There was no time to save anything, except your only child.
“I’m hungry,” said your only child.
You began to climb.
The castle guards had been given telescopes, and saw you coming from a distance. They raised the alarm.
The people in the castle shook with outrage. “We’re being invaded,” they said. “We’re being invaded for our food.”
You were still at the bottom of the hill, in the next village up.
“I’m thirsty,” your child said.
“The castle puts our water in bottles,” the villagers said.
You climbed.
You barely heard. You thought of mountains of food. You thought of rooms full of water.
You climbed. You brought your child with you, your only child: hungry, thirsty.
An invasion is coming, the people in the castle moaned, a great invasion.
“I’m sick,” your only child said.
The castle has the best medicine, the villagers said.
You took the harder path. You brought your only child: hungry, thirsty, sick
It's an invasion, the people mourned, from their baths in the castle atop the hill. They worried as they gathered their excess food in sacks for disposal.
A great invasion for our food and water and medicine, which is the greatest.
They seized your child, sick, hungry, thirsty.
Whose child is this, asked the guards.
Mine, you replied.
Where is your proof, asked the guards.
It burned, you said. It burned, it all burned.
When you saw her next, she had died
She had died in a cage: unfed, thirsty, sick
Yes it's a tragedy, they said. A tragedy, that this woman chose to bring her child on the journey to the top of the hill
Such a dangerous trip
Why would she put her child in this danger
Just to invade us
Just to invade
How selfish
Why didn’t she take the easier path
Why did she come when she knew the path was hard
You tried to tell them why, but they didn’t hear a word
They were firing their customary rockets into the villages to celebrate the king
We must buy more rockets.