Through the Eyes of a Wildflower

“Ouch”

“Hey!”

“Stop that!”

I felt something brush against me and blinked up sleepily, my petals swaying in the breeze. My leaves stiffened as I realised, it was the leg of a giant. I could hear my friends being jostled around and a chorus of voices complaining as huge stalks pushed them aside.

No, no. These creatures are not giants, they are humans, right? They don’t call them stalks. What do they call them? Ah, yes, hands. I felt a sense of satisfaction wash over me. I still remember my grandma’s stories! I looked over at the meadow’s edge and spotted a cluster of more humans huddled together.

I craned up as much as I could to observe this human who had walked past me. I could see white on top and black towards the bottom. I frowned, why would someone want to be white or black? I looked pretty in purple (being the soft lavender I was). This human should have coloured himself in lavender. I had heard from my family when I was just a sapling, that humans can change colours just like chameleons. Pascal, our friend chameleon, was off visiting a distant relative, and I couldn’t wait for him to come back and regale me with tales of his travel.

I looked around at the meadow we call our home. Moss and hearth grew in clumps. I knew they would be complaining about space within themselves. I could see Grandpa Oak at the edge of the meadow, near the cluster of humans, no doubt observing silently. I felt my cousins stiffen near me, tall and proud stalks of lavender in a shallow curve.

“Watch out!” said Rory, using the now strongly blowing wind to bend backwards.

I rolled my eyes.

“Even if we do watch out, what are we going to do? It’s not like we can pull ourselves out and run!”

Just then a dark shadow fell on us. I looked up to see the human in white getting closer. My cousins, now following Rory, bent backwards, trying their hardest not to get squished under this giant. I watched as he lay down, the top of his head stopping just shy of the base of our growing curve.

Up close, I could see every detail of this… this human, who had his eyes closed and a slight smile on his face. The serene expression on his face made me smile as well. I noticed a brown spot on the fleshy part of his cheek which looked a lot like Larry’s leaf after he was bitten by a ladybug and never healed.

My eyes moved to his ear, which was bigger than my spike! Hmm, what are those things? I could see shiny objects, long and thin contrasting against the soft tan of his skin. I had always loved soft browns and would love to exchange my boring green stalks for a lovely tan. The smooth objects reflected my face weirdly, where I could see myself in squiggly lines. Mesmerised by the reflections, I didn’t notice Larry slapping me with his calyx. I jumped.

“I think they are called earrings. Pascal had some when he came last spring, remember?” Larry whispered.

“Why on earth are you whispering? You know humans can’t hear us.” I replied, rubbing my stem at the place where Larry had struck.

Suddenly, instead of my reflection on the “earrings”, I was looking into a pair of big, deep brown eyes, half open and slanted. They reminded me of Sepheron’s eyes. Long ago, in the age of legends, Sepheron was hailed as the guardian of the meadows and the mountain peaks, worshipped by all flora and fauna. This human's eyes were sharp and intelligent, eyes fit for a dragon. These beautiful eyes were the colour of the soil when the first drops of rain wet them. Lost in these eyes, I jumped a second time when I could no longer hear the wind, only a gentle breeze wafting past.

“Hi there.” I heard a deep voice echo around me and I realised it was the human speaking to me.