There was a man wearing a coat of flowers, it is said that it allowed him to walk into the dreams of others. In Many dreams across the city of Ambersong, the man appeared, his image stark against the backdrop of the fading memory of people’s dreams.
Many were afraid of the man appearing in their dreams, that he will try and take something from them, something close to their heart or worse a part of their soul.
The guard captain of the city was tasked with finding that man
First, he tried to find people that matched the description of the man in the Coat of Flowers.
He ended up investigating several, and as it turned out some of them were in fact involved in illegal businesses; apprehending them and uncovering their dealings increased the standing of the guard captain several times.
But none of them were the man in the coat of flowers.
He put up posters, looked up books, spoke to Mages, spent sleepless nights doing his own research to go along with the investigation, but found nothing, and all he really managed to do was alienate himself from his family.
Several months later, sitting by himself on a hill near the edge of the city at dawn, he stared at the grass browning beneath him. Come spring next year this hill would be covered in flowers, but not right then. Looking out to the city before him, barely any thought of the flower coated man remained, all he could think of were his own family, his wife and daughter, smiling at him, he wanted to let go with this case, professional integrity be damned, he wanted nothing more than to just give up and go back to them, because not just for them, but for himself, he dearly wanted to be with them.
A moment passed and he felt a presence standing on the hill with him. There on the hillside outlined by the rising sun stood the man in a coat of flowers, his flower coat bellowing in the wind.
The captain was struck silent, but only for a heartbeat,
‘But why…’ the guard captain asked ‘I’m not dreaming…’.
‘All the coat does is let me see flowers…’ said the man, his skin as dark as freshly tilled soil and eyes as golden as the sky behind him.
‘It allows me to find them, see them, experience them…’ he said with an ethereal voice ‘…Nothing more, nothing less’.
The captain felt tired but he still responded ‘There are no flowers here…’ He gestured with his hands. ‘The hill lays barren of anything but dry grass’.
‘Are you sure about that?’ The man was now fully facing the captain.
‘I just saw you smiling at two flowers within you, bright, radiant and just for that moment, you were a flower yourself, blooming bright from your core… So, the coat showed you to me.
The captain didn’t have anything to say to that
‘It seems you have been looking for me, captain’
‘Yes…I have…’
‘Well then, what can I do for you?’
The captain was silent for a moment but the man in the coat of flowers waited patiently.
‘Can you…do me a favour?’
‘Ask away Captain’
‘The next time I forget about my family… my flowers…or abandon them in my own foolishness… Could you please remind me of them?… Help me find them?’ The captain whispered, his hands trembling slightly.
The flower coated man smiled
‘Alright’ he stepped closer ‘The next time you forget about your flowers, I will come remind you’
‘I’m not nearly as forgetful of the flowers around me as you humans tend to be’.
He put a hand on the captain’s shoulder.
‘Farewell captain, if you lose your way again, you don’t need to call for me, I will come find you…’
The captain blinked, and he was standing alone on that hill, with a bright golden flower growing next to him among the grass.
The guard captain stood on that hill until the sun had made its way well into the sky, painting it a bright blue, and then he turned around and went back home.
The Man in a coat of Flowers was never seen again by the guard captain for the rest of his life.
