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"It just won't cut sir," the young rabbit grunted as he hacked at the thorny vine with a machete.
"No luck here either sir," panted a calico tom from across the garden as he swung an axe.
"Grrrrrrrrrrr," growled Mr. Vander, the head groundskeeper of Castle Briar, as he squatted down to look at the wretched invader. The old ocelot pushed the spectacles back up his muzzle as he glared at one of the unopened buds.
It had been a week since King Thorn's coronation. Shortly afterward, Vander he had noticed the strange plant beginning to sprout between the white roses which he had planted many years ago. In all his travels to procure rare and beautiful plants for the royal gardens Vander had never seen it’s like. Although it appeared to be a variety of rose, the vine was unusually thick and colored a deep myrtle green with wickedly sharp, grey thorns. Scattered along the length of each vine were dark violet rose buds none of which had yet bloomed.
Although the ocelot had originally been fascinated by the bush, its vines had grown to such lengths that they now reached every corner of the garden and had begun to entangle themselves with every other plant they encountered. Soon the garden would be completely overrun. To make matters worse, nothing that the landscaping crew had tried to destroy the bush or inhibit its growth had worked. It seemed nigh indestructible.
“Very well,” Mr. Vander said as he sneered at the bush. “We shall simply have to dig it up by its roots and starve it to death. Get the shovels.”
As the landscapers began to dig around the base of the plant, the ground beneath them suddenly began to shift and tremble. The landscapers fell down and began to scramble away as something resembling a giant rose bud slowly rose from the soil. They were so struck with awe at the large, pulsing rose-head that they did not notice as the furthermost roses in the garden began to wilt and die. The wave of death swept inward toward the giant rose bud as if it were drawing the life of the garden into itself. It was then that the violet rose-buds began to bloom on the vine. The air was suddenly filled with an overpoweringly sweet and strangely spicy aroma, like a combination of roses, cinnamon, and cloves. The giant rose bud seemed to shudder before it too began to unwind, the smell growing stronger with the spread of each petal.
“Mmmmmmmm! ” moaned a figure that rose slowly from the folds of the giant blossom, her arms stretched upward as if awakening from a long sleep. Mr. Vander and the landscapers looked up in slack-jawed wonder at the beautiful mare that stepped out of the center of the flower. She wore a form-fitting black breast plate which bore the engraving of a rose at its center. She also wore two black bracer’s, each bearing a gem, one azure, the other crimson. Her legs were mostly covered by a long violet skirt which was split up to the hip on one side, allowing her to walk forward gracefully. An ornate carved dagger hung at her side from a silken sash which had been twisted into rope-like belt.
“I’m alive,” the mare smirked at the speechless men on the ground before her. Reaching up, she ran one hand luxuriously from her ribs, over her waist and past her hip. “And in the flesh.”
Looking at her hand the mare spied a silver, emerald-crowned ring on her finger. Her eyes lit up with mischievous delight and awe.
“Oh, Justice. It’s beautiful,” she whispered before turning to exit the gardens, leaving the flabbergasted Mr. Vander and his gardening force behind. She quickly made her way out of the castle, overpowering only three guards before finally spotting the harbor in the distance.
“Don’t wory my love, I’ll find you,” she crooned as she slowly walked towards the ships. “And when I do, I swear that nothing shall ever come between us again.”
She firmly gripped the handle of her dagger. “And may the gods have pity on whosoever tries.”
OOC// To be continued in Furry Fury 3!
