As I found my flask,
I looked up and saw his face.
It was changed, cold, angry.
And it was then I realized
that his kindness had a price.
‘You Will Go Nowhere’
It was like his voice had turned to poison.
Where his tone once dripped
with melancholy, it was now ancient,
laced with the razor-edge of cruelty.
I stayed very still, as though an animal,
believing if I did not move,
my predator may not see me.
‘But I must leave.’ I could hear the panic
in my own voice. Oh how naive
I had been, I should have run
when I saw him. ‘Please,’
I pleaded quietly, the flask clutched
between my fingers as though
a talisman of protection.
I felt the cave swim
and expand before my eyes.
‘No.’ There was pure venom
in his words now. ‘Too long
I have been alone in these caves,
no wife or daughter to care for me.
YOU will be my new consort,
and tend to my every need.’
I gasped. ‘I am not yet old enough
to even know my own powers!’
