LJ idol : Koro (home game)
My husband is a brave and passionate man, but can be somewhat impulsive.
I knew this when I married him. That is how he won my heart after all; scaling the vines to my bedroom every night; writing the most outrageous love poetry that awakened a fire inside my loins; slaying enough rabid dwarves to raise the bounty so he could purchase my golden wedding ring.
So I was not surprised when he angered the witch who sold her medicinal herbs at the market by daring to accuse her of cheating him.
He had gone to buy some herbs from her as our youngest son had pain caused by teething. She took his coin but would give him no herbs in return. He called her a cheat and demanded either his coin or the herbs. In response, she uttered a foul curse upon his name and spat at him, throwing the copper coin into the dirt.
He came home to me, without the herbs and with some of the light stolen from his eyes. I took him to my breast and I could feel his heart racing, but his skin remained pale and his lips cold to my kisses. A day passed and he grew paler still. I tried to comfort him, but he turned away from me, wordless.
Later, I found my brave husband crying. This time I pleaded with him to tell me what was wrong. I wept, and I wailed, and he finally relented.
His untied the cord that fastened his trousers and showed himself to me.
It was gone; his manhood.
"She took it?"
He nodded.
"Then I will get it back, my husband!"
His eyes widened and his hand grasped my arm so tightly it would leave bruises. He finally found his voice:
"No! I can't let you, my wife! I can't let you!"
"You don't have a choice in this, my husband."
I left him with our three children and rode towards the witch's house, deep in the forest.
My fingers were slick with sweat as I made a fist to knock on the door. On the journey there I had thought of many different approaches I could take, but all my imagined courses of action resulted in my death. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, thinking of my husband's bravery and steeling myself for what laid ahead. Before I could knock, the door opened.
The witch smiled at me. It didn't seem an evil smile, but her words felt like ice upon my spine.
"I've been waiting for you, my dear."
She led me in and offered me refreshments after my travels. I stammered what I hoped was a courteous refusal.
"Don't be nervous, my dear. I mean you and your family no harm."
I must have looked at her in an incredulous manner.
"I know what you have come for, my dear, and if you want to take it, it's yours to take."
I mumbled a thanks.
"I do ask that you listen to what I have to say first, my dear. Then it is your decision. Follow me into the garden."
We walked together down the darkened hallway. I could see a number of rooms off the hallway, most were filled with piles of dusty books.
"I have been blessed and burdened with many gifts, my dear. One of them is to see the destinies of men and women."
She opened the door at the end of the hallway and I blinked at the strong light of the sun. The garden was alive with flowers, bushes, and trees. There were unusual varieties of insects buzzing around the plants. I could see a small black rabbit nibbling on some herbs. It looked at us curiously, but continued to eat.
"There you go, my dear."
The witch pointed to a small tree. There were a number of bird's nests on the tree, each with some type of unusual soft pink creature huddled together. I realised after a moment what they were. When they saw the witch, they stood up and peered towards us.
I was so taken aback by the sight that I found confidence to talk.
"They seem...excited to see you?"
"They think I am bringing them food." The witch chuckled. "Such greedy things!"
"You feed them?"
"Of course! I look after them well. I feed them oats and grains mostly. With the occasional crumb of cake as a treat."
"Which one is my husband's?"
"You can't tell?" The witch laughed again.
"There are so many of them."
"It's that one over there."
She pointed to one that was wriggling around in a nest of soft grasses on one of the lower branches.
"So I can take it?"
"Of course you can. Many wives come to me after I take these from their husbands. I give them all the same option - to take it home with them or leave it here with me. You see that one up there?" She pointed to a short red one near the top of the tree. "That one belongs to the baker. His wife came with cakes and breads for me to persuade me to return his member. I told her she was free to take it, but told her what he had been doing with it, with her sister. She decided to leave it with me."
She pointed to another one, in a nest by my husband's one. This one was pale and wrinkly. It appeared to be preening. "This one belongs to the bootmaker."
His wife was a friend of mine, but I never had liked him much. "But she has just had a baby?"
"Yes, I took it while she was carrying her precious daughter. When I saw what he would do to his own flesh and blood as she grew... I couldn't let him. His wife couldn't let him either. So it remains here with me."
"I can't believe my husband would do either of those things. He is a good man."
"Your husband is a good man. You are right. I have taken a number of these from good men."
She pointed again to a tall, skinny one.
"That one belongs to the blacksmith. His wife came and plead for its return; she reminded me of their 15 children and how they needed
their father. I told her I took it because their children also needed their mother. She would have died giving birth to their sixteenth child. She understood and left."
"So I am to die; that is why you took it?"
"No, my dear. He will die. It's your birthday soon. He will rashly decide to steal a dragon egg to prove his love for you, and be reduced to a pile of ash. He's a good man but..."
She sighed. "A couple of inches of flesh cause so much trouble in the world."
I stayed quiet for a moment. "And if I leave it here, he will live?"
"Not forever my dear, but you both will live long and happy lives together. You'll find, for the most part, he will return to normal in a few weeks. Your children will have a father, and you will have a husband."
"But will I have a husband...how can he? Well we...?" I felt my face flush. I didn't know how to ask this question.
The witch smiled. "Oh my dear, there are other ways of doing that! Come with me."
She took my arm. I glanced back at the nests in the tree. My husband's member seemed happy enough. It had curled itself into a ball and was sleeping.
We went back into the house and the witch went into one of the rooms for a few minutes. She returned with an ancient looking tome. I tried to read the title on the cover... "Joy of...." but the words were hard to make out as it was covered in a thick layer of dust.
"Let me find the part," she turned the pages of the book until she found what she was looking for. "Here."
My cheeks coloured further as I tried to read the arcane language and shyly looked at the illustrations. After a few minutes I closed the book and returned it to her.
"Thank you. That was...illuminating."
"You're welcome, my dear. Have you made your decision?"
"Yes."
My husband is a brave and passionate man, but is never impulsive.