Saturday's Storyteller: "Yet again she noticed the creature had escaped, a trail of destruction pointing her in the direction he ran off to."

by Belinda Roddie

Yet again she noticed the creature had escaped, a trail of destruction pointing her in the direction he ran off to. Pots and pans had been yanked from opened drawers and scattered in a metallic mess on the floor. Both sugar and cinnamon had been spilled from now cracked porcelain jars and now lay in scattered white and brown smudges on the linoleum. A box of crackers had been opened, its contents partially eaten, the crumbs spread out in a circle as if meant to summon some sort of demon.

Nexis wondered to herself why she even tried to keep the strange beast with her. She had given him a spacious golden cage, with a high enough ceiling to stand in and all the proper furniture. She had fed it three times a day - meat and cheese and ale, with some dessert if it didn't cause trouble - and even sometimes sang it to sleep. And now it had fled for the fifth time, the padlock undone from its prison, disappearing into the forest beyond the cottage. Nexis fetched the broom from the wall and began to sweep up the mess. Perhaps this time, she would not follow the creature out into the wilderness. Perhaps this time, she needed to let him go.

This week's prompt was provided by Allie Kilzer.