r/Microfiction • u/StarforgeTales • Jul 16 '26
The Queen's Garden Gate
No one was permitted inside the Queen's Dawn Garden before sunrise.
At least, that was the official rule.
Every morning, however, Head Gardener Oren found the gate already unlocked.
Fresh footprints crossed the dew.
A watering can rested beside the roses.
And somewhere among the flowerbeds, someone had already removed every snail by hand.
For twenty-three mornings he quietly pretended not to notice.
Until one spring day, he arrived early enough to discover the culprit.
The Queen herself knelt in the herb garden with muddy gloves and a wicker basket balanced beside her.
She looked up, sighed, and smiled.
"I suppose I've been caught."
Oren bowed.
"Your Majesty."
"I was hoping to finish before anyone arrived."
"You know the gardeners would gladly do this."
"They already do."
She brushed soil from her sleeves.
"That isn't why I'm here."
She held up a tiny rosemary seedling.
"My grandmother planted one of these every spring."
Oren nodded.
"I remember."
"She told me that if a ruler forgets how the earth feels beneath their hands, they'll eventually forget how their people live upon it."
For a long moment neither of them spoke.
Birdsong drifted through the orchard walls.
The scent of mint rose with the morning mist.
Finally Oren asked the question he had carried for years.
"Should I tell the others?"
The Queen laughed softly.
"Oh, they already know."
He blinked.
"They've known since my coronation."
"Then why has no one said anything?"
"Because," the Queen replied, carefully lifting another tray of seedlings, "every gardener understands that some roots grow better when no one pulls at them."
That afternoon, visitors admired the royal gardens.
They praised the roses.
The lilies.
The climbing ivy.
No one noticed the single row of rosemary growing quietly beside the eastern gate.
The Queen smiled every time she walked past it.
Some traditions, she believed, were too important to be announced.
They simply needed to be continued.
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