Goonhub
05-04-2023, 09:19 PM
A story for a friend
The Coward, The Girl and the Knight
Once upon a time on a far distant star there was a little girl. Her father was a warrior, hard and cold, and her mother a buisness woman, an outsider, shrewd with hidden warmth. She had a brother born right after her.
On this world all was silent, and dark, and cold. People used their hands more then their eyes. The world did not want them there, but, they where happy, or, something approaching that. To the little girl this was all she knew and she was a happy if quiet little girl.
And one day her mother took her to a place where a terrible fate befell her. And the little girl was broken. A kindly knight came, a man made of steel, and tried to save her.
The knight succeded for a time, and he took the broken pieces and made them whole with his flesh. He found the wounds on her heart and mended them with his love. He found the wounds on her mind and mended them with his understanding and friendship.
The little girl started to be happy again. Then a terrible thing happened a second time, the little girls parents came and they slew the knight thinking he hurt their little girl. And that was the first time the little girl ever spoke, to scream. A scream so raw and primal it left a wound, bleeding, gaping, oozing, on her heart.
and the wound festered. Her parents fought. Both of them used her like a piece in a game, so intent on hurting each other that they forgot about her being just a little girl. Blow after blow was fought in this mock war and the pain rained down on her and her brother. Her brother was the one thing keeping her ab le to put up a brave face, every day the courage and curiosity and bravery and honor she had been raised with erroded till she shook at a touch and couldn’t even look at faces, till the point she could b arely tell what a face was.
And then one day the girls cowardice broke. She ran away and hid.
She hid inside herself. She hid deeply and she erected a warrior to stand in front of her. Someone who only knew hate. And pain,.A nd misery. And the coward kept all the kindness and happiness away, hidden, just for herself, lost in a world of memory where she kept those secrets locked away, leaving the knight forged of hate to stand outside and raise shield against what came.
and oh such pain came
..and then one day the knight was made to feel fear. terrible, horrible, gut churning fear…a fear so terrible she tried to hide too. And then another came. Someone better then her, or the coward. But she was a coward, too. weak willed, but a better person, a sister in this war.
and the Girl and the Knight battled in the body the coward left behind, while the coward hid. And then one day…after many battles, after so much pain caused to others, unfairly and unjustly…the knight was too tired to fight anymore. She tried to make herself disappear. she tried to go where the coward went.
But the coward was dead. She’d shriveled away and hid forever as the cruel cruel world had continued, leaving only twin sisters born of tragedy in her place. She was broken again.
The knight learned she was a bad knight. But being a knight was all she knew. so she tried to be a better knight. She tried till..one day..she was. Maybe not better enough to be good, but better. She stopped hurting people. She stopped trying to hide. She still doesn’t understand love. She still doesn’t know how to feel good. But she doesn’t feel so angry now.
But the girl and the knight do not speak anymore. And the girl is the heritor to the coward's kingdom, the fleshy prison both were born within, the kookoo birds born in another's nest.
Broken things cannot be repaired to have never been broken. But the knight is okay with that now. She may not be whole.S he may not even be real. She may just be a defense mechanism for a person that doesn’t exist now.
But broken things matter. till eventually they are replaced.
The Coward, The Girl and the Knight
Once upon a time on a far distant star there was a little girl. Her father was a warrior, hard and cold, and her mother a buisness woman, an outsider, shrewd with hidden warmth. She had a brother born right after her.
On this world all was silent, and dark, and cold. People used their hands more then their eyes. The world did not want them there, but, they where happy, or, something approaching that. To the little girl this was all she knew and she was a happy if quiet little girl.
And one day her mother took her to a place where a terrible fate befell her. And the little girl was broken. A kindly knight came, a man made of steel, and tried to save her.
The knight succeded for a time, and he took the broken pieces and made them whole with his flesh. He found the wounds on her heart and mended them with his love. He found the wounds on her mind and mended them with his understanding and friendship.
The little girl started to be happy again. Then a terrible thing happened a second time, the little girls parents came and they slew the knight thinking he hurt their little girl. And that was the first time the little girl ever spoke, to scream. A scream so raw and primal it left a wound, bleeding, gaping, oozing, on her heart.
and the wound festered. Her parents fought. Both of them used her like a piece in a game, so intent on hurting each other that they forgot about her being just a little girl. Blow after blow was fought in this mock war and the pain rained down on her and her brother. Her brother was the one thing keeping her ab le to put up a brave face, every day the courage and curiosity and bravery and honor she had been raised with erroded till she shook at a touch and couldn’t even look at faces, till the point she could b arely tell what a face was.
And then one day the girls cowardice broke. She ran away and hid.
She hid inside herself. She hid deeply and she erected a warrior to stand in front of her. Someone who only knew hate. And pain,.A nd misery. And the coward kept all the kindness and happiness away, hidden, just for herself, lost in a world of memory where she kept those secrets locked away, leaving the knight forged of hate to stand outside and raise shield against what came.
and oh such pain came
..and then one day the knight was made to feel fear. terrible, horrible, gut churning fear…a fear so terrible she tried to hide too. And then another came. Someone better then her, or the coward. But she was a coward, too. weak willed, but a better person, a sister in this war.
and the Girl and the Knight battled in the body the coward left behind, while the coward hid. And then one day…after many battles, after so much pain caused to others, unfairly and unjustly…the knight was too tired to fight anymore. She tried to make herself disappear. she tried to go where the coward went.
But the coward was dead. She’d shriveled away and hid forever as the cruel cruel world had continued, leaving only twin sisters born of tragedy in her place. She was broken again.
The knight learned she was a bad knight. But being a knight was all she knew. so she tried to be a better knight. She tried till..one day..she was. Maybe not better enough to be good, but better. She stopped hurting people. She stopped trying to hide. She still doesn’t understand love. She still doesn’t know how to feel good. But she doesn’t feel so angry now.
But the girl and the knight do not speak anymore. And the girl is the heritor to the coward's kingdom, the fleshy prison both were born within, the kookoo birds born in another's nest.
Broken things cannot be repaired to have never been broken. But the knight is okay with that now. She may not be whole.S he may not even be real. She may just be a defense mechanism for a person that doesn’t exist now.
But broken things matter. till eventually they are replaced.