Genre Bender Challenge: Cherry Blossoms

[Cammeh]

A Genre-Bender Challenge takes a common setting and sets it in a completely different and unconventional setting. Give it a try! The stranger the better!

Cherry blossoms are delicate, fleeting and beautiful. They represent Spring and the delicate beauty of young love, among other things. Normally set in both ancient and modern Japan, these blossoms evoke emotion and art.

How would you represent the cherry blossoms in another genre? Would it be biological, natural, or technological? How would this gentle, fragile love be expressed?

Write a short story to illustrate your own symbol of love in a new and unique way!​

 

[ruff1298]

They knew.

I stare at the gigantic wall of sakura trees surrounding the mansion, incredibly beautiful but blindingly lethal for the likes of me. I flinch when the wind picks up, tossing a few of the pink petals my way.

I swallow the lump inside my throat. If I had tear glands, they would have stung my eyes. I raise a claw, inhuman and ugly to the trees, where her lovely face would have been smiling back at me.

"Goodbye, Seren."

I turn tail and clomp back down the trail. It was silly of me to think it would ever work.

 

[Blue Satin Sashes]

It was tradition in in Sideribus for people to find their soul-mates as young children. It was a magical experience, the kind that Sideribian poets would write about thousands of times but always have more to say. Each pair was so incredibly different. One could call it love at first sight, but that would not be entirely accurate. It was more than that, really, it was a sort of predetermined destiny; it would happen quick and unexpectedly, perhaps whilst the two children were walking down the street and catch but a glimpse of each other, but suddenly neither child will ever want to take their eyes off of the other.

Once the children had bonded, they would pick out a lunaelurus for their love. The lunaelurus was a slight animal, with bones as light as birds and fur as soft as dandelion fluff; they glowed as if they were a piece of the moon themselves. A child might spend days, or even weeks picking out one, as the lunaelurus they picked would be the lifelong companion of their love.

The lunaelurus served as a representation of their love. The creature would grow as the child did, just as the love between the pair would. Their glow would increase in strength as time went on, just as the strength of the love between the two soul-mates. One must be gentle with the animal as they were ever so delicate, and patient with them as they were naturally mischievous. They instilled traits in the pair that would ensure their love would never fade. When the children grew into adults and chose to marry, their companions would be housed together in order for them to mate, and when they produced a pup, the pair would be able to wed.