All Chapters of Dreaming of Flowers: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

Larkin nods. "Now my people do not want to mingle with Mann. We tend to live for a very long time, longer than even Alva, and we have third and fourth generation people left from when Mann originally turned on our goddess." "Wait, you know about that?" He nods again. "We all have different history books. The Alva's is a bit more... polished. Cuts out the dirty truths. But we know how Sanju was betrayed by the Mann she loved, and how she brought them here as her slaves. How she forced them to breed so she could work their children to the grave as penance for what was done to her people. We have both hurt each other, and we see no good coming from returning to their world. It seems too risky. After all we've done to each other, there is no way there can be peace." I stayed sil

"Can I be honest with you?" Bacudal nods once, sharply at my question. "I have lived with Mann for a very long time... and I must agree with you. They are not good." I swallow again. I'm not just kissing his ass to get away, his story makes way too much sense. "I have always known that we are a parasite, we steal from the weak then sell their own goods back to them at a taxed price. We kill nature and animals and the world we live in. I know that." "Yet you reside with the Alva, and they do not acknowledge that. They treat Mann as the ideal." He tilts his head to the side, turning to crawl back on top of his eggs. He was kind of... twitchy? Ticked his head around a lot, and his eyes didn't stay still for long. "I literally just learned that this was something you were fighting about." I slap my thighs with my hands.&nb

"Okay." Is all I say to Larkin. I have so much more in me though. I wish we could've spent more time together. I wish I could've known you better. I wanted to know what he looked like in the morning, and what he was scared of, and what he loved. I wanted to meet his siblings and learn about his life here. But I guess we were skipping all of that. We were going from epic, star crossed lovers, to strangers.In just a second.I hope we're together, in another life.He doesn't say anything, just walks off back towards where we came. I stand there, my heart beating in my chest, my blood flowing in my ears, and tears burning at my throat.That hurt, I can't lie.I say once again, I've never had a boyfriend, or a whatever the hell Larkin was to me. So, I'd never had to deal with letting someone like that go.It fucking hurt.I let a sob escape my lips and fall back against a tree, sliding down it and burying my face in my knees, sobbing like a child. I hated that in the end, we just ended u

"We'll stop here for the night."We'd been walking for hours, past even when the sun went down. Erik had kept suggesting we stop while glancing over at me, and Reni kept insisting we could make it home in just a few hours if we kept going. They went back and forth like that for a while, until Erik saw me stumble over a tree branch and decided I was simply too tired to continue, and we would be making camp for the night. I wasn't not tired, but I didn't want to slow everyone else down even more than I already was. Erik had said they'd gotten here in six hours on their own, but with me, we were already touching the ten-hour mark.Appparently I was quite slow.We'd found a half-crumbled building, the roof was gone, but the remaining walls stood twenty feet high. It would protect us from wild animals while we slept, Reni said with a firm nod as she examined the area."I'll make you a bed up here." Erik tells me. There's a raised platform that looks like it was once a kitchen, with half of

"Are you tired?" I look away from Reni and the other chatting Alva and to Erik, who is looking me up and down like he's checking for injuries.I shrug. "I guess." He ushers me towards the platform and behind the half wall, and sure enough, there is a large nest of clothes and animal pelts.He kneels down then on one knee and pats his bent one with his hand. "Give me your foot." I comply, watching him curiously as he starts removing my shoe. I can hear his men laughing a few feet away, but I can only focus on his gentle fingers untying the soft leather strings. "The other." He says once he's slid it off and set it aside. This foot is the one that still bears his anklet, and I saw him notice right away. "You still wear it." He says as he unties my shoe. I nod, even though he isn't looking at me. "Has anyone told you of its meaning?" He looks up at me, pulling my shoe off as he does. I shake my head, feigning ignorance. No one did tell me its meaning, I just happened to overhear it. He s