Characters: Maladict
Rating: B

Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.

Briar Rose
by Amazon Syren

     My mother always said that I should comport myself like a blood red rose: Beautiful, elegant, enticing, and with subtle thorns with-which to prick the unwise.

     For a while, I did.

     I could swan around a ball room in a black velvet dress, the mysterious creature of the night; a pale flame in a dark room, drawing men to me like moths.

     But what did I ever want from men? When I put on the black ribbon, they ceased to have any appeal what-so-ever.

     A blood red rose...

     I had seen roses in the Prince's city, pruned and cultivated to within an inch of their lives. Beautiful, frail blossoms that drowned in the rain and burned in the heat, that couldn't have bloomed without help. Drugged flowers growing in prisons of stone...

     But I had also seen roses growing wild near our old family castle in the mountains outside of Munz. Rambling brambles, with thorns you could see. Roses as they were meant to be: Strong-limbed and hardy and free.

     "Comport yourself like a blood red rose," But what kind of rose was I?
     Of course I knew.
     I stole my brother's suit, my father's sword, and walked out into the meadows and the autumn breeze.
     I sheared off my hair and felt a weight leave my shoulders.

     I left it under a briar rose.
     An offering to my sister, wild and free.