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Description
She had already learned how terrible people can be.  She did not understand why she had to learn it again.
"Here we are my darling, nice fresh water for you..." She sang to the green and yellow striped plant.  It was special to her.  It was her life.
People had wondered why she was so attached to the plant.  They'd never understand, she told herself, they didn't even understand him.

She had loved him.  She was the only one who had.  There was no doubt in her heart or mind, she certainly did love him.  And they took him from her.
The rest of them just didn't understand.  He was different than the rest of them, but that was no reason for their hate.  She remembered the cold night when Tobias had been taken from her, his life taken brutally before her very eyes. The sharp blades had glinted in the moonlight and the blood shined black when they cut him open.  His pained expression, his hand limply reaching out for her, trying to hold on for her but unable to remain alive.
She had loved him.  No one had understood what he did, why he lived alone in that church, but she could get it.  His parents had kept it, and he felt that it was his duty to continue it after they were gone.
He had thought she was dead when he had fought those terrible people.  She had regained consciousness just in time to see him slaughtered and laid out before her like some dying animal.  With her love deceased and Tobias dead, she had gone off to another town, another life.  That night was five years gone, and she still felt the pain.

No one knew her in this town, no one even blinked at her strangely.  The small amount of elven ancestry she had didn't even make these people look twice.  They were all so varied, it didn't even register to them.  That worked for her.
Yet somehow they had noticed her unnatural love for this simple plant.  It had flourished in the time she'd been here, and it showed no signs of slowing.  It was the only thing that she brought with her when she arrived.

She got it after she cried over him.  It had been a hard trip up to that rocky path, what he called a beach.  She hadn't understood at first how a big pile of rocks could be a beach, but she knew it well by the time they had decided to run.  If only they had run but a day sooner.  It was his beach, it was his solitude.  His escape.  The ocean was the world, and this was the only land he could stand on.
She buried him there because of his adoration for the place, and when she finished mourning she saw it.  The plant had been growing, he'd been tending it.  She remembered planting it with him, remembered the promise that it would grow to be a great thing of beauty.  She remembered how he cared for it, how she could see how much he loved so simple of a thing.  How could any boy so young look so old, so tired, and yet so full of loving and care?
It had grown.  It had sprouted out of the ground and was reaching its hand up to the sky in search for the sun.  That bright star it would never be able to reach.  She took it, all of its roots and the dirt that they were swimming in, and took it with her as she ran towards the sun that had already set.

Five years.  It had been five years, and yet she remembered it all so clearly.  The plant had flourished, just as he said, and she gave it the love that she could no longer give him.  To her, it was all she had left of him, and it was so very precious to her.

She had already learned how terrible people can be.  She did not understand why she had to learn it again.

The people didn't like how much she adored the plant.  It started with simple taunts and jeers, but then they went further.  One morning she woke up to find that someone had uprooted the entire plant.  Through hard work and tears, she had saved it.  She saved him.
They didn't stop.  She caught several of them trying to get into her yard and hurt the plant.  It got to the point where she built up a fence and topped it off with sharp wire to keep them out.
Why couldn't it last?
They wouldn't give up.  They cut the wires, they broke the fence and got in.  So many times, she had to try so hard to save the plant.  It got so bad that she transferred it into her home, using the largest pot she could find for it.
It didn't stop.

It was on the sixth year to the day from the one that she had left his body in the ground that it happened.
The whole town.  The whole entire town was there.
She couldn't even comprehend that.  She's never seen so many people together at once.  They all surrounded her house, they wouldn't give up until they had the plant.  Two held her down as she watched them rip the plant out of the soil, tear it to shreds in front of her eyes.  They left it at her feet to be soaked by her tears, beyond any saving that she could give.

In only a day or two the house suddenly became unoccupied.  Completely furnished, it all remained the same as it had been that night they destroyed him again.
Even the remains of the plant were left on the floor.  The front of the house had a message on it, spray painted in bright red for the whole town to read.
"IT IS YOURS. I GIVE UP."
The front door was left hanging open, and no one saw her leave.  The house was investigated, and there was nothing found missing, damaged, undone.  All the bills had been paid, the house deed was sitting on the kitchen table.  The only thing that was gone from the entire house was labeled "negligible" by the investigators.
One small thing was missing.  Out of the plant, there was one part that was carefully removed, with a message on the floor to accompany it.
"YOU WILL NOT TAKE HIM FROM ME"
There was just enough of the plant gone to start anew.  To grow again.

To live.

