stronghold

previous part: https://jordynsaelor.com/2025/10/23/embrace/

all parts here: https://jordynsaelor.com/cant-catch-me-now/

***

In the story books

I read at home,

the captured maiden

was always blindfolded

or asleep

and never knew where her captors

took her

until she’d been locked up in the tower,

with a spell already placed upon her so she couldn’t leave unless

some dragon saved her from the selfish prince.

But here,

in the tight, scratchy clutches of a tree

cutting off circulation below my knees,

I knew

exactly where we were going

from the moment it appeared on the horizon

until we arrived

under the setting sun

(though not

what the place was like

on the inside).

Back within the demon school,

telling time was hard

but I think

that tree carried me

as long as a lecture–

a whole lecture

of the sun drying my lips and face.

A whole lecture, of the pitter-patter

chorus of salamanders

running

behind us,

never faltering.

A whole lecture

of my teeth rattling

with the movement of my tree-captor

dragging itself through packed dirt.

A whole lecture

of the land rumbling

with all the other trees

thrusting roots out of and into the ground

to pull themselves along

after us.

It took less than a whole lecture

for the tree’s leaves to grow back

and for my invisibility to wear off

though no one seemed to notice,

and I felt like I’d wasted

the ink on the runes

and I had no idea where to get more to reset them.

Yet

despite the tree

carrying me to captivity

or doom

or something worse,

I still almost fell asleep

like in a lecture

because I was so

bored.

***

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