This post is part of a series. Start from the beginning here.
vi.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl. Her hair was red as a summer rose, and her smile was as soft as breath. The girl lived in a walled labyrinth, lost and alone, searching for a secret. As she searched, she grew closer to the wide and towering tree at the maze’s heart. The tree, which from afar had seemed so lovely, grew forbidding and ominous. The grass became stiff and sharp under her tender feet, the flowers thorny and wild. They tore and scratched her skin, and for the first time she felt pain. But the girl pressed on, for it seemed that with each passing step the flowers were brighter, and the air more sweet, and the birds’ songs more lusty than she had ever known. And after countless steps, when the girl’s strides were swift and sure, and but a single wall remained between her and the tree, she discovered the boy. The boy was tall and handsome as stone, and his smile faded like bright water tumbling into a black and bottomless pool.
In Search of Secrets 