#translyvania

Ladies and Gentlemen...how do

CARPATHIANS by ©Laura Quick

   There once was a young woman with no family or friends. She lived alone in a small hut at the outskirts of her village. No one ever came to visit her; and so she never left her home for she had no one to visit.    One day, a stranger knocked on her door. He cried out, “Please allow me a place to rest. I am a wanderer and have travelled all over the world, and cannot walk another step.”    The woman welcomed him in. “Please come in,” she said taking the stranger by the hand. “Here you shall have a bed to sleep in, as well as food and drink.” The stranger declined the offer of food. “I only need the bed, since it has been too long since I have slept.”    “How long have you been awake?” the young woman asked curiously.    “A thousand years,” the stranger replied as he lay himself down. The woman laughed assuming it was a joke, but before she could confirm, the man had fallen into a deep sleep.

   The stranger awoke the next morning and said to the girl, “You are kind and sweet. If the thought does not displease you, allow me to stay the week.” The woman heartily agreed, for she already felt a fondness for the stranger.   Their happiness lasted but a few days.   The young woman awoke with a start one morning. “I had the most terrible dream,” she told the man. “You had become pale and your body was cold to the touch. You blew a horn that called the dead to you, as if you were their king.”   The stranger turned sweetheart became solemn. He arose and regretfully explained, “My darling, I am afraid I must leave now. I have been away from my post for too long, and I am sure people have suffered for it.”     The woman fell to his feet sobbing, “Please do not leave me. You can’t yet, you haven’t even told me your name.”    “I cannot,” he said with pain in his voice. “Those that know me do not live any longer. You know not what you ask.”    “But how I should like to, to know everything about you,” she wept. “If you must leave than please take me with you and never let us part!” He fell to the floor with her and held her close. “Than you shall come with me, I am Death.” The woman shuddered and died.

The End