Chapter 14 Avram

Meanwhile, in the kingdom, everybody was occupied with the approaching war. At first, it was treated as a joke, but then the gossip spread from mouth to mouth so often that citizens were sure that there had to be some truth in what everybody was saying. Not only was the country to wage the war with Turkey, but it was also supposed to fight with these mythical creatures – Goblins.

Every mythical creature was once a real creature, but the unkind years of being forgotten pushed it to the realms of legends, stories, and myths. In the same fashion, Goblins once freely and uninhibitedly stepped on the surface of the earth and, being quite peaceful and hard-working individuals, didn’t seek any conflict with humans. Humans also profited from their craft, they hired Goblins to renovate and decorate their houses, to make jewelry (maybe not as impressive as pieces made by dwarves, but definitely cheaper), to help with weddings, christenings, and funerals. But there was something in the human race that didn’t allow Goblins to stay on the surface for too long. 

It was human’s complete intolerance towards Goblins’ utter unattractiveness. You could say anything about Goblins, but to say that they were easy on the eyes was an epitome of irony. They were hideous; older - more horrible than the younger, their children no better than the children of the Devil. Everything in them was crooked, asymmetrical, obnoxious, disgusting, and appalling. There was such a discrepancy between what they were making and how they looked that humans suggested that they should make themselves some beautiful masks and come to the human houses only wearing those. Goblins at first fell into the trap of being accepted, they produced masks with beautiful features, far more beautiful than even the most handsome human faces (for in their hands was talent and craft indeed). But soon they realized that their beautiful masks were only the subject of ridicule. Social circles suffered when a woman fell in love with a mask, as underneath it was an ordinary hideous Goblin. Equally criticized was the phenomenon of Goblin men being attracted to human women. Many representatives of the beautiful sex were attacked under the shadow of the dark or kidnapped and kept hostage: a forbidden fruit, something that a Goblin wasn’t allowed to have. The two races were so different in appearance and in character that Goblins soon hid underground and for centuries didn’t appear so as not to raise hostility. 

But in time, their dignity grew, their admiration for the human race weakened, their mastery of the art of war perfected, and their longing for the sun, fresh air, and human women rose to the level of myths and legends. And as in all those, it lost the traces of bitter reality and was idolized, glorified, and deprived of all these primary conflicts that brought Goblins underground in the first place. 

When Marva, the first Goblin woman to walk onto the surface of the earth in centuries, looked at these muds, lakes, and forests, she wasn’t as taken aback as Karina and David for the first time seeing the Goblin’s city.

‘It will do,’ she said optimistically, observing from the bushes as a villager was taking a shit behind his hut, his white buttocks reflecting the first rays of sun with the brightness of midday snow. Marva was under the impression that earth first of all stunk and was terribly poor and dilapidated. 

The Goblin Princess gasped in amazement only when she saw her greenish haggard skin slowly turn into a milky-white smooth and shiny surface, her curved bones straighten and from her balding head spread long curls of red hair. Within seconds, she stood there, a young beautiful woman, with full breasts, subtle, dignified face, and sweet bosom; a walking dream every man would die for. 

For an hour, Marva stood watching herself in the water of the pigsty flume which gave a reflection. The same villager, who not so long before shat unscrupulously in the open air, went outside and seeing such a beautiful woman, took off his cap, and bowed.

‘What are you doing here, beautiful lady? Can I help you?’

‘I need to know something about human love.’ Marva approached the villager. 

‘Human… love?’

‘Yes yes, I need to know how it works.’

‘Don’t they teach you, ladies, before your wedding day how babies are made?’

Marva frowned.

‘Not really.’

To be honest, Marva was perfectly aware that the Goblin’s way of love-making was also ugly. There wasn’t anything romantic in the fact that a Goblin woman was married to a Goblin man. It was a simple transaction. Every week the couple exchanged fluids, with fast rubbing of their genitals, they conceived a child, and once they had enough progeny, they simply stopped. Not even one Goblin man had an affair with another Goblin woman (the sheer attempt would be too expensive, complicated, and simply no one wanted to do this, as no Goblin woman was attractive enough). Possibly, for a human woman, a Goblin would make an exception, but what woman in her right mind would want such a Goblin? Marva heard stories that even women kidnapped by Goblins were more likely to fall from the highest rock rather than stay with the Goblin for the rest of their lives. And good-hearted Marva, the King’s daughter, the sister of Prince Vandarok, didn’t want to marry such a Goblin. She was too idealistic to be rubbed every week by someone so nasty and would be unspeakably miserable in the life the underworld was able to offer to her. 

