Chapter 1: The blooming rose

It was such a sunny day outside this morning. The sky was clear and blue, with only a handful of puffy white clouds here and there. She could hear crickets and birds chirping, and the sound of the fountain in the distance. The sun warmed her face, as well as the grass beneath her back and her head. In the air was the fragrance of too many flowers to count, but all of them drew her attention.

She saw the puffy seed form of a dandelion floating down through the air, and it soon drifted onto her face. It caused her nose to tingle and Saya, the girl, raised a hand to pull it from her face as she sat up.

"I wonder where Haji is." She thought out loud.

Usually her servant, and friend, was by her side. And when he wasn't she at least would know where he was.

The day was beautiful, and she enjoyed it, but she was bored; there was nothing to do around here. She had the cello to play, fencing to practice, studying to do, and areas to explore, but not one of those things interested her right now. Saya had done them all to death, and now she wasn't able to find anything to do anymore. Now that she thought about it, it wasn't that she didn't have anything to do, but rather there wasn't anything that she wanted to do.

"Where is he?" Saya thought out loud again, impatiently. "He's supposed to keep me company, but he is nowhere to be seen."

A breeze blew across the field, catching both her long pink dress and her long bluish black hair in the wind as it soared past her. The dandelion was pulled from her grasp by the surprisingly strong wind and carried off, out of sight. She watched it go, and wished she'd held onto it.

"Saya!" Spoke a masculine voice from behind her, back towards the estate. She turned towards the source of the voice and saw Haji approaching her. The light-skinned, dark-haired man was much taller than she, and it had bothered her just how tall he'd grown, since when he had first arrived he had been much shorter than herself.

Her brown eyes gazed at the man who was very well dressed for a servant, with his medium-length hair held back in a short ponytail. His black suit and white shirt beneath it contrasted her brightly-tinted pink dress. Then again, they weren't supposed to look the same; women and men did not dress alike. Or at the very least, most of the time they did not; whenever Saya practiced fencing she wore the same kind of uniform anyone would, be they male or female.

The year was 1882, and Saya lived on her father, Joel's, enormous estate which spanned virtually the whole countryside. Haji had lived with them for about ten years now, and had grown to be a rather stoic young man. However, he and Saya had developed a relationship that caused them to act somewhat differently around each other than they did around everyone else. Unfortunately they were only really able to enjoy their friendship to its truest extent when no one else was around. Otherwise Haji would be put in danger of being punished for treating Saya like an equal.

"Haji," She spoke back to him as he neared her. "What took you so long? I was waiting here for you for almost an hour! If I got any stains on my dress because-"

"You're the one that chose to wait, and to lie on the grass."

She pouted, and looked away from him. "That's only because you weren't here to keep me company!"

Haji sighed and continued walking towards her. "You need to learn to be more patient, Saya; the world won't revolve around you as much as Joel's estate does." He said, to which she replied with a "Hmph."

"I don't need people to take care of me! I can take care of myself all on my own!"

"What about all of the things that the servants do for you here? Will you be able to do everything yourself?" He asked her.

"Yes." She replied without hesitation or thought.

"You're so stubborn." He explained in a weary tone as he sat down on the grass. She whirled around and put her hands on her hips as she glared down at him.

"Don't sit down! I want to do something!"

"What?"

Pursing her lips, she replied with "I don't know… something."

Haji pulled his pocket knife from a jacket pocket and opened it. He then proceeded to clean the dirt out from beneath his nails. She grew even more flustered at this.

"Don't you clean your nails while I'm around! It's rude!" Saya scolded him.

"But there isn't anything you want me to do." He reasoned in pacification.

Saya dug her hands into her sides and pressed her feet harder down into the ground. The energy of the earth seemed to flow up into her and she felt it building up her temper more and more by the moment, until finally she sighed and spat "Fine!" at him before running away.

"Saya!" He called after her, no doubt following after her as well. But she wouldn't have it; if he wanted to be around her he would have to work for it.

Considering the outfit which she wore, he easily would have had the advantage in terms of mobility, but for some reason even in these clothes she was able to run faster, and Saya darted over the grass and towards the sandy stone of the estate's buildings. Soon she had reached them, as well as the brick foundation beneath them which were made of the same pastel-colored material.

Saya's shoes clacked loudly as she ran on the cobblestones and she ran down between rows of buildings until she came to a spot where they split, allowing her to go right and left as well as just forward. She looked from side to side, deciding which way she could go, as the sounds of Haji's heavier footsteps could be heard reaching the cobblestones as well.

"Saya! Just calm down!" He spoke as loudly as he could without threatening to shout at her in such a public area. She ignored his call, however, and chose to go left, finding a building made of wood amongst the expertly-crafted stone-made ones.

"This should be it." She thought while running up the few steps that were in front of the building and then pushing the door open as she ran down the long, but fairly thin room. About her, many half-dressed servant women seemed surprised at her sudden entrance and called after her in various honorifics as she continued through the building until she'd reached the other side and exited through the door out the back. Glancing behind her, she saw Haji reach the front door of the building and wince in acknowledgment of his defeat before the startled shrieks of the women drove him to apologize and find an alternative route. Saya smirked mischievously as she once again resumed running, knowing that he wouldn't be able to catch up with her with all of the buildings bordering the one she'd just gone through.

