Gundam Wing Fan Fiction ❯ The Briar and the Rose ❯ 1 ( Chapter 1 )

I do not own any of the Gundam characters

 

 

I remember that spring day. It was really just like any other spring day, but to my eight year old mind it was a special spring day. Today was the first day of the roses. I always loved the roses. My grandmother planted them the day I was born. To me they were my roses. A gift to me for living. Nonsense, really but romantic all the same.

 

The smell was the most fascinating of aspects to me about the roses. They were always beautiful to look at, but to me beauty was not important. It was what one could give that made one important. The roses gave me a heavenly perfume that made many of my childhood days fond. Maybe it was not such nonsense after all.

 

However, one rose had piqued my interest especially that day. Perhaps that was why it would become so memorable. This was not the most attractive of the roses, yet it had an interesting quality to day. It had very large petals. Larger than I had ever seen on a rose. It was like a puppy that was so ugly it was cute. Those petals were very unbefitting of a rose. Yet something drew me to it, as if it was asking me for my attention. I reached out to pluck it from its stem, wanting to show something so interesting to my mother. I did not think of the thorns until it was to late. As my tiny fingers wrapped around the stem, I felt the sharp prick of nature's self defense.

 

As any child of eight years would do, I went crying to my mother for comfort. She cooed over my terrible wound, and then proceeded to bandage and heal it as only a mother's love will do. That night, she sang me a lullaby in favor of my day's adventures…

 

“I fell asleep down by a stream

And there I had the strangest dream…

And down by Brannon's clan there grows

A Briar and the Rose

 

There's a tree in the forest

And I don't know where

I built a nest out of your hair

And climbing up into the air

 

The Briar and the Rose….”

 

She paused in the middle of her lullaby and looked at me lying on my bed. She said, “Hilde, you learned today that not all things beautiful are gentle and sweet. As a reminder of today's lesson I will call you Briar Rose. It's sweet don't you think? Briar Rose…” And on the dresser next to my mother's rocking chair, sat in a simple glass vase the rose that would forever change my life.