And when, all her life surrounded by hideous practical men of craft, Marva saw this beautiful (oh, how beautiful, how breathtakingly handsome!) prince, she was besotted. Not only was he the most handsome man Marva had ever seen, but he was also inspired. He sang, drew, read stories, told her magical tales about his world, and Marva could have kissed those sweet lips of his until he lost his breath, or even longer. But she was a hideous Goblin and she simply couldn’t do this. For him, she wanted to be the most beautiful. For him, she was willing to leave her kingdom and enter the world of the unknown and hostility. 

‘I need to know how to operate a man!’, she ordered with her royal voice which preserved a whiff of ‘I don’t take no for an answer’ power.

The peasant stood silent but Marva was not only beautiful but also unbelievably headstrong. For a stranger passing at this very moment the villager’s yard, it would have been a strange view. A beautiful woman walked around the naked villager and examined his every part and every limb, paying attention to one particular area of his body. 

‘A man is very simple, my lady’, the peasant went red in the face, when the lady suddenly touched his penis, and it erected. 

‘Indeed, very simple.’, Marva watched fascinated, ‘So where does it go?’

‘In lady’s funny parts.’

‘Funny parts?’

‘Yes, funny parts between lady’s legs’

Marva raised her dress.

‘You mean these funny parts?’

Seeing the beautiful lady’s vagina was not something the peasant expected to see. But even more startled was the peasant’s wife, who woke up, looked outside their hut’s window, and saw her old and boring husband standing naked in the center of the yard with a beautiful lady in front of him. And this beautiful lady was holding the edge of her dress high up and showing him her intimate parts. The wife rubbed her eyes, for she thought she was hallucinating. Suddenly, her husband started performing some copulative movements, and the beautiful lady, standing barely a meter apart from him, repeated these movements, still holding her dress up her waist. 

‘For the love of God!’, the wife exclaimed even though she wasn’t particularly religious, ‘What have you been doing with this woman?!’, she approached her man when he returned home with a beam of happiness on his face.

‘Educating, my dear!’, he cut the discussion short and left the wife in silent astonishment. 

Marva, having gained some human experience, quite satisfied with what she had learned and how representative she looked in the full light of day, headed to the castle.

Chapter 13 The Sword

 There was one story that Gwidon had heard as a child from his mother’s sweet lips, whispering to him and lulling him to sleep. There was also one dream that drove him every single day to get up and practice, to learn and experience. Even to deal with this moron Gustaw. He wanted to be in charge of an army. He was young, true. But every general was once young, every great knight was once a youth, a silly adolescent, whose words were louder than actions, and Gwidon had the time and aimed high. He was always ready to stand in front of thousands of people, lead them like the child is led by the father, and die for them if there was a need to die. Or better yet, not to die, thanks to hours of practice and wars waged, to be victorious. There was something glorious in this profession, something more tempting than diamonds, pearls, and gold. It was his dream come true for which he was willing to marry Princess Karina, who was far from his ideal of wife, and to his knowledge, took pleasure in frequent knight’s visits in her chamber. But who had a happy marriage? The king? Gwidon more than once saw the tax collector coming out from the queen’s chambers long after the darkness fell on the kingdom’s sleepy eyelids. His parents? They seemed happy but died young due to common poor people’s diseases. When his uncle took him to his home and made it possible for Gwidon to become a proper knight, it felt like a dream come true. When he spent his young and best years fighting in the king’s army and proving each and every time that he was the best knight of his generation, it was honour, fulfillment, and happiness. But being in charge of this army, being the king’s son-in-law? It was a glory. 

