I bear a deep red stain that runs from my left shoulder down to my right hip, a trail left by the herbwitch's poison that my mother used to try to expel me from her womb.

It is a good thing I no longer have a heart, because if I did, it would surely break.

Whenever you are ready, or if you never are, my heart is yours.

I stare at him coldly. "I do not care for needlework." I pause. "Unless it involves the base of the skull.

I am left with the conviction that an avalanche would be easier to dissuade than that man.

In the distance a wolf howls. Let it come, I think. Beast will most likely simply howl back, and the creature will either turn tail and run or fall into line behind him, like the rest of us have.

He smiles then, and even though it is well past midnight, its as if the sun has just come out.