by Beth Gaboury

Created on: July 07, 2011

The sun was fading behind the distant hills when I finally awoke. How long had I been sleeping? I raised my head from the grassy earth and wiped the dirt from my dress. The sound of the trickling stream had lulled me into slumber. Had I been missed?

I struggled to my feet, still dazed with drowsiness. Then, I was jarred awake, remembering why I had wandered out into the woods in the first place. My body stiffened with the memory, and the soothing song of the water no longer could defuse my anger.

How dare she! I thought, ire bubbling up in my blood like a frothy stew. I am the chosen one, the leader of a new era, the peacemaker, the revelation, and yet she renounced her belief in my ability, and in front of everyone! Elder or not, I had every right to slap the witch! Treason! I know more than she could ever know! Has she ever heard the endless cries of thousands of mothers whose babies have fallen dead? Has she ever felt the raw, grinding angst of the many sons charging into battle to avenge their fallen fathers? Am I alone in my suffering...?

I let my fingertips graze across the small, bristled scar across my right cheek. It felt puckered and foreign, even though it had been there all my life. My parents had never told me where it was from...not that they had had much time to do so.

I need to turn back...the villagers will wonder where I've run off to. They fall into such a disarray when I stray. Panic seizes them whenever I am not to be found. Serves them right! They depend on me, yet I am a child. It's as if their world, their very essence, falls upon my small shoulders. The shoulders of a thirteen year old girl! The shoulders of someone too young to be a woman, but too old in experience to be a child. But that is what I am...a child, nonetheless.

They speak of marrying me. At thirteen! All the other girls are married off at fifteen or sixteen! Where do my wants and needs come into play? What if I do not wish to marry? Maybe not ever. What need have I of a husband? Just another leech to suck out my empathy and pour the ever flowing pain of his life into my being. I go through enough without bringing someone that close to my heart! They say it is my duty. Duty? To suffer endlessly? To rid myself of the peace of my mind I have savored this long? My time alone would be stripped of me! And only when I am alone can I rest. What would it be like, I wonder, to be in the company of someone who is not in pain? Is that possible? If I could find a man without pain,

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