And then he met Lilet. His mother, the only woman that somehow spoke to his heart and encouraged him to be better, calmer, more merciful and sensitive, was long dead. Any thought of whole-heartedly loving any woman was long forgotten. Any dream of true love was pushed into the pages of fairy tales. If he ever pictured himself spending his life with a woman (apart from the reasonable unhappiness with Princess Karina) this woman was rather short, plump, and a good cook: someone who wouldn’t threaten his career. He had actually never thought of ever falling in love. Until he met this witch. Not only was she the epitome of his wildest desires, the most beautiful creature that God has ever created, but also she was quite something… Something which Gwidon wasn’t prepared for. She lived alone and not only did she manage on her own, but she turned obnoxious men who bugged her into animals. She was intelligent and had a profession. She was free. She swam naked in the lake and made love without a ring, wedding, and parents’ blessing, without being a whore. She was everything in his opinion a woman couldn’t or wasn’t supposed to be. But at the end of the day, what should such a woman be? He didn’t remember his mother staying at home and being a proper woman, he didn’t remember her taking care of the household. She was selling jewelry and figurines in cities and she disappeared for weeks, but always came back, making his father jealous of her travels (but glad that there was food on the table) and little Gwidon happy to be cuddled by her loving arms. But then, memories faded, parents died, the uncle took care of him and this blissful idea of family life slowly disappeared from Gwidon’s thoughts. 

And this jealousy. He rarely was jealous. When someone was better and stronger at the battlefield, he treated it as a motivation to be even better and stronger himself. And if that wasn’t an option (and Gwidon saw these monstrous men who drank gallons of wine and ate whole cows, not to mention true Giants whom he had recently met) he strived to be more cunning. He knew that muscles lost the fight with brains and tactics won over people’s exhaustion and fear. So when he saw Vandarok’s army, he felt a mixture of fear and admiration. He instantly knew that it was the best-prepared army he had ever seen. He knew that only a miracle could make this army fail, stumble on a straight path Vandarok built for its success. To be in charge of such an army was almost to be in charge of the world. His world. His dream. But now he was supposed to fight against this army and potentially die, as he couldn’t see any other outcome. 

And at this very moment, into his life came Lilet. She didn’t make him weaker, quite the reverse, she made him stronger and calmer. And the sex? He enjoyed the pleasure of women of company, but everyone in the castle was doing so, so after a few fruitless and emotionless sweaty adventures he no longer needed to prove his manhood, but focused on his career. But with Lilet it was different. He wasn’t paying for anything, he was seduced, charmed, besotted by her strong and beautiful body. And the jealousy he felt when Gustaw flirted with her was so strong that Gustaw’s head was on his shoulders only by an inch and it didn’t matter that it was the king’s son and Gwidon did worse things to cover his cowardly ass. No one had the right to flirt with his woman. 

Suddenly, dark thoughts fell on Gwidon’s soul as he realized the truth. The witch wasn’t his woman. And this seemed to be more depressing than the possibility of never getting to be in charge of the king’s army. 

With this gloomy personal misery, he reached the high mountains. He didn’t know where to look for but he knew what he was looking for. With the naivety of a young boy, who has fallen asleep after his mother’s nighttime tale, he walked ahead and looked under his feet. 

‘There’s a treasure hidden in the mountains. A treasure put to sleep years ago. And only the purest of hearts and the purest of intentions can find it. There’s an army…’ the sweet sound of his mother’s voice uncovered from the layers of his memories. 

And soon he heard the horses. Animal voices didn’t come from above but somewhere from below, pulling him closer to the ground. And then he remembered. He was here as a little boy. He came here, ran away from home after hearing his mother’s tale, desperate to find the army. For years, parents told him that it was only a dream, but now he knew it wasn’t. Even his uncle would have never believed him, so he had pushed this experience to his subconsciousness and forgot about it. Yes, the legend was true. There was an army. 

All of a sudden, the earth disappeared underneath his feet and Gwidon fell into a slide, which took him to the underground. His journey ended at the end with a painful bang and his buttocks started to ache. Gwidon looked up. There was someone in front of him, holding a lantern. It was a knight.  

The man smiled at him, helped him to get up from the ground, and welcomed him like an old friend.

‘Gwidon, my boy! How much you have changed! How you grew!’

‘I was here before, wasn’t I?’

‘Of course, you were. You weren’t older than six. We were surprised that a child was able to find us, but you were so certain. You told us that you would lead this army. For me, it was like yesterday. I only closed my eyes for a while. And then I opened it again and what do I see? A grown man with the same exact intention!’

‘I do have the same desire, my friend. We are about to wage a terrible war. There is going to be a terrible battle. A bloody, merciless battle. And only you can help us.’

The knight looked into Gwidon’s eyes.

‘I see the purity of your intentions. You’re not for this war. You want to protect what seems to be hopeless to protect. You are the greatest soldier of your generation, indeed, Gwidon. Come with me.’

