The fire in the hearth was roaring when I got up to leave. Full of joy, full of hopefulness I ne’er looked upon hitherto.
I finished my tankard and told the innkeeper. ‘I’m off, as I said I would.’
‘You found what you wanted?’ he asked, a sly smile against his whiskers.
‘Greatest joy a man can know,’ I told him in earnest.
‘You be careful then,’ he said, as I strode outside the door.
‘There’s others that want it too.’ And then he said no more.
It was but a short trek into the woods when I felt the crack upon me. And going down, I turned around and saw them gathered here. About me and around me and behind me looking too. And I said, ‘I am to meet her,’ but they took me for a fool.
The sword it pierced my side in half, the blood it ran full. And in the dying light, I saw her there. ‘No more,’ she said. ‘It’s me you want.’ And she took off into the gloom.