Sabre sat at his desk, carefully painting. He had received a set of watercolor and acrylic paints as well as a few canvases from the townspeople's gifts, and had decided to test it out by painting the view from his room's balcony. He sets down his paintbrush and looks at it for a while, looking at his piece and observing the quality.

There was a soft knock at the door, one Sabre knew. He let M in, but not before trying to hide his painting under the top half of the small box he got the canvas from.

"Good morning, Sabre!" M greets him with a smile. "I see you've finally gotten through all of the parcels the town sent you."

"Yeah, all of them are really nice gifts, too." Sabre replies. "One person sent me some amethyst crystals that are on a stand, and it has this glass thing that goes over it like a cover, and the stand has a light built into it that glows through the crystals."

Sabre points to the amethyst lamp, which is on the shelf.

"Oh, that's beautiful. From one of the mining families, I'm sure." M says. "Anyway, what are you doing today?"

Sabre shifts a little, glancing at the box on his desk.

"Oh, uh, nothing really. Just... being here."

M notices the box on his desk.

"What's that?"

"N-Nothing! Nothing."

M gives a slightly confused look. After a minute, Sabre sighs and lifts the box cover, picking up his painting and looking at it.

"I, uh... I got some watercolors and stuff from one of the gifts, and tried painting for the first time..." Sabre explains. "I don't know if it's any good..."

"Can I see? I'm sure it's not that bad." M asks.

Sabre hesitates for a moment, but turns the canvas around and shows the painting to M.

"Sabre, what do you mean 'you don't know if it's any good'? This is amazing!" M exclaims, stepping a little closer to admire the painting better. "And it's your first time using paints?! You did wonderfully, I mean, look at that! Hang on, hold it up next to the actual view."

M excitedly leads Sabre over to the balcony, and Sabre reluctantly holds up his painting next to the view of the kingdom. Seeing the comparison, M continues to compliment Sabre's artwork while Sabre stays nervously silent.

"It looks almost exactly the same! You did so well!" M says. "You even got the mountains way in the distance, and all of the houses and shops you can see up here, and all of the trees and the petals falling... this is wonderful, Sabre."

"Really? I'm... not too sure I did it right. I did okay on the buildings, but... everything else was really difficult." Sabre replies, handing the painting to M. "I kept messing up on making the tree branches, I just couldn't get them right... and I tried to make the flowers in the trees look more like roses, but they're just splotches with swirls in them-"

"Sabre. It is wonderful, really. You did great." M smiles.

M hands the painting back to Sabre and looks out towards the view, the sea of roses suspended in the air hanging over the town like rubellite clouds. The Red Steves of the kingdom went about their daily lives surrounded by blooming flowers of all kinds and rustic, homely architecture. The birds that lived in the surrounding trees sang their songs that the wind carries through the air.

"The thing about nature, is that there's always going to be imperfections no matter what you do. Whether it's as big as a tree that's twisted and gnarled, or as small as a mouse with a deformed tail, they're going to appear by nature's will and by nature's will alone. No one can really stop it. But the thing is, so much of nature is considered beautiful because of these imperfections. Four leaf clovers are a mutation, but they are considered good luck. Trees have countless uneven or strange branches, but they add to the charm of the tree itself. The mutation of albinism gives animals the appearance of being made of moonlight or snow. There are so many species of plants that were discovered simply because they stood out from the others around them. Anything and everything in nature as some sort of imperfection or something that makes it 'wrong', yet everything it is still so beautiful."

M turns back to Sabre.

"So don't overthink it, okay? Fussing over the details will only make it more stressful. In reality, rolling with the mistakes that are bound to happen will make it so much easier and more enjoyable. Just like nature."

"Th-Thanks, M..." Sabre says quietly, looking at his painting again.

M then heads back inside, with Sabre following. Sabre places the painting back on his desk while M stands next to the door.

"So, if you're not busy, would you like to come with me to the flower shop?" M asks. "I have some more seeds that Amaryllis asked for from the trip I took yesterday and need to take them to him. Since you like visiting the castle's rose garden so much, I figured you might like to see the other flowers we have here too. It's not just roses, you know."

"I know, I saw some hydrangeas and lilies while in town a few times." Sabre says. "Are there more than that?"

"Plenty more! Amaryllis would be happy to show you while I sort through the seeds I got him. If you want to, of course. If you'd rather stay in the castle today, that's fine."

"No, I'd- I'd like to see. I hope it won't be a bother to him..."

"It won't, I promise. He loves talking about his flowers. The real trouble is getting him to stop!" M laughs.

Sabre smiles. M exits the room, and Sabre follows after him. They continue talking as they head out of the castle, M asking if Sabre would like a frame to put his painting in so he could hang it up in his room. Sabre, after a bit of encouragement from his friend, agrees.

The duo passed through the main hall, and the Red Leader just so happened to be coming back from his morning walk. M greets his father on the way out, the Red Leader smiling and doing the same.