Gwidon followed the knight to the edge of an underground cliff. The knight lit the lantern and pointed at a sword lying on the rock.

‘Take it. It’s yours.’

Gwidon took the sword. The years made its shiny surface darken and cover in rust. But once Gwidon raised the sword, it magically renewed itself and shone as if it was brand new.

The knight raised the lantern and threw the torch into the cliff. Soon, passage by passage, it lit other lanterns, with domino’s effect, showing the army of sleeping soldiers turned into stone. Their arms supported on swords, swords’ metal edges dug slightly into the ground. It was an army of tens of thousands, who suddenly moved and stood straight as if waiting for an order. 

‘I introduce you to your General, my knights.’

Gwidon raised his sword and shouted to his men. The knight, standing next to him, smiled. Gwidon was a great leader, he thought. A perfect general with the purest of hearts. But the boy had also changed, the knight saw it with his hundreds’ years’ wisdom of experience. There was something different in him. A weakness, which could change his fate and take off the destiny which burdened his life when he was so little.

Chapter 12 The Bird, the Duck, and the Fish

 Lilet had to use handfuls of magic to get where she wanted. First, she jumped into the river and swam along it, asking fishes to pull her and save her when the current proved to be too strong. Within a few days, she reached the sea. Using her own methods of location, listening to leaves’ whispers, songs of birds and pieces of advice passed by boars, deers, and foxes, she found a small fisherman’s hut just by the sea.

‘Is there anybody here?’, she asked, knocking at the door. 

A little bird approached her and sang:

‘The fisherman and his wife are currently living in a beautiful castle. It’s not far away from here. It’s magnificent and expensive.’

Lilet smiled to herself.

‘And how come the poor fisherman could afford it? His little hut looks like the poorest of the poor.’

‘They say that he found something and this something makes all his wishes come true. But they keep it a secret.’ 

‘Is there a limit to the wishes?’

‘I don’t know. First they lived in this dilapidated hut, then they moved to a big and comfortable house, and then to a beautiful castle.’

‘It seems that they used two of their wishes. You know, little bird, wishes tend to come in threes. What can you tell me about the fisherman and his wife? You seem to know them well.’

‘The fisherman is a humble and hard-working man. He used to wake up before dusk, feed all his animals, go on his fishing boat to the sea and work until his fingers got numb and back started to ache. He deserved what happened to him. He would share his last piece of bread with the poorest of men. I’m happy that he can now live like a king.’

‘And the wife?’

‘The wife had never worked. She always relied on the fisherman. It was her who moved into the hut, it was her who wanted the big comfortable house and it was her who from the house wanted to move into the castle. She’s pretty insatiable. She wants more and more. I wonder how the poor man stands her whims.’

Lilet was deep in her thoughts. The bird ensured her that the fisherman was in possession of what she really needed. But she needed something else to win this thing from the fisherman. 

‘I need a duck!’ she exclaimed and made the bird fly away in fear. 

‘Miss, you are terribly loud! A duck?’

‘Yes, a duck. There’s another legend I’ve been told as a little girl and now it’s time to check whether there’s no smoke without a fire.’

It took her another day to take a step back in her journey and travel south to find a cave. Finally, she found it, and for hours, holding a lantern over her head, she was looking for the duck. Suddenly, she fell and realized that her shoelaces were untied.

‘Damn!’ she swore and kneeled on one knee to tie them up. 

‘Have you come for my gold?’, she heard a woman’s voice. 

She looked down and saw a small sparkling bird with a golden crown on her head.

‘You’re the Golden Duck, aren’t you? Finally! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!’

‘Like everybody else. Haven’t you heard that I give people gold?’

‘Yes, you give them gold coins and then you turn them into stones.’

The duck played with her feathers and laughed.

‘Yes, I tend to be a little bitch. But, understand me, it’s the punishment for my sins.’

‘What sins?’

The duck went back to the underground lake and swam for a while in circles.

‘When I was young, I was pretty spoiled. I had the best dresses, the best horses, I attended the best balls. My father left me a substantial fortune. I enjoyed my life to the fullest. I was rich and beautiful. And then, unexpectedly, this beggar crossed my path and destroyed everything!’

‘Beggar?’, Lilet stood up and approached the lake. 