Description
She had already learned how terrible people can be.  She did not understand why she had to learn it again.
"Here we are my darling, nice fresh water for you..." She sang to the green and yellow striped plant.  It was special to her.  It was her life.
People had wondered why she was so attached to the plant.  They'd never understand, she told herself, they didn't even understand him.

She had loved him.  She was the only one who had.  There was no doubt in her heart or mind, she certainly did love him.  And they took him from her.
The rest of them just didn't understand.  He was different than the rest of them, but that was no reason for their hate.  She remembered the cold night when Tobias had been taken from her, his life taken brutally before her very eyes. The sharp blades had glinted in the moonlight and the blood shined black when they cut him open.  His pained expression, his hand limply reaching out for her, trying to hold on for her but unable to remain alive.
She had loved him.  No one had understood what he did, why he lived alone in that church, but she could get it.  His parents had kept it, and he felt that it was his duty to continue it after they were gone.
He had thought she was dead when he had fought those terrible people.  She had regained consciousness just in time to see him slaughtered and laid out before her like some dying animal.  With her love deceased and Tobias dead, she had gone off to another town, another life.  That night was five years gone, and she still felt the pain.

No one knew her in this town, no one even blinked at her strangely.  The small amount of elven ancestry she had didn't even make these people look twice.  They were all so varied, it didn't even register to them.  That worked for her.
Yet somehow they had noticed her unnatural love for this simple plant.  It had flourished in the time she'd been here, and it showed no signs of slowing.  It was the only thing that she brought with her when she arrived.

She got it after she cried over him.  It had been a hard trip up to that rocky path, what he called a beach.  She hadn't understood at first how a big pile of rocks could be a beach, but she knew it well by the time they had decided to run.  If only they had run but a day sooner.  It was his beach, it was his solitude.  His escape.  The ocean was the world, and this was the only land he could stand on.
She buried him there because of his adoration for the place, and when she finished mourning she saw it.  The plant had been growing, he'd been tending it.  She remembered planting it with him, remembered the promise that it would grow to be a great thing of beauty.  She remembered how he cared for it, how she could see how much he loved so simple of a thing.  How could any boy so young look so old, so tired, and yet so full of loving and care?
It had grown.  It had sprouted out of the ground and was reaching its hand up to the sky in search for the sun.  That bright star it would never be able to reach.  She took it, all of its roots and the dirt that they were swimming in, and took it with her as she ran towards the sun that had already set.

Five years.  It had been five years, and yet she remembered it all so clearly.  The plant had flourished, just as he said, and she gave it the love that she could no longer give him.  To her, it was all she had left of him, and it was so very precious to her.

She had already learned how terrible people can be.  She did not understand why she had to learn it again.

The people didn't like how much she adored the plant.  It started with simple taunts and jeers, but then they went further.  One morning she woke up to find that someone had uprooted the entire plant.  Through hard work and tears, she had saved it.  She saved him.
They didn't stop.  She caught several of them trying to get into her yard and hurt the plant.  It got to the point where she built up a fence and topped it off with sharp wire to keep them out.
Why couldn't it last?
They wouldn't give up.  They cut the wires, they broke the fence and got in.  So many times, she had to try so hard to save the plant.  It got so bad that she transferred it into her home, using the largest pot she could find for it.
It didn't stop.

It was on the sixth year to the day from the one that she had left his body in the ground that it happened.
The whole town.  The whole entire town was there.
She couldn't even comprehend that.  She's never seen so many people together at once.  They all surrounded her house, they wouldn't give up until they had the plant.  Two held her down as she watched them rip the plant out of the soil, tear it to shreds in front of her eyes.  They left it at her feet to be soaked by her tears, beyond any saving that she could give.

In only a day or two the house suddenly became unoccupied.  Completely furnished, it all remained the same as it had been that night they destroyed him again.
Even the remains of the plant were left on the floor.  The front of the house had a message on it, spray painted in bright red for the whole town to read.
"IT IS YOURS. I GIVE UP."
The front door was left hanging open, and no one saw her leave.  The house was investigated, and there was nothing found missing, damaged, undone.  All the bills had been paid, the house deed was sitting on the kitchen table.  The only thing that was gone from the entire house was labeled "negligible" by the investigators.
One small thing was missing.  Out of the plant, there was one part that was carefully removed, with a message on the floor to accompany it.
"YOU WILL NOT TAKE HIM FROM ME"
There was just enough of the plant gone to start anew.  To grow again.

To live.