Brunehault - Flowery dreams

Brune had had trouble to find her sleep. She had turned a long time in her bed, not knowing what was bothering her. When she finally fell asleep, one could have assumed things were going to get better. They did not. When she only sought rest, she found terror and anguish. She was back to the forest near her father’s estate, where she had fled when her engagement to her hated cousin had been announced. She saw it, the Wood Woad, the hawthorn, with a piece of her skin covering one of its branches. She wanted to run away from it, from the bad memories and the awful consequences of that evening. But an unknown, powerful force dragged her nearer to the bush, slowly but inescapably. She was pulled toward it and fought to escape, but she finally got so close she could feel the leafs and thorns of the bush. She eventually got swallowed by it, surrounded by thorny twigs and white roses.

She panicked and screamed for help  but no one seemed to hear her supplications, not even Diane, who was supposed to feel her pain and anguish, and protect her. Only the Wood Woad heard her cries, and it laughed madly at her. With that strange voice she knew  it said to her: «It's useless, pretty one. You're mine now. I finally get to have all of your sweet, sweet skin. You’ll be part of me. Look, your sprouting flowers already!»

And it was the truth: her skin was turning green and rough, and may flowers, like wild white roses, were beginning to bloom on her hands and arms. She was turning into a Wood Woad herself! She would become a sentient bush for all eternity! She tried to shake the flowers away but found she couldn't move at all.

The hawthorn’s voice spoke again. «Oh no, little one. You won't become like me. You won't live forever, because you're all rotten inside. You let you fears eat at you so badly you have no sap left to nourish your twigs. Look at yourself. You're already beginning to wither. Even your flowers are nothing more than darkness.»

Brune looked at her arms and saw they were shrinking. The may flowers were turning black and dry. She was dying. She felt her strength abandon her. This was the end. She was fading away.

All the sudden, she felt something heavy on her chest. She was still foggy and dizzy from the dream, but the world came back to her in a blurry, inapprehensible picture. There was a wolf leaning on her chest, and Lady Rose sat next to his head. She wondered what kind of new dream this was, then realization hit her, and she recognized Moonlight, Diane's familiar. She was lying on her bed, all sweaty and tousled. Diane was standing next to her, a worried frown on her face. «Are you all right Brune?» she asked. «I felt your distress and came as fast as I could. Good thing you don't lock your door. You seemed to have a really bad dream». Brune began to pet Lady Rose and stand up. Moonlight let go of her and walked toward something that was lying on the floor. Brune screamed at the sight of it: it was a black rose.