her window, which facing the City's Space Port and Naval Docks which also happened to face the blue waters of the city's coastal beaches. She then clapped twice, and in a blink the lights were off; only the bright blue skies and cool breeze accompanied Elida in her bedroom, where the gentle breeze blew her flashing silvery-blonde hair gently in the night at the Kardanian District of Jean-Luthere. She then smiled gently, inhaled deeply and exhaled a gentle sigh as she walked herself onto her bed and heaved herself onto the comforts of her plush pillow.

A few moments later she closed her blue eyes and rest herself in the most comforting dream, ever. Her eyes rolled down silvery-white tears as she dreamt of seeing her mother, and they played together, watched by his father, somewhere in the playgrounds during her childhood.
Only the sounds of breeze and machineworks could be heard, fading as they slowly drowned inside the calm room.

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Author's Note

Is the introduction good or do I need to add something to bright it up?

Plus, is the pacing of this story good, or do I need to brush up some more to attract first-time readers?