The Tragic Tale of an Epic Hero Part II

Magnolia

Robert runs outside happily unaware of the events about to transpire. He runs and runs, with every step taking him deeper and deeper into the heart of the forest, until he is overcome with exhaustion. Deciding to rest, he chugs a mouthful of his water and summons the courage to read the letter. It can't be that bad, right? Boy is he wrong.


Your birth was a long and difficult one that would have left your mother dead had it not been for your father. He made a selfish sacrifice with a sorceress, saving your mother but promising to give you to the sorceress in return.



In a frantic rage, Robert tries to return home but is confronted by the witch, Magnolia. She doesn't have a long pointy nose, long fingers with harsh looking sharp nails that curl at the ends, or scaly skin like the witches in the books Robert had read. Magnolia looks like a goddess that dropped from Mt. Olympus, her beauty more hypnotizing than that of Aphrodite. And when she speaks, her voice is not a croak but a beautiful melody. However, the most uncanny characteristic is her close resemblance to Robert's mother.


She tries to get Robert to follow her but he vehemently refuses. Magnolia then proceeds to spill out the whole truth to him. "Robert Bolbec, you have no right to defy me. I saved your mother and made you strong, smart, and handsome with the promise that you would be sent to me one day. Your mother may have kept you protected in that house for all these years but now you are mine. It is your duty to uphold the promise that was made lest your family suffer the wrath of the gods." With this, Robert agrees to go with her in feigned fear but quickly slips away when she lets her guard down. Outraged, Magnolia curses Robert to wander the forest for five years.


"You'll come to me of your own will soon enough. Mark my words." This is the last Robert hears of her in the next five years.


Like Magnolia curse promised, Robert is unable to leave the forest, try as he may. As he resigns himself to live a life isolated in the forest, he encounters and saves the life of a hermit by shear coincidence or is it a stroke of luck? Whatever it maybe, the hermit promises to grant him a single wish so long as the wish does not defy promises of old as this would upset the greater powers. Robert makes his wish; although, the hermit deems it a strange wish, he grants it nonetheless.