‘Yes, a cursed beggar. Maybe a witcher. He asked for some of my money, or bread, perhaps for some water, and I didn’t give him anything. Mind you, I was extremely busy, I was preparing for my evening theatre performance. And the next day, he cursed me. He turned me into a duck.’

‘And from that day you also curse other people?’

‘Well, this is the deal. I give them gold coins, endless amounts, really, I’ve lost count. And if they don’t share their wealth with others, they turn into stones. If they shared, I would be turned back into a woman.’

‘No one shares?’

‘It really depends. People are unbelievably strange. Some of them use this money to improve their material situation, but soon you hear that they destroyed their marriage or invested in something really silly and now they have debts. Others don’t even use the money but live as if they had never met the Golden Duck, their biggest fear is being robbed so they keep this money a secret, dug behind some tree. The majority lives in luxury and yes they share, but they don’t share enough, so neither they turn into stones, nor they turn me back into a woman. So, I’m stuck in this forever!’

‘Poor you,’ Lilet expressed some sympathy, ‘So if your situation isn’t about to change any time soon, wouldn’t you like to improve your living conditions a little bit?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Wouldn’t you like to live in a beautiful castle instead of this gloomy cave?’

‘To be honest, I have been thinking about improving my situation a bit, but you see, I cannot spend my money. I can only give it to others to spend.’

‘That’s perfect! And I can take you to the castle and win something else.’ 

The duck was eager for an adventure but travelling with her took longer than expected. She didn’t want to be tired, so they rested longer than necessary. She didn’t want to be hungry, so they dined in inns and slept in rooms, which by magically putting coins into Lilet’s pockets, she paid for to avoid the cold of the night. 

One day, when they approached the castle, she looked at Lilet and frowned.

‘Have you seen yourself recently? You cannot bring me to the castle like that. You don’t look representative!’

Lilet rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t oppose when the duck took her to the dressmaker’s and bought a set of beautiful dresses of the best fabric, which Lilet had never worn and never even seen. 

‘Now! This is what I like. If you had been raised by a mother, you would know how to take care of yourself, being as beautiful as you are.’

‘Instead, I was raised by my grandmother and from an early age prepared to be a witch!’ Lilet laughed. 

But when she looked at herself in the mirror, suddenly the image of Princess Karina in her beautiful blue dress faded, and she had to admit, in the white dress ornamented with white and silver lace, which the duck had bought her, she genuinely looked like a beauty. 

The castle was big and impressive. And there wouldn’t be anything surprising in it, but it wasn’t the castle of a king or a duke, but it was the castle owned by a poor fisherman, who had by now considered the day lucky if he hadn’t gone to sleep hungry. But now, in the castle there was a selection of the greatest wines to drink, the best roasted birds and lambs to eat, the tastiest cakes to try and fruit imported from foreign countries to devour. To the utter surprise of the fisherman, the maintenance of the castle was costly and he was working from dawn till dusk to manage everything and keep the property standing. There were bills and salaries of cooks, maids, tailors, and guards to pay for, service to maintain and numerous rooms to clean and keep warm. His wife was only buying dresses and enjoying her life, eating muffins for breakfast, taking care of her beauty during her lazy afternoons and inviting her friends for evening te-ta-te to boast about her new jewelry. 

The fisherman went up to his castle’s tower and sat on the armchair to rest. 

‘What now?’ he heard a voice behind a small glass bowl.

‘She wants to be a god,’ he laughed, looking at a gold fish swimming inside the bowl, ‘Two days ago she wanted to be a queen, yesterday she wanted to be an emperor, now she wants to be a god. I fear tomorrow.’

‘So is it your wish?’ the fish jumped from the water and jumped back inside as if she was performing a salto.

‘Don’t be silly. Now I see what kind of woman I married. She drives me to ruin. I barely stand on my feet to maintain this level of life. I miss my life as a fisherman, the simple hut, my daily routine. I had far fewer problems. I now see how happy I was and how my life was full.’

‘Dear fisherman, don’t get depressed. You only make her wishes come true. Maybe you should think about yourself. What do you wish for?’

‘A less greedy wife,’ thought the fisherman to himself and left the chamber as there was someone at the gate to the castle. 

‘Yes?’, he opened the gate, as he didn’t get used to the servants doing everything for him.’

Lilet in her white gown, holding the duck under her arm smiled broadly.

‘You must be the owner of this castle! I came to visit!’

‘Are you a friend of my wife?’

