Chapter 1 - Blessed Hannah Tulpa
Her hands tracing a moist bean, Hannah’s lips gave way to a song. Beneath her legs sat a patch of tulips, the petals reaching out to the sun. With a steady progression, the leaves of these flowers had sprouted away from the dirt below their roots.
“With each passing breath, another bout of growth shoots out from my garden.” Hannah rocked back and forth in her cross-legged position. “I always knew I would have to take up the job of being the Grove-Grower some day, but I did not think it would be this easy. Then again, I technically was born with a cheatcode- Such a naughty cheatcode it was. Isn’t that right, Mona?”
Nodding her way came a ball of pollen, dust rotating around its golden edges.
“Ah, your shape has always comforted me, Mona.”
The ball shook some as it floated.
“Oh, no need to be so coy. Everything is naked here in the grove.” Her hair catching a batch of wind, Hannah giggled.
Mona spun in circles for a moment.
“Oh, how cute! A ball of dust like you cannot really hold itself against the breeze, can it?”
Mona pushed itself up and down.
“Well, I would love to cup you in my... hands.”
Mona shivered some, then hopped into Hannah’s palm.
“That’s my little Mona.” Hannah held the beady object, glowing as it did, to her chest. “Now, would you like to hear a story?”
The ball licked its furry edges across the soft skin of the girl’s fingers.
“You and I both know that this grove has been a traditional job, passed down through the years, but there are some people who wish to see it burnt. I don’t understand those people, as much as I try to. You see, I heard from the flowers that there is going to be a big storm. There is going to be a big storm, full ofotherflowers... who want to compete and see which is the strongest. Isn’t that so silly, Mona?”
The pollen bounced and wiggled between Hannah’s pale hands.
“I have heard from thetulips, as they always tell me the current-events of the wind, that there is going to come a woman who will turn into a chaotic agent of demise -- Having forlorn her humanity, along with several others like her -- And try to destroy the other flowers which do not correspond to her... type.” Her eyes widening, Hannah noticed the ball of pollen crawl out from her palms.
Mona wiggled atop Hannah’s fingers, then sat atop her knuckle with a resolute calmness.
“They say that this girl... will be named Natalie Carwell- Heiress to the power of Carnations... only to be defeated by a man... named Maximus de’Navra Kaline. Now, isn’t that justsilly, Mona?”