As Sabre passed him, the Red Leader gives him a look of understanding. Since Sabre had told him of his past world, the Red Leader now gets why he has so much trouble with people. With crowds. With speaking up. And because he knows... he's so proud that Sabre is slowly learning to trust his kingdom.

Sabre smiles at the Red Leader as well, then he and M enter town, while the Red Leader goes to see what work he has to do today. Although, the Red Leader couldn't help but be a little excited that Sabre seemed relaxed around him for the first time.

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M opens the door to the flower shop, a small bell hanging above the door ringing as he enters. Sabre follows, looking around at all of the various plants and flowers that are on display. Leafy plants sit in various colorful pots dotted around the shop, some as tall as a person while others are small enough to be placed on little shelves. Flowers of many shapes, colors, and sizes surrounded the two, some Sabre recognized from what he's seen before and most being entirely new to him. A strong yet lovely perfume-like scent filled the air, adding to the whimsical atmosphere.

A voice came from a different room, one which had its entrance behind the counter. The door was open, letting Sabre see lots of large glass windows in the room, along with rays of sunshine coming from above, where there must be skylights. He thought that must be the greenhouse he saw the roof of when approaching the shop.

"I'll be with you in just a minute!" The voice calls. "Just a bit busy at the moment..."

"It's alright, Amaryllis." M replies.

"Oh, Amaris! Wonderful, I was just wondering when you'd come by with those seeds I asked for." Amaryllis says from the other room. "Just give me a few more- Ah, got it!"

Amaryllis, the shopkeeper, comes out of the other room holding a jar. The cheerful shopkeeper has a white apron with various colorful stains on it over a pastel raspberry-colored shirt with long, puffy sleeves. There's small amounts of dirt wiped onto his light grey pants, and a bit of mud caked on the sides of his apple-colored boots. There's a red carnation tucked behind his ear like someone would do with a pencil. Round maroon glasses adorn his face.

Amaryllis walks over to the door for a moment, opening it and releasing a green beetle from the jar. He then closes the door a walks back to the counter, placing the jar down next to a pot that's seemingly in the process of being fixed.

"Sorry, I found a beetle in my spider lilies and didn't have the heart to squish it. It was flying around for a bit before I caught it." Amaryllis explains, fixing his carnation. "Anyway, do you have them?"

"Yes, here they are." M says, taking out a small bag. "I can't wait to see what you're going to do with these once they grow into flowers. I could go ahead and put them where they belong for you."

"Oh, really? That'd be great, thank you!"

"No problem. You could show Sabre here what kinds of flowers you have, since he wants to see what ones we have in the kingdom."

M motions to Sabre, and Sabre smiles and gives Amaryllis a small wave. Almost instantly, Amaryllis is ecstatic and rushes back to the door that leads to the greenhouse area.

"Oh, of course, I'd love to! Follow me Sabre, I have all of the different kinds of plants I grow in here. I hope you'll like them, I try to take the best care of them!"

Sabre follows Amaryllis into the greenhouse, glancing back at M for a moment, who gives a thumbs-up. As Amaryllis leads Sabre down the rows of blooms, shrubs, and other plants, he talks about every one he stops by. He gets excited when Sabre asks questions about the plants, happily explaining anything Sabre asks about.

"So how many plants have you seen around the Realm?" Amaryllis asks as he starts to lead Sabre to another collection of plants. "You must have seen a lot since you've traveled so much."

"Uh... I haven't seen that many, actually." Sabre replies. "Just flowers I recognize from my old world. Dandelions, poppies, daises, roses, cornflowers, most of the flowers I've seen around the kingdom I recognize too... well, there was one plant that I kept for a while that was new, but I never got to know what it was called."

"So, you've pretty much only seen the basic ones before?" Amaryllis says. "Wow. All of these must be a shock, huh? Do you have a favorite so far?"

"I really like the prism orchid." Sabre smiles.

"I like that one too, mostly because one of my favorite folktales involves a lot of them, heh. Oh, here we are!"

Amaryllis leads Sabre to a large garden of roses. There are many large bushes with many different colors of roses, some with small starts of a new bush nearby. There's a rose bush for every color Sabre has seen in the Realm.

"This is where I grow all of my roses! Since they're so popular, I have to grow a lot, especially the red ones since they're commonly used for traditional practices here." Amaryllis explains. "This is also where most of the kingdom got all of those roses they sent you. Did you like those, by the way?"

"Yeah, they're all still alive and my entire room smells like a garden. It's nice, although it was hard trying to find places for all of the bouquets." Sabre laughs. "I also really liked the flower code book you sent me. It's really interesting."

"Thanks, glad you did! I was a bit worried you'd find it boring. It's so cool how every flower has a meaning, even different colors of the same kind of flower meaning different things, so people could send messages in secret to each other."

"Yeah, my people did something similar. Some of the meanings are a bit different from my world, but it's still pretty awesome. Do you use the meanings for anything?"

"Mostly just to get on my brother's nerves from five houses down. He's the only other person on the street that knows the code since I apparently never shut up about it, and I can mess with him while he's the only one that gets it so the neighbors have no idea what insults he's talking about. It's fun."

