At the top of the cliff, sitting on a huge rock,

a young woman gazed up at the dawn with her big blue eyes.

The orange half-sphere rose timidly into the distance, beyond dreams

dreams, where the sleeping lake merged with the sky. The

The glow of the new day illuminated her, making the golden bracelets

bracelets she had always worn on each wrist, and the wet pearl

and the wet pearl that slid down her sad face.

As she did every morning, faced with such a marvellous and sad

spectacle, she couldn't suppress the sadness in her heart.

her heart.

- Odin, father of all things. Aegir, the unbrushed,

lord of the winds and tides. Thor, master of lightning

and illustrious warrior," she recited silently,

grant me the grace to leave the cliffs as soon as possible

with impunity.

As she had done every morning for nineteen long years, it was with a

heavy and lonely heart that she kept alive the hope of leaving

away from here. But the prayers she recited unceasingly with conviction

never reached the gods...

- Freyja? shouted a man with a raspy voice. Where are you, Freyja?

Absorbed in her own thoughts, Freyja hadn't heard the call

for quite some time. When she realised

When she realised, she jumped to her feet (her legs were swarming with

legs were swarming with inactivity) and frantically sponged

frantically into the sleeves of her dress.

robe - there was no way he was going to catch her snivelling!

whining!

The sun was now over the lake. Its shimmering rays

a slim young woman with hips as wide as her shoulders

hips as wide as her shoulders, with dark blonde hair that

to her neck.

- Freyja! came the voice, raspier than ever.

When he sounded like that, he was in a worse mood than usual.

than usual. Over time, she'd come to hate his voice.

voice.

- I'm coming, I'm coming! I'm... up here.

Freyja grabbed a root that was emerging between two huge

rocks and leaned back with her back to the void. Using her

legs, she carefully climbed down the wall until she came

she came to rest on the branch of a tree. Then, with the suppleness

of a monkey, her feet were back on the fresh grass in no time.

no time at all. Climbing trees and rocks came naturally.

Every morning she would climb to the top of the rocky outcrop

of the rocky massif to admire the dawn. She had done this

her whole life, so she knew every groove in the rock by heart.

every groove in the rock.

- There you are at last," said the old man, looking alternately

the tree and the branch next to the top of the rocks.

top of the rocks. Have you been up there again?

- Yes, I have.

- How many times do I have to tell you that it's dangerous?

- I know, but...

- Your recklessness will eventually cost you your life!

- Edmund, let me explain...

- ENOUGH! he shouted, waving his hand wildly

and Freyja immediately fell silent.

With her huge grey beard sprawling over her nightgown and her long

nightgown and his long, tangled hair, Edmund was a wizard who

a wizard who looked like a ferocious, hungry bear. Except that

this bear with a weathered face - whose anger made him even more

even more unsympathetic than he was naturally - was endowed with a look

look. His eyes, with a hue as violet as amethyst

as amethyst, reflected something penetrating, shrewd and mysterious.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

shrewd and mysterious.

"As frightening as it was enigmatic" was the feeling Freyja got every time she met him.

Freyja felt every time she saw him. She found herself

to twist a lock of her hair excessively as if she were wringing out a towel.

wringing out a towel. The burning desire to answer him

burning inside her, but she knew perfectly well that when he

stern look and his eyes darkened, all her cause was lost.

was lost.

- I need a sample, then we'll go home," he said in a calmer tone.

home," he said in a calmer, almost honeyed tone this time.

this time.

His face relaxed. Freyja could see the whole of the iron

around his eyes. Right in the middle of his

skin the number looked like a mark carved in dried clay.

dried clay. It made him even less likeable. But Freyja

Freyja often felt bad for him just looking at him.

looking at him.

She nodded in response, before noticing that he was already holding the sampling kit in his hand.

was already holding the sampling kit in his left hand. She immediately

immediately felt uneasy. "He's done it again! He's done it again!

Freyja thought, suddenly panicking. But he promised! He

He promised to always ask my opinion! But this morning

again... no, no, no... before even saying hello to me... "

Freyja thought about the tone of his voice, which had softened when he had

changed the subject. "He's prepared everything in advance again... What a horrible, abusive leech!

What a horrible, abusive leech!

on the fresh grass. Fatally, she ended up stretching out her

arm.

Whistling his usual annoying tune, Edmund mechanically

the needle into the nebulous veins of his neck.

forearm before meticulously beginning the extraction.

Freyja, as a seasoned donor, didn't even flinch.

flinch. Instead, she looked away: she hated

blood. The sight of blood disgusted her to the core and Edmund

Edmund knew that... but he didn't care. All he cared about was drawing it.

draw it. He did it on a weekly basis, just like any other person does

every week at the market.

Freyja was, so to speak, his walking reservoir. He needed blood

he needed for his secret experiments. A few

Freyja didn't have a problem with it, but these days he's

these days, he'd come to the pump every day without exception!

without exception! Since he'd stepped up the pace, she'd been feeling

feeling perpetually weak and depressed. Her body, pale and bruised

covered in bruises.

To avoid vomiting, her attention was drawn to the partridges

partridges fluttering and cackling along the rocky outcrop on the

the other side of the cliff. It was too steep to climb, and she knew it.

and she knew this very well, having almost broken her neck on

broke her neck on several occasions, without success. These birds

didn't realise how lucky they were to be able to soar

to fly wherever they wanted. Unlike Freyja, all they had to do

just had to flap their wings to achieve freedom.

Dreaming of what it would feel like to have wings, she didn't feel anything.

wings, she didn't feel Edmund remove the needle.

Further down, a small wooden fence linked the two rocky massifs that

rocky massifs which descended on either side of the cliff for a hundred

for a hundred metres at most. Together they formed a

garden, with a single gravel path leading down to a large

path that led to a shabby thatched cottage. This was his

home - his cage.