the heart

Foxglove Monroe · 01-27-2012, 03:22 PM

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IDEK. xD Skip all the name rambling, I'm not really sure where it came from? 1,067 words.

Names were fickle things. They were chosen by parents when their children were hardly more than wriggling bodies on the ground, and they were expected to live up to those names. Her family history included prophecies she knew nothing about, but there was a long history behind her family and her great-uncle and her grandmother had been named for what they were expected to do. Her own mother had named all of her children after flowers with medicinal or drug use, even the sole male of the litter. Foxglove did not know all of the purpose behind their names, but she knew what the flowers they were named for could do. Her mother had told her as much.

Poppy had been her favorite (though Lolita had never specifically said that, it had always been obvious in the way that their mother had doted on her alone) and had looked like Pippa, and so she had been named in a similar fashion. Poppies were associated with opium, a drug. Her mother had done drugs, she knew, though she did not know to what extent. Perhaps it did not matter. The name was pretty, despite its associations, and Foxglove knew it suited her rust and white sister more than it ever would have suited her. Poppies were red, like her sister.

Magnolias. These flowers were used for reducing anxiety, and so the happy antics of her sister as a puppy had relieved some of her mother’s anxieties. Similarly, when the girl had been taken out of the Monroe matriarch’s life, her anxieties had returned, for she had feared for her daughter, even if she would not vocalize this. Lolita had known that Niro would care for her, true, but she had missed her daughter terribly, and Foxglove had seen it so easily that it was blinding.

Orchid. The only male of the litter had been born without even a breath of life. Despite the feminine nature of flowers, he had been named for one, too. It was not only a flower, but the combining form for all things male in the medical world. Orchids were used in many ancient medicines, dating back to ancient China. It was used to treat ailments and diseases, the very things that had likely taken him away from his family before he even had time to breathe.

Foxglove. She had come next, along with her smaller, weaker twin. These flowers could be used to heal, or they could be used to kill. Dead Man’s Bells. Witches’ Gloves. These were the things she was named for, and so it was fitting with her similar affliction to Lolita’s. They could cause hallucinations, delirium, and even death. Some used these flowers for that very purpose, to see things they might not see otherwise. It was not a risk Foxglove would ever take for her namesake, but then, no drugs had ever entered her system willingly.

Finally, Iris. The smaller and weaker blonde girl, the one who had lived no longer than a week, if that. Somewhere in the old Dahlia de Mai lands there were two small graves that held the bodies of Iris and Orchid, but Foxglove did not visit them, even after returning to these lands. Irises were used in sedative medication, among other things, and so this might be fitting, as well, for she had been quiet, docile, and hardly active at all during her short life. Foxglove did not mourn for the loss of her twin or her brother, truly, for she knew neither of them.

Their names had been given to them before even their eyes were open, or in Orchid’s case, before he was cold in the ground. And yet, somehow their names fit them in ways she might never have expected. It was funny, that. Would that always be the way it was? If she were to ever have puppies herself, would she be able to give them names to fit? Had they grown to fit their names, or was that simply coincidence, and a big one at that, for there were five of them.

When the councilwoman suggested a name, Foxglove nodded slowly, considering it. She did not know if such a name would fit her mare, but she tested it out anyway, just as she had done with Valeria, which she also was unsure of. “Uwoduhi,” she repeated after the larger female. The tongue of the tribe was still so foreign to her, much like the Hungarian language had once been to her. Now, though, she spoke it fluently, though she did not know if the same would ever be said for the language of the tribe. She’d truly made little effort to learn it.

Neither name seemed right yet, but she would play with them, tinker with the way they sounded and see how the mare responded to them in different situations. At any rate, she now had two options that might prove useful, and that was more than could se said about only moments prior. There was still a sense of uneasiness to the way she stood, watching her councilwoman carefully for fear of being prosecuted by her, as well. Ulilohi had done nothing to indicate that this was a possibility; in fact, she seemed to be trying very hard for Foxglove’s sake, and she wanted only to please the councilwoman, for this was still her home, as little as it felt like one in recent times. She could only hope that things would get better for her with a new leader.

Her eyes widened at the mention of how many sheep got loose. Foxglove did not often go to the stables, only to put her horse away and get her again, and she did not know anything of the other animals. Going to the stables made her think too much of Liliana, and indirectly her mother, so she chose not to subject herself that that. The mention of an injury was unfortunate, but as she did not know Gemma, it was hard to picture it and so it was hard to empathize. “That must have been awful. I am sorry I could not help,” she admitted. As a member of the tribe, however much she felt that she was not viewed in the same light as others, she should have been there to help, but the fact that she avoided the stables worked against her.

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