The fisherman looked suspiciously at Lilet’s beautiful dress. For many years, his wife had only one friend, an old Henrietta, the neighbour, but now, the more money she had, the more friends she seemed to have. 

‘Not really. I have something which you might be interested in!’

The duck was in the meantime looking around the castle, admiring it’s shiny pavements, tall towers, and cushion-filled rooms. 

‘I like it a lot!’, she said, ‘It reminds me of the castle of my father.’

The fisherman invited Lilet inside and led her to the chamber where his wife was currently admiring her new collection of curtains. 

‘You have a guest!’, he announced.

Lilet entered the chamber and the old woman raised her eyes from the tray of muffins.

‘I wish I had her beauty,’ thought she to herself ‘I wish I had her youth’

Lilet smiled broadly and welcomed the fisherman’s wife.

‘I brought something that you might find interesting,’ she said and presented the duck to the married couple.

‘A duck?’ they stood dumbfounded. 

‘Yes, a duck. But it is a special duck. A Golden Duck. Her owner and protector will never have to worry about money. She can provide endless amounts of gold.’

Lilet gently kicked the duck and all of a sudden a few sacks filled with gold appeared on the floor.

‘She’s like a sack without a bottom.’

‘It could end our financial troubles!’ thought the fisherman to himself.

‘It could buy endless numbers of dresses!’ thought the fisherman’s wife to herself.

‘I like this castle a lot,’ thought the duck to herself and conjured a few sacks more. 

‘What do you want for it?’

‘I want an exchange. I want something which one day you found in your net while fishing. I want something which makes your wishes come true. I want your Golden Fish.’

‘You silly girl, we can ask our fish for such a duck. A duck that gives endless amounts of coins!’

‘That is true, you can make such a wish. But then, you will use your last wish and the fish will no longer serve you. Then I will happily take her with me.’

‘Only one wish??? You didn’t tell me that there are only three wishes!’, the wife was furious.

The fisherman shrugged. He didn’t mention many things to his wife in fear of her rage. 

‘Then this fish is useless. If I have an endless amount of money, I can buy as many things as I want without limits. I can make all my wishes come true. Husband, bring her the fish and let’s take the duck.’

The fisherman came back to his castle’s tower and took the bowl in which the Golden Fish was swimming. 

‘You are about to change the owner,’ he announced, ‘I hope that you will be happier than here.’

Lilet took the fish, and gave the duck to the fisherman's wife. The duck received her own cosy chamber, food and protection, and wanted to talk with Lilet before her return to her homeland. 

‘Thank you, young witch. I hope that you received what you wanted.’

‘Yes, duck. I hope the fish will be able to help us. You could also help us, giving us all the money you have for the army, but then, unable to share, we would change into stones. I will leave all the dresses you bought me and only take this white one I have on me right now. I have a feeling that you may use them and your fate is about to change.’

The moment Lilet left the gates of the fisherman’s castle, fate began playing its part. Was it the character of both the fisherman and his wife that made them use the money in a different way, or was it the fish's last wish for the fisherman, they never knew. But the fisherman’s wife, abundantly spending money all on herself, turned herself in a stone within a week, and the fisherman, cheerfully giving numerous sacks of gold to starving fishermen, who suffered from a particularly hard storm, within the same week managed to turn the duck back into a woman. This woman was happy in his castle and never wanted to leave. The widowed fisherman soon got married to the recovered spoiled princess. And even though she was spoiled, she was moderately spoiled, far less demanding than his wife, and still being able to magically make as much money as she wanted, they lived happily in richness and helped as many as they only could or wanted to help. 

‘And what are your wishes?’ the fish asked on their way back looking at Lilet from the glass bowl.

‘I want us to win this war.’

‘The war is hard, my girl, it takes years sometimes, it consumes people, drives them mad and destroys everything that you, humans, consider precious.’ 

‘I’m not the proponent of this war. I just know that it is inevitable. And my last chance is you. This is my wish. I want us to win this war.’

‘And for yourself? Is there anything you wish for yourself?’

Lilet didn’t answer this last question. But somewhere at the back of her mind was a picture of her in her hut, surrounded by trees, children playing around, and Gwidon coming back with some hunted rabbit for dinner. But she was ashamed to express it, and the fish, even though she had seen it (for she could read in mind), knew that circumstances made some wishes impossible, so she didn’t ask further questions.