The trees are more honest
when not draped in foliage
The winds whispering ancient chants
into their bare ears

When your fears most look to be crystalyzed,
then they are probably, indeed, not.
Is this what they tell them?
I fear not.

Clouds are rolling in from the North
Screaming battle cries as they approach
Children hide their faces away
While solemn parents jest in mocking
As rain and thunder tear through the sky
My carriage is slipping
Forced to stop, I light a lone candle
And proceed to let my mind unravel on paper...

I remember staring at the blue sky
And all the willows dancing in the breeze
I can feel Echo's gentle hands
Rooting through my tangled hair
She's telling me something, a story of some sort,
But my mind is lost in other thoughts
Why didn't I listen to her?
What story did she tell?
Her voice is a soothing melody
Like a smoky dancer reversing its flee
from the ember of my ears
It seems I was lulled into slumber of comfort
As the next sight I see

is an old wooden cabinet
intricately designed with ancient tales
carved into its husky skin
It sits on the opposite side of an unnaturally long room
The only other materials present
being a feather on the windowsill
that pours in dimmed light from the overcast day
and the chair I can feel beneath me
My eyes are transfixed to the cabinet
its designs
its stories decoded too well
but my mind attempts to read nevertheless
Suddenly, the doors are shaking, then stop
and the knob turns
and oddly familiar fingers peek out curiously
and slowly open the container
An arm, a shoulder, and then
a face
A face plain sight in light yet shrouded in enigma
and out emerges a slender woman
clothed in animal hides
cloaked in purpose
She softly lays her bare feet
on the wooden floor
seeming to glide on a cloud
up to me

For a moment, I'm sitting in the corner
watching my face as she approaches
but it's a smeared image
no details of my expression visible

Now back in the chair, she strides up to me
Holding out her hands as if asking to dance
I give her my hands, and she tugs them to lift me
From the seat I still not have seen
And glares deep into my eyes
Watching hers, I see they are blue
but just as I notice, they begin to fade into green
I want to say something
but I've been rendered mute
She lifts her arm and puts her wrist in my face
So that none else is visible
And on her wrist
is tattooed VI

I'm swept back into the morose carriage
to the sound of something strange amidst the rain
I collect myself, feeling my throat is now sore
Thus laying a hand around my neck
The other trembling its way to the coarse curtains
All is utterly dark
After waiting a few minutes, I resume my writing

The dream has fled
and my head
no longer in Echo's lap
but half buried in dirt
the princess herself
I hear screaming in the distance
and lift my dizzy head just in time
to see horses descending the other side of the meadow
out of sight
I lift a weak hand
and feel warm blood running through my hair
where Echo's hands had just been
beginning to weep
as the sun shines on

Another clap pierces out through the storm
and the bumps on my arms tell me to investigate
But I think it is only falling branches
Back to the paper

The trees are more honest...

CLAP...fear...silence...waiting...

When your fears most...

This time I leap into the air
at the sound of knocking on my carriage door
The horses have not stirred an ounce....
I clamber to the door and loudly query
"What is your business?" as the Fool i am
"YOU STUCK IN THE MUD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?"
I open the door slightly
and candlelight shows a young man
quite visibly drunk
he smiles his yellow teeth, in thick accent,
"Why don we get you the fuk out ta here?"
"What of my carriage and horses?"
"They won be getten far", followed by a kind of scoff
"You ca' com back i the mornen"
Half shaken into death
I agree and step out into the complete darkness
Lead only by the audible waddle of the drunkard
My hands find his carriage, and we ride off with the man at the reigns
"BEAUIFUL WETHER!" he attempts to belt through the shell of the cart
Seeing no solution but to sleep the long ride out
I find a mildly comfortable position in the cramped space
and begin to drift...

I'm standing in the hall
the long hall
many doors, all closed
the boars are no longer present
and I hear her
its faint, but so obvious
I'm all alone
The hall looks as if it goes on into eternity
fading into a sightless black
And spiraling from within...
"Where am I? Where have I been taken?"
I begin running, for I know it's the princess
but it dwindles to a jog, then walk
The hall stretches into forever
Then from the darkness
Emerges a female figure
It's Echo! I'm sure!
I rush to her, but before I can see her face
She turns and faces the darkness
I cry as I run, tears upon tears
But as I come near
I see the symbol on her back
VI
As I have almost reached her
She slowly starts pacing away
"Echo!" I cry
"It's too late..." she murmurs
"No! I'm here!"
"It's too late, you've been looking in the mirror, I know it."
"What mirror?" but my voice is running low
She is being enveloped into the abyss
"Echo!"
All I hear is her name, bouncing down the hall
off the doors
the handles
the walls
the ceiling and floor
I look down and in my hand
rests a daffodil
I look back up, and the boars emerge into light
"Sir, what exactly what are you holding?"
They can now speak?
I'm unable to reply
The same boar steps forward, taking the daffodil effortlessly
I'm motionless
"Looks like we're going to have to take him"
the other states
Each takes one of my arms and begins to lead me
down the opposite end from the abyss
and I'm left staring blankly into it
dragged into the light
with VI burnt into my sight