Within the confines of her cave she lay flat on her back, eyes closed, motionless except for the consistent shallow breaths that she took in. She wore a red gown with silver lining that exposed the lower part of her neck. I admit that she was beautiful even in her dormant state, but still I clutched the hilt of my sword anticipating her to make an attack.
As I inched closer, a wave of terror came over me leaving me powerless and paralyzed with fear, and yet I continued to move towards her. Every limb in my body felt too heavy to move from the position that they were already in. I saw her breath quicken as I slowly tried to draw out my sword. Just then, she rose from her slumber eyes still closed and chest rapidly expanding and contracting. It felt as if she were examining me even with her eyes shut. As she came closer I felt my body drain of energy and a very powerful sense of hopelessness come over me. Her nose was almost touching mine when her hand caressed my cheek, extracting the life from my very being. She opened her cloudy eyes and I saw the images of death. I soon realized that they were all of me. Every war that I had been in, every village I had conquered, all of the innocent people that I had slain, I felt all of their pain in one single second. She let go of my face and color had returned to her eyes. I dropped to my knees, overwhelmed with grief and despair, and I looked up at her. She looked at me with kind eyes and returned to where she had been laying.

I felt speechless but tried forming words into a sentence.

“Why didn't you kill me.” I said. She stopped where she was and turned around, my heart stopped.

“You endured the pain and suffering of those which you have harmed, there is no need for me to kill you. The error of your ways will be your drive to rid the land of this plague.”