Untitled

A story by a man about a woman


a man once was given the task of guarding over a young woman. - the young woman, unfortunately, was turned into a grotesque demon every full moon, so that she was unrecognizable. on one such night the man was standing guard outside of her house, not knowing that she had snuck out the back. he was beginning to dose off while standing up when he heard a commotion in the front courtyard. he grabbed his bow and quiver and ran out to find a monstrous demon trudging towards him, malice gleaming in its eyes. in that moment, fear gripping him, the man forgot that the woman transformed on nights such as these when the full moon was out, and he fired three arrows in rapid succession at the beast, which groaned and fell to the ground. Upon falling the girl transformed into herself again.
At that moment, the girl's father - the king - ran out and yelled at the sight of the young woman lying in the courtyard, wounded and covered in blood. "you clumsy oaf!" he shouted at the man. "couldn't you see it was her? you knew she transformed on nights where the full moon shined! as for me, i will never let you stand guard at my palace again!"
the man with the bow looked up with tears in his eyes. "your majesty, all i wanted was to protect your daughter the princess," he replied. "in the moment of peril i was not thinking clearly. please do not judge my ability as a guardsman based on my erroneous decision in the moment of crisis."

~Anonymous