Tales of Paper & Pen

A burning sky dyed the earth in crimson splendor—glorious to all disfigured. They reap the benefits of those turned to stone and praise the venomous mane of betrayal and curses. To the shrine and before the bronze face of wisdom and war, she had once pressed head to the floor, vowing to eternally honor the immortal shield and spear. But, envy and strife remains not just among mortals but of the divine too. Both blessed and cursed with unmatched beauty, a wave of peerless sea ravished her once pure and untouched body. With head touched to the floor, she surrendered to the water and wept, her vow not broken by her but by the raging ocean. And so the bronze face stared no longer with pride or satisfaction, but with anger and disgust. That shield was no longer her protection. Instead, it was her barrier. That spear no longer fought for her. Instead, it fought against her. She was stripped of her beauty that was once a blessing but now a curse. She was stripped of her legs, her hair, her eyes. And in the place of those once perfect eyes, legs, and hair, was a disfigured being no longer human or humane. Madness, insanity, contempt, and hatred was all she could feel for that heartless betrayal against her. Her hair hissed with anger and her eyes were cold. And as if she couldn’t ever hope to be compared to that once sacred bronze face, all she could be seen as was a monster by those she once thought of as companions. Her wish to erect statues of gold and silver now degraded to the fact that she could only create statues of stone.