A Difficult Decision

You awaken the next morning alone, but feeling more well-rested than you have in years.

As you look around the small house, you see that a plate of bread and cheese, as well as some fresh milk, has been left out for you. Not having eaten since leaving your hotel nearly two days ago, you quickly devour the food and make your way out of the house.

You find Sarah in the barn, sitting gingerly on a stool, carefully milking a large cow. She smiles warmly up at you, and you can't help but smile back at her sincerity.

"Sleep well?" she asks.

You smile back in response.

"I must admit," she continues, "I'm no virgin, but what you did to me last night left me wondering if I had ever truly been with a man." She shakes her head. "Here I was worried that I'd break you, but..." she shifts uncomfortably on her stool. "Based on how sore I am, perhaps I'm the one that was broken."

"Sorry about that," you say.

She laughs, "Why on earth would you be sorry? It feels like a burden has been lifted from me. I should be thanking you."

You while away the morning chatting amicably, but as the sun reaches its zenith, you see the smile begin to slip from her face.

"I suppose that you will be on your way?" A look of sadness washes over her.

"I need to find a way back to my own land," you explain, "I have people back home that care about me and will worry if I am gone for too long. Do you by chance know of a cave a few miles down the road?" You gesture in the direction of the outcropping you'd emerged from yesterday.

Her eyes widen slightly. "You mustn't go there," she starts, "that is a place of evil."

"Evil?" you ask.

She sighs, "I'm no scholar, but every child learns the legends." She pauses dramatically. "Thousands of years ago, the finest warriors the world has ever seen, led by God Queen Elisia, traveled through that cave into another world."

You listen in rapt attention as she tells you of the battles that were fought and how finally, only the Queen's eldest daughter, Ariel, had made it back through.

"It was she that founded the Queendom of Askeria, and her first act as Queen of this land was to collapse the entrance to the cave and ensure that whatever beasts annihilated her mother's armies could never threaten the land." She finishes with a rueful laugh. "That was thousands of years ago, though; who knows how much of it is true and how much is a fairytale?"

"I know this is premature, but you could stay with me..." she says shyly. "I may be a widow, but I'm still young and a good provider. I could use a good partner to run this farm, and Goddess willing, I would very much like to have some children of my own one day that I could pass this farm down to."

You look up at her with hopeful grey eyes, and you find yourself sorely tempted by her offer.