Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in a mansion with her wealthy parents who loved her very much.
The little girl was given her own garden and she tended to it every single day, no matter what. She loved that garden. She loved the flowers, the soil, and the earthworms. Everything in that garden was given her unconditional love.
No matter the weather, the flowers grew bright and tall, even through winter, they kept growing.
And this was because of the Flower People who lived under the soil of the garden. They had powers to heal any type of sick plant.
The little girl knew nothing of these little sprites, but they knew all about her.
They thrived on her love for the flowers, and in turn, they helped cultivate the ground.
They knew how harsh man had been and still was to the earth, and because of the little girl's love for the garden, the Flower People never let the plants die or droop.

One day, while on a gerbera daisy, four little sprites witnessed something.
The little girl was crying, sitting all alone in her black dress and black hat, in the middle of her garden.
"We need to help her," Said Nemo, the red-haired sprite.
"But how can we?" Asked his friend, Fennil.
"We aren't supposed to be seen," Said Ochre, her serious black eyes glaring at Nemo.
"She's right," Heron added.
"But it's the first time she hasn't tended the flowers. If she leaves, the King might think she doesn't love them anymore! Let's just cheer her up," Said Nemo thoughtfully.
"Yes, you're right," They all agreed.
"So, we'll get the flowers to do a dance for her, that's easy enough," Suggested Fennil, pushing his green hair out of his face.
"Yes! Good thinking!" Exclaimed Nemo, with a smile.
The four climbed down the gerbera daisy stem and ran close to the girl.
Ochre took flower food out of a pouch and sprinkled it on the ground under a lilac bush. The Nemo sprinkled a pink dust over that, and poured water from the gourd hanging on his back over all of it, soaking the ground. Then the four latched hands and danced around the bush.
Suddenly, it began jingling very faintly and some of the stems swayed gently to and fro.
The girl looked up suddenly, for the noise and movement frightened her.
"Who's doing that? Who's there?" She was alarmed and that was not the sprites intention.
Ochre stopped dancing and climbed one of the stems.
"We are your friends, little one. We have seen you distress and we wish it to go away," She said kindly.
Even though the jingling of the lilacs was pretty to hear, the girl stood abruptly, even more frightened, and ran off.

After that, the girl seldom visited the garden. And when she did, she was always so sad and never tended the flowers.
The King of the Flower People became infuriated at the girl's neglect, despite Nemo and Ochre's assurance she was only sad, and he refused to help the flowers grow.
"Only when she shows true love to the earth will we ever help her garden!" He announced to his people. It was from then on they were forbidden to help the humans' soil, until someone would show true love and never ever neglect it.
One by one, the garden emptied itself of its glory, and the Flower People lived in sadness once again.

After not having been in her garden for three months now, the girl set foot in it, with a suitcase in hand and coat buttoned up.
"I'm sorry, my friends. I'll never forget your beauty," She said as she placed one tiny seed in the soil and covered it up. A tear fell and soaked the ground where the seed lie in the dark, all alone.
The girl stood, picked up her suitcase, and left her once beautiful garden behind forever.

Ochre found the bud that had sprung up where the girl planted the tiny seed, and nurtured it. One small flower, its color dark blue, grew amid a wasteland.
Ochre visited it everyday, and kissed its velvety petals, and told it stories of better days, and danced for it. It grew, and grew, and grew. Ochre gave it all of her love, because she had nothing else to give it to.
Sadness still weighed on her heart though, for no one had come to fill the garden with love.
Years passed, the mansion the little girl had lived in with her parents was abandoned. The sun never lets its rays shine on the empty garden anymore, and the lonely blue flower began to wither with no sunlight.
Ochre uprooted it and let it go in the stream running alongside the garden.
It was no use. It was pointless for the Flower People to stay on that land. But the King wasn't about to move their village again, and be disappointed once more by man's neglect.

So they waited. For two hundred years, they waited in silence and sadness.
The mansion crumbled over time, the weather turned harsh, and still the sun shone not on the empty garden.
The King of the Flower People had died, and Ochre was now a grandmother. She watched her little grandchildren play above grounds everyday, but they did not run in the sunlight. Their skin did not become tan from too long outside in the warm weather. And they had not even known what the sun was.
"We shall all die with no healthy soil to burry ourselves in," Ochre said to her husband, Nemo.
"Our children and our grandchildren will move away. This new King will realize it has been foolish to stay here all these years. Yes, most of our lives have been wasted. But theirs will not be. We will make sure of it," Nemo said firmly as he and Ochre stood above grounds, watching wind pick up and clouds get dark.

Even though the once beautiful garden was never cultivated again, even though no human showed up to give love to the soil, and even though Ochre and Nemo never got to see the sun again, the hope in the hearts of the next generation of Flower People never died.
They had never seen the sun. Only their parents and grandparents had experienced that celestial phenomenon. But they had hope.
Hope that one day they would leave their home and make a new one. Hope that one day their children and grandchildren would see the sunlight. Hope that one day they would find a human who truly and unconditionally loved the earth and took care of it.
They hoped, that they would one day see, a flower bloom.