Chapter 55: Who Did She Love?
"What did that young man do?" Felixa asked. She had a feeling that the maiden’s tragedy must be caused by that young man.
"The young man was not pleased with her change of heart. He gave her promises of grandeur if she leaves the tree. But the maiden’s heart changed by then. She decided not to go with the young man anymore. The tree needed her. The young man got angry by her refusal and filled with desperation and jealousy, he asked his men to cut down the tree and forcibly take the maiden," Flavia took in a deep breath.
Felixa raised her eyebrows and leaned forward as she got more excited to know more.
"The maiden saw the tree getting chopped off under the command of the young man she loved. She saw the cruelty of the man looking at the tree and wanted it destroyed. She stared at his cruelty and she felt something getting untied inside her. Filled with love for the tree, she stared at the cruelty directed at the vulnerable tree, and she mirrored the cruelty. She screamed and the earth shook. The sky darkened and the men holding the axes dropped them as they cannot bear her scream.
The young man couldn’t bear her scream and ran to her to apologize. But before he had a chance, the maiden picked up an ax and stuck herself down. The young man watched as her blood turned into white crystalline roses and fell on the ground like snowflakes. The tree saw the maiden dying and he shed tears of red. The red from His flowers fell on the white crystalline roses making the roses red.
’Go back,’ she whispered in her last breath to the young man who held her.’You will never get me’, she said. ’I shall not watch the tree suffer.’ And she closed her eyes in the embrace of the young man...The earth became calm, the skies stayed gloomy and her breathing stopped."
"She died?" Felixa asked, her throat getting heavy with sorrow. "Not saying a word to the tree?"
Flavia nodded. "The young man saw what he did. The withering tree and the dead woman and he realized that he loved the woman truly. But his pride and greed made him not see the love he had for her. He was the one who pushed her to this. He repented but there was no way to even ask for forgiveness. He couldn’t contain his despair. His chest hurt unable to bear the remorse and he curled on the ground. Holding the hand of the dead maiden he loved, he closed his eyes...
A drop of his tear that was filled with remorse mixed with the blood-red rose that contained the maiden’s resentment and the tree’s pain. That ground was cursed by the strong emotions left by those three, making the soil dark and the air stale. Any animal that came in contact with the ground got attacked by the strong negative emotions and darkness took over them, turning them into monsters."
Flavia took in a deep breath seeing Felixa bowing her head. "Isn’t their love heartbreaking?" She asked Felixa and Felixa bit her lips.
"What good is remorse after he hurt her?" Felixa asked. "I feel bad for the tree. He never got to tell her what he felt. And Flavia," she looked at her. "Who do you think the maiden loved when she died?" she asked.
"The maiden?" Flavia stared at her for a while. "I always thought that the one person she loved was the young man. What she had for the tree was affection and was not love. For her, that tree was her family. But the tree loved her truly and as the young man was late to realize, he did too..."