Purrfectionist

You’ve just arrived in a swampy, dim town. As you look around, your gaze is met with shacks and cabins. It smells of rotted wood and wet moss. You duck and step into a tattered tent, illuminated by a series of candles suspended in the air. At the back of the tent, an old hag raises her head, “What brings you to this dingy town? she begins, then pauses to study your face—”Ah, it’s you. I’ve been expecting you. Sit,” she gestures at a cushion, “Tell me your story.”

((How do you respond?))

As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I nervously take a seat on the cushion and take a look around the tent. My gaze stops on some herbs drying, and I stare at them instead of the old woman whose very eyes seem to be able to read my soul. After several minutes of heavy, awkward silence, I stutter out a few words. "I, I, don't remember..." I gulp and stare down at my apron while my hands fidget with the ruffles. "You see, for the past few months or so, I have been traveling with some merchants. I don't remember much from before then. They told me that one cold winter day, they found me unconscious on the side of the road and left for dead. This was right after a huge battle had taken place. My consciousness seems to remember this even though I can't. Now, I can't stand conflict. Whenever the merchants would get in fights with people, I would shut down and hide..." I shudder at the thought of what could have happened to me if the merchants didn't find me. Some wild beasts probably would have found me, or I would have succumbed to the cold... "The only thing I can remember, is that I have had an extreme value of virtue drilled into me ever since I was young. It pained me that I couldn't even remember what these virtues were until the merchants told me about The Canticles." I pause for a moment and sigh. "I guess this means that I must have grown up in a heavily religious city... I'm sure my current state would be considered highly sacreligious..." I look around the tent again, at the old woman, and back down at my apron where I have a flower in my pocket. Gently, I pick up the flower and look at it. My face beams with excitement for a moment. "Oh, I have been absolutely obsessed with the beauty of flowers ever since spring has sprung! The merchants told me that I must have had a fondness for art! They even gave me a new name, Flora, it means flower!" I get solemn as my mind suddenly snaps back into reality as I remember how I even got here. "The merchants, they brought me here then left, forever on the move they are..." I sigh, remembering that I have lost my only family once again. "They told me that you could help me." I look up at the old woman with tears and confusion in my eyes. "Please..."