No Love Can Save You

"Really, you don't let us through?" He asked the flowers with a big sigh at the end of the sentence.

"Nohoho!" The Flowers answered sternly and waved their sunflower-shaped heads around. This annoying weed is totally playing us. Just let us through to Prince Charming so that she, my annoying sis, can finally go away.

"Yeaaah, I can totally understand this!" She reacted to the flowers' answer. "One should have to finish an adventure before finding Prince Charming. I can't imagine just getting the love of your life thrown at you!" She was clearly hyped or at least upbeat enough to ignore the probing gaze of her brother.

"I conclude that you will finish the quest alone? Good, I wanted to go home anyway," he faked turning around, but she had already jumped at him. 

"Noooo, that's not how this is going to be," she trapped him. 

The flowers just looked at each other.

"Well," the flower with the most impressive head started her list of demands.

30 minutes later, he just looked at her, "No chance we can finish this today. I have dinner with my wife and kids in 2 hours. So I will log out in 1 1/2 hours."

"Yeah, yeah, do that. I, on the other hand, will celebrate finishing my tax return for the 20th time with some nice herbal tea while sitting in my garden of sunflowers."

His eye-rolling could be felt across the whole server.

The next day they once again stand in front of the flowers.

"Ave Sunny," he greeted the flowers full of resentment. "We got the wedding dress with 777 seams, 123 aesthetically holes, and all of that made from the silk of a white spider."

The head flower looked at it.

"No."

"The f no. What is wrong?" He is - unlike his sister - mentally done with this quest.

"It has to be a virgin white spider."

"Yeaah, yeaah, I can understand that."

"Oh, you do, sis? Then explain it to a less fortunate soul."

"If you want to get Prince Charming, even the smallest detail has to be perfect."

"That worked well for your last boyfriend, didn't it?"

"Woah, bro."

"I am just saying what most people think. While we are at it, next time, I will choose what game we play together. No more romance blurb."

She shook her head and moved away.

"Towards the virgin!" He shouted as he strutted towards the spider forest, arm in arm with his annoyed sis.

"It is rather empty here, ain't it?"

"Just like my life or what?" She angrily reacted.  

"Relax, relax." He tried to appease her as he knew that this topic is a soft spot for her.

They stood silent until they spotted the first spider.

"We should have asked how a virgin spider looks like, sis."

"I know how they look like." 

Before he was able to add anything, she barged in.

"Hur, dur, it takes one to know one, I know, I know, be quiet."

He just kept quiet and hoped that she will simply point at whatever he is supposed to catch.  

After two hours into the forest and seeing an endless stream of spiders but no virgins, he noted, "Well, they seem to be rare."

"That's why they are special," she countered instantly.

Oh well, he thought, that will be a very long search.

Finally, they reached a spider nest that looked a bit different than the rest.

He starred at his sister.  

She just nodded.  

"Good."

Slowly he moved forward. Something hairy was on his face. He would have been happy if it would only be on his face. 

She simply walked by and collected the spider webs.

"See you later, alligator," She told him off while heading in the direction of the silk maker. 

Her WhatsApp made a sound, and another one, and another one.  

"What the f, at least have some sympathies, and don't leave me hanging there. Absolute entitlement, wow. But nothing new, I suppose?" And his other messages went in the same direction.

The next day he waited in front of the flowers.  

"If she doesn't come now..."  

"Nothing stops a girl from chasing Prince Charming; believe a wise flower."  

"I am not completely sold, but... I just want to know one thing. How many women & girls finished this quest successfully?"

"Roughly 5 million."

"Jesus! Okay, I trust your word."

That day his sister didn't come over.  

He spent the next day waiting there, but nothing again.

The following day, the flower talked to him while he waited.

"Bad brother, did no one tell you that one shouldn't take a girl's dream away?"

"I didn't do that!" He denied while rolling his eyes.

"Then, where is she? Tell me, big brother?"

"I don't know, now be silent."

About one hour later, she entered the picture.

The millions of flowers greeted her happily.

"We can smell that you now have the correct ingredients."

"You are correct, I have everything, and it looks like I have something extra too. You can have it. It isn't necessary for me anymore in this world."

He raised an eyebrow while his arms were crossed. 

"Huhuhu, who would have guessed that a girly girl can so easily be turned into a cold-hearted cynic?" The millions of flowers moved their heads around wildly. 

"I finished the quest, so give him to me," she demanded as she handed over the premium wedding dress.

"Hoho, you waited decades; you can wait a few minutes," the flowers shot back.

He entered the conversation, "Come one, be a bit nicer to her."

"Just. Be. Quiet," she lashed out at him while keeping her eyes fixed on the entrance into the cave.

"Well, well, not every white knight gets the girl," the flowers remarked. "But we don't want to be the villains here, so take a look." As the flower said that the other flowers removed themselves from the cave entry.

After one deep breath, she moved in. Her brother waited outside. 

There was a glass coffin inside. In the coffin was an extremely handsome man.

"Oh hello, my boy," she greeted the man in the coffin.

Finally, seeing this man gave her her upbeat mood back. Some things are really like a new beginning. She walked, she nearly ran, over to the coffin. On the outside, her brother could hear some giggling. 

"At least it looks like it was worth it," he concluded.

That was a scream. 

Her brother ran in. 

"Where is she?" He spoke into the room, turning his head around. No human here. Next to the empty coffin lay a wedding dress. Once he had it in his hands, the flower nr five-million-and-one emerged from it.

"Hehe, so you want to get a Prince Charming? You have to bring me a nice wedding dress. I will tell you now what material it is supposed to be made out of. Virgins, virgin spiders."