Sabre laughs, and Amaryllis laughs a little too. The cheerful gardener, noticing a spiky leaf where one shouldn't be, kneels down to the flower bed to pull the weed out when he sees something underneath one of the rose bushes.

"Oh, wasn't expecting that." Amaryllis says, grabbing a trowel and digging, carefully pulling over a small empty pot. "What a surprise! I didn't think this color could show up with this combination of roses..."

"What is it?" Sabre asks, curious.

Amaryllis stands back up, smiling, and shows Sabre the new rose that had sprouted up from the ground. It's been planted in the little pot.

It's grey.

"Such a rare color too! These ones don't usually pop up that often." Amaryllis says, examining the small rose's bloom.

"You... keep the grey flowers?" Sabre asks.

"Of course, why wouldn't I? They're all beautiful flowers, and people even buy them. Everyone likes the flowers no matter what color they are."

"Well... all of the florists I've seen in the Realm so far always throw out the grey flowers that end up growing in their gardens. It was something about being connected to the Darkness somehow since they were grey... I heard a lot of them call the grey flowers a 'bad omen' or a 'disease'. I just thought..."

"Seriously? What a load of nonsense!" Amaryllis exclaims. "Those florists were just needlessly paranoid and superstitious."

Amaryllis lets Sabre take a closer look at the small rose. Its petals and leaves were covered with small bits of dew from the larger bush's leaves, the thin stem holding up the flower almost triumphantly.

"See? It's just like any other rose." Amaryllis explains. "The grey is just its color, nothing else. And quite a nice color at that."

"Well... I guess it is pretty." Sabre says quietly.

"And there's nothing wrong with the flower itself, is there?" Amaryllis smiles.

"No, not really... I think."

"Nope, not at all. It's not sick, it's not invasive, it's not even any more at risk of getting sick than any other flower. It's just a rose with an uncommon color that deserves a place among the other roses, just as much as any other."

Amaryllis goes to a nearby table, where there are other newly sprouted flowers. Some of them are grey as well, but there's still a multitude of colors surrounding them. He carefully places the small pot next to some other flowers, almost perfectly fitting with the pots surrounding it.

"Besides, grey is a color that deserves much more appreciation than it gets." Amaryllis says as he tends to the small flowers. "Grey is precious silver that so many people seek out. It's the gathering clouds that soon provide water to the world, the stone that supports the earth, the mountains that we look up to. It's the color of the foundations we build our homes on, the metal that we forge to improve our livelihoods or defend our homes. Grey is the middle ground between the blinding white and the unforgiving black that create the structure of so many things, providing a calmer and more stable area for things to grow from."

Amaryllis finishes water the little rose last, then looks back to the greenhouse's entrance.

"Oh, there I go on a tangent again! Sorry about that." Amaryllis laughs. "Amaris is probably waiting for us back in the shop. Shall we head back?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure. Lead the way." Sabre smiles awkwardly.

Sabre follows Amaryllis back into the shop, where they find M trying to unhook the edge of his jacket from the claws of a calico cat.

"C'mon, let go, you little- Oh, there you are Amaryllis. Uh... Little help?" M says, seeing his friends enter the room.

"Ack, I'm so sorry! He probably thought your coat was a toy, he does the same thing with mine." Amaryllis says, rushing over and quickly getting the cat off of M's coat. He picks up the cat, holding it in his arms gently yet still scolding it. "Spotty, you know better! Bad kitty!"

"It's alright, he didn't really damage it." M laughs. He then turns to Sabre. "So, did you have fun with seeing all the plants?"

"Yep." Sabre replies, smiling. "All of them were really cool. Beautiful, too. Some of them looked magic."

Amaryllis smiles at that.

"Well, we better start heading back. Thanks for showing Sabre the greenhouse." M smiles.

"No problem, thanks for stopping by and dropping off the seeds!" Amaryllis smiles back. "Come back anytime!"

"We will. Thank you." Sabre says.

With that, Sabre and M exit the flower shop, heading back home again.

Sabre keeps thinking of the conversation he had with Amaryllis. It might just be him, but he felt a little comforted by the knowledge that the Red Steves accept the grey of the world rather than shunning it. Was it strange that he related so much to a flower?

...No, not really. They were both outliers of the things around them. It just took an open heart to see the worth past the color.

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Heya! Before I end this chapter, I just want to give you guys a heads up real quick.

There's going to be quite a few timeskips coming up- not too often, there's still going to be a very long time before one happens, like maybe the next few upcoming chapters each take place after a little jump forward.

The reason why is that the way I have things down, Sabre is in the Red Kingdom for a long while before anything starts happening. I don't wanna bore you guys or make things seem rushed/filler, sooooo... yeah.

The sooner we get through the peaceful time Sabre spends in the kingdom, the sooner we can get to the action and crazy scenes and ✨drama✨ I have planned. So hold onto your socks, because we're gonna be time-traveling for a bit XD

Seeya soon :3