IV

"Sienna."

The young adult awakened with a gasp. Gray sunlight poured from the skies upon her like tears; an eery, blazing warmth cocooned her shivering frame in the face of the oncoming storm. Her clothes were soaked through with rainwater. Meanwhile, the lilies whispered amongst themselves eagerly while the girl propped herself up and surveyed her surroundings.

What the hell...?

She was in a garden, laying on a stone path that seemed to wind on and on forever. Bushes of all sizes stood on either side of her, and the grass framing the walkway was dotted with various different flower families - roses, tulips, daffodils, and so on and so forth. Some had faces. Others did not.

"That's not strange at all," the twenty-two year old muttered, shakily rising to her feet. She stumbled along the path until she came to a bird bath and peered at her reflection in its still waters with a hard expression, gripping the bath's edges tightly.

She didn't recognize the person gazing back at her in the ever still looking glass.

Look again, love.

A bird swooped down and perched on the bath's rim. She did. For a long while, she stood there, staring at the unfamiliar face she saw in the water. Her cheeks were stained red with crimson tears, her eyes empty and washed out. Her wrist ached. She titled it to the side to find an array of scratches marking her pale skin. The longer she stood there, the more it burned. It felt as though she'd been stung by a thousand wasps.

She was so absorbed in her confusion, Sienna didn't hear the flowers sighing behind her. "Your heart's still pure, stupid girl."

What? "Who said that?"

"Me, you idjit." A very obnoxious, snobby red rose snapped.

Sienna blinked.

"Oh, for the love of God," The rose huffed. "The reflection in the bird bath's waters is not your own. Not entirely, anyway. Her darkness has left a stain upon these lands, distorting everything."

"What are you talking about?" In spite of her confusion, Sienna turned to face her reflection again. A curious girl with large, unearthly amber eyes and a button nose stared back at her. The blood coloured tears were gone now, and her eyes looked a little less sad.

"This wretched kingdom is tainted," The flower murmured. Sienna watched on in astonishment as it took on a more humanoid form and swiped at the water, causing ripples to form and blur the reflection. "Corrupted by an evil force. Therefore, nothing here is as it seems."

He sighed. "You mustn't venture forth any further. The trees are your enemies, and the shadows lurking out of sight watch you from afar. The Queen has a warrant for your head, you see; they'll use any means necessary to capture you. It would seem as though the flowers are your only friends."

"Enough!" One of the lilies roared. "We do not speak of them."

Sienna was just about to ask who "they" were, but a bloodcurdling shriek shattered the eery serenity that formerly blanketed the garden. The flower-man suddenly poofed. The rest of the flowers cowered and moaned; just as a rather large, ferocious black blur burst from the bushes, a horn blew and a group of centaurs thundered onto the path. The last thing Sienna saw was the masked face of a centaur, reaching out, then darkness.

When Sienna opened her eyes again, she found herself lying on a blanket of shimmering green clovers. She blinked and rubbed her eyes in disbelief. The last thing she remembered before blacking out was the feeling of her body colliding with a mattress; how the heck did she end up here?

The meadow wasn't even the strangest part. The strangest part in all this, she quickly realized, wasn't so much a "what" as it was a "who". Upon sitting up, her eyes fell upon the bizarre creature sitting criss-cross applesauce across from her. He had a kind face, complete with a pair of warm, twinkling brown eyes, a mustache and beard, and the legs and horns of a goat. When he smiled, his eyes crinkled. "Ah. There she is."

"Do I know you?"

"No," The satyr finally admitted. "You were whisked away before I could properly introduce myself."

Sienna found herself nodding, and stopped. She watched him weave a magnificent flower crown out of seemingly nowhere with curiosity, her lips pursed. Then she wrinkled her nose as the creature placed it atop her head. It reeked of irises, her favourite flower. Her eyes met the faun's. "How did you...?"

"I know a lot of things, dearie," The satyr replied calmly, already starting a new clover chain. "For example, I know that the boy you're currently sleeping with cares about you. And I know you return those affections - not to mention the affections of another, might I add."

Her cheeks warmed. "So, in other words, you're a god."

The satyr paused for a moment. "Yes."

Sienna arched a brow. The horned immortal ignored her, still working on his clover chain, humming to himself as he worked.

She suddenly decided to get up and wandered over to a towering oak. The elder of the two didn't even look up as she began to climb, easily hauling her weight from branch to branch. Though the limbs held firm beneath her bare feet, her hands trembled. "Then...hold up. So, if you're a god, who are you?"

Just as the immortal opened his mouth to speak, the meadow around them shimmered, and Sienna awoke drenched in a cold sweat. It took a moment for her brain to catch up. The trees and lightning bugs were gone, and the room was eerily quiet. Despite the silence, the horned being's music still echoed in her ears.

A pair of arms were loosely wrapped around her waist.

Ever so carefully, Sienna freed herself from her captor's grip and sat up. Her brow furrowed. Next to her, Jason lay lost in slumber. The grey sunlight spilling through the open window turned his dirty blond hair gold, blinding Sienna. She quickly looked away and racked her brain. How on earth had she ended up in Jason's bed, and why couldn't she remember anything?

Wary so as to not wake him, the auburn haired girl slipped into a pair of sneakers and went for a walk. Dead leaves crunched underneath her feet, easily drowning out the six AM chatter of the birds. Feeble rays of sunlight poked through the treetops, and the clouds partially hid the sun.

In no time at all, Sienna found herself standing in a small clearing. She could hear the quiet babbling of a stream in the distance and started towards it. As she grew closer, the soft gurgling grew louder, and the dead leaves rustled excitedly beneath her boots. At last she stumbled upon the whispering brook.

Cold and pensive, the glassy dark blue waters reflected the depressed beige clouds and glorious crimson and gold treetops solemnly. Sienna suspected that the currents were too strong for swimming, and that the water was too cold anyway. In spite of it's chilling aura the area was beautiful. A carpet of brilliant red, orange and yellow leaves blanketed the forest's floor. A deer watched this strange creature from afar, hidden behind conjoined tree trunks.

Their eyes met. For the longest time, they stood their, sizing each other up. Sienna didn't dare look away, though it was difficult to ignore the thundering of her heart against her ribs. Neither one of them moved. It was as if the universe was holding her breath, as if time itself had frozen dead in its tracks and stubbornly refused to move forward. Therefore, the moment hung suspended in time and space.

The sudden snap of a twig finally scared off the little deer. Shaking her head, Sienna turned on her heel to leave when she suddenly tripped on a tree root. There was no time to cry out as her body plunged into the cool river, soon to be swept away by the vicious currents.

The last thing she saw was a horned figure, diving into the frigid waters, and the taunting grey skies. Then the world went dark.