Be he {alive} or be he {dead} (DW/// Day 2)

The bean stalk turns out to be more deadly than I imagined. It was a good morning too, Helios smiling up in the sky, the clouds swimming around in the never ending blue, but then dragons appeared, jumping down from the heavens. Their teeth as big and as sharp as the big bad wolf's, their bodies as large as the mighty hell hound, but the difference is that the hounds are obviously dogs and, well, we battled cats, twice as deadly as dogs and much more graceful too. Every attack thrown to our direction looked like Snow White trying to hunt a Bambi, very fluid and light-footed, but very lethal. We are lucky to even slay one, thanks to Storm the mighty and Jim the valiant. Unfortunately for me, the battle was a blur of swipes and bites because of the golden egg that fell on my head - maybe it was a giants way of telling me that we will never win, but boy did we prove him wrong. Every swipe Jim, Storm, Bea and I gave was full of wanting to make it out alive, our deep nostalgia and fear helped us to defeat the wicked creatures.

The battle with the dragons hell kitties left some of us, including me, injured, except Storm, my brave and strong brother. I can feel the strength and warmth radiating from his skin, no one cares for me like this anymore.Water begins to fill my eyes as I remember the final years with my parents, the year before my father lost his job and, especially, before the screams that filled my home house.

It was christmas of that year, snow filled the lawn and every plant beneath the white snow was in slumber, father would play his old records. He used to say that the record was a treasured antique because it was as old as Panem, even before the great war, and I believe him up to this point. Father isn't a man who loves to speak lies, he is always honest and just - there was a time when he caught me lying and he said if I lied again my nose would grow like pinochio's and I said sorry and never lied again. We sat around the fire place waiting for midnight, the time I opened my presents. When my parents would be sitting on the couch admiring the little joy toys could bring to a child.

But those days are gone, stolen by hermes and thrown to the bottom of tartarus, never again to see the beauty of light. It's the middle of the day and storm has placed me to sit on the ground, "Thank you Storm," I say with a bright grin. I consider Storm and Jim as blood brothers, being the only child and leaving school early isn't a life of a normal child, it makes me a freak - like frankenstein - around my peers, but Storm and Jay made me feel normal, they became my family - if it even is possible to have that in a Hell like this - that I will never betray. Beatrice, on the other hand, is a complete stranger, an evil step-sister to my family, but it seems that Storm and Jim trusts her with their lives, so I should too, but I can't. I have been lied to by my parents, "we'll be a family forever," they said, but their promises shattered like the walls of troy.

"Come on, Stormika!" Beatrice says in a playful tone, as Storm just sat down to regain his strength from carrying me, "Bea I think we should rest," but my plea got tangled up in the wind and she barely hears me because of her excitement. "If you are hoping for a break then you better go back in time. Besides, I want to climb the beanstalk." How funny you say that Bea, how funny you say the truth through your body of lies. "You too, Stickerella." Oh, it rhymes with Cinderella, my new nock name my step-sister give me "Jamie. If you guys are going to be my little protectors than you ought to do what I say." Your protector? Is that what we are to you? The thorny bushes that will protect you castle? I barely know you, looking at her with piercing eyes. This girl is a walking mystery, I seem to recall a Cassius Birch from one of the past games, but they may not be related - I haven't asked her yet. "Last one to the top is the next one dead!" You're no Prophet. "Are you coming or what, losers?" It did seem entertaining to climb the beanstalk, also I want to see whether a giant lives there or maybe the goose that lays golden eggs - like the one that left me dizzy in the battle.

"I wanna go! But Bea you'd have to carry me," I say with a sly smile, I can act like damsel, but a smart and devious one.

© tattle for the table

Fe ... Fi ... Fo ... Fum ...

Goes the heaving breaths of Bea, climbing up the beanstalk, carrying my dead weight. "I'm sorry Bea," says I with a shy smile, you wanted me to be like Cinderella, so let me be a hassle. From the top here, the arena looks like a setting of a book, the giant beanstalk - where the golden egg fell from, maybe there's a goose that lays them there, we'll be rich! - the maze, the dragons, everything you need to create your own adventure. This is an adventure, Cinderella's step-sister carrying her. "Sticky do you wanna get sticky?" says Beatrice cooly, a small girl but a strong one too, if she wasn't she wouldn't be able to carry the damsel me.

Sticky, huh? I've never tried being that - the reason for my nick name is my unusual memory - it was my parents who coined that, but I liked the name sticky, it not only describes me, but is an irony to my life. No one sticks with you Sticky, no one, but that's a lie. I still have storm bea and jim, they'll never leave not yet at least.

"Ok Bea, make me sticky then," I say in a hushed whisper, throwing a wink at bea.

© tattle for the table