I’ve watched you live here in my first home,Īnd today I’ve come to offer you what we’ve been deprived: a choice.

Human, and I learned about the life you lived in my place. In Their gardens, I uncovered the morpho blossoms that They’d used to make you appear I discovered how toĭisappear amidst the trees, to speak with birds, and to heal the gravest wounds. With Their enchantments, I developed Their second sight. Survive, there among the rowan, and what’s more, I learned much from them. Mortality: with water, with fire, with all Their strange magic, until my skin My guardians delighted in testing the limits of my Have thought your captors cruel, but even their crudeness couldn’t match the At dawn, the couple discovered a healthy being, one they couldĮxploit and bear no guilt, for you weren’t really theirs, were you? You weren’t The truth: that They left you behind in my place, silent upon the doorstep in a They wanted aĬhild who was strong, who could work, so they abandoned me in the forest toįae-light stilled my cries, and They gleefully stole me away. Their daughter didn’t care for my sickly pallor or weak whimpers. I slept beneath this roof and rested upon this bed. Nor can they sense Those beings who frolic, hidden, among the moss. They can’t see the dragonflies’ fiery breath or taste the wind’s temperament, You’ve noticed, as I have, that they don’t hear the forest’s song as you do. They’ll wed you to their neighbor in exchange for a stubborn mule. People and slapped you when you dared to sing aloud. I’ve seen how they’ve forced you to do the work of three Meet your eye and never, ever touch your skin.Ĭall “father” and “mother” have never treated you as true Something about you they find strange and unsettling. Perhaps you already know, deep down, that there’s When I knocked at your window, you showed no fear. Change for Changelings, flash fiction, Frozen Wavelets, Wendy Nikel

The Continuum by Wendy Nikel