Saya continued running for a while, going down a path here and around a corner there, until she finally slowed down to a walk, confident that Haji wouldn't be capable of catching her anymore, or finding her for that matter. Her elevated mood lowered, though, as she realized that she didn't know where she had ended up. Of all the places on the estate which she'd explored Saya never once recalled being where she was right now. Then again, maybe she had and just couldn't recall because all of the stone buildings looked the same when you were surrounded by them.

"Stupid Haji, making me get lost." She thought while walking down the only path that she could; it was a straight alleyway bordered on both sides by thirty-foot-high walls. Her only options were to keep going the way she already was or turn around. Considering how far she'd ran Saya didn't even know if she was in the public area anymore. Though Joel owned all of the property that she had ever been on, he didn't actively use every square inch of it, and some of the areas could even be classified as abandoned ruins.

"I wonder if I'll be able to find my way back." Wondered the girl out loud as she realized how isolated she was.

"I don't think I like this." She thought, continuing on anyway.

The sun had risen higher in the sky as the morning had passed on, and there was still plenty of light, but the amount of ivy growing on the walls coupled with the absence of sounds about her made the girl feel like it might as well have been the depths of night. Saya had never gotten hurt, or at least, when she did get hurt, she always got better right away. But she'd also never been lost and alone before, which she found much scarier than some kind of obvious physical threat.

The path kept going straight for yards, but up ahead she could make out a corner, and it looked like once she got there she could turn left.

"So long as I can get somewhere where I can move around, I'll be able to find my way back, or find someone else to take me back." She told herself this as she continued walking down the only path that she could. However, it proved to not be enough to calm her nerves, and Saya soon found herself running towards the corner up ahead, desperately hoping that it wouldn't just turn to reveal more walls.

Saya was completely convinced that the walls were growing closer together, and it felt like every step she took also made them close one step more. The light, and indeed the path narrowed and what remained of her escape route seemed to be blanketed over in shadow as her shoes ran through the grass. When finally she reached the turn she had to literally stomp down into the grass and balance herself to keep from crashing headfirst into the wall, due to her momentum.

She snapped her gaze to the left, and saw more walls. But as her mind began to go from worried to terrified, she noticed that not a few yards ahead it turned once more, and it looked like a large source of light beamed through the archway; a clearing! Saya sprinted towards the corner as fast she could.

"If nothing else it won't feel as claustrophobic." She reasoned, once again almost colliding with the wall as she turned. However, this time when she made the turn Saya did not realize that she had stepped on her long dress, and she was not even granted the privilege of seeing where she would land as she tripped on the extravagant garment. Her thin body crashed into the ground, and she felt her cheekbone hit a rock, causing a sharp strike of pain to go through her mind as she landed.

It took her a few moments to move. Saya didn't know why. Still, she slowly moved her arms out to her sides and slowly managed to push herself up from the grassy ground, drawing her eyes onto-

"This is amazing!" She thought in wonderment while gazing about the area, astonished. Opposite her on the other wall was another walled-in path covered in ivy, but more importantly, roses. Even more overwhelming than that though, was that a huge clearing, walled-in though it was, stood in front of her, and virtually all of it was covered in bushes of what appeared to be thorn-less roses. They were in so many colors that she thought there might be some even Joel had not seen before; red, pink, purple, green, orange, yellow, white, violet… and more, if her eyes served her correctly.

The sun beamed down on the clearing, appearing to be directly above it, and was obviously one of the factors of all of the roses having such beautiful, vibrant colors. What was perhaps even more remarkable was the fact that they didn't seem to be maintained by anyone; they appeared to all be wild roses.

"And yet they grow within the walls of the estate, and in such a variety of colors." She thought, her fear long gone, replaced by limitless curiosity in looking at every single rose, smelling them, touching them, perhaps even eating a blossom or two if her level of excitement continued raising as it was.

"I'm going to look at the violet ones first!" She thought, running across the grass that remained between her and the ocean of roses.

That was when she heard it. And felt her heart blossom as her curiosity had just moments ago. That was when the singing drew her out of her shallow, privileged world and into a brand new one.

This is my first time writing a story so I appreciate any creative input I may receive. I have written before but do not have a lot of experience having people critiquing my work. Following this week, as this chapter shall count as the first post, updates will occur sometime on Friday. I ask that anyone who dislikes yuri or any other theme of this story to withhold their comments as the theme of the story will not change regardless of objections to its nature. Those who understand what I am saying will be able to discern between that and input on my writing itself. Thank you for reading and I hope you come to enjoy the story.

(Additionally, I have never written sex in a story before. Because of this, and because I have never posted anything on this site before, I do not know to what extent detail is allowed to be shown. The intent of the scenes in which sex will take place will not be for the purpose of arousal, but that obviously will not exclude them from the rules governing how much is permitted in stories posted on this site. I appreciate any feedback people can give me regarding this matter. If nothing else I can always just make things in those cases vague and then post the detailed versions of the story on another site.)