Magical couldn't describe how that night and the subsequent nights she spent with Adris.
There was no word to describe how Agnes felt. It was a mix of feelings swirling and growing with warmth and lightness.

All those men who held genuine interest in her and those who wanted to see her again. And there were a few she actually liked and whose conversation she enjoyed lending her ear. She wasn't certain if it was the conversation or simply the sound of the rich timber voices she loved. Of all the men, Adris' was the best.

Agnes cupped her cheeks and giggled shaking her head as she reminisced the sound of his voice coated in the honeyed wine and fermented berry juice.

"You've lost your mind, haven't you?" The shrew voice broke through bringing her back home to her grandmother.

"No, grandmother." She sighed setting another jar then another on the cart until she was done loading up.
She went to the back to find the donkey and found an empty stall.

"Grandmother, where's Odysseus?"

"How many times did I tell you not to name the damn beast? Then again you are family."

And you look like a hairless rat so what does that make you? She kept her thoughts to her self and rephrased her question.

The old woman responded.
"It's with Helen and her new husband... you know husband? The one you don't have and can't seem to find. And who would want you, honestly. You go out about selling your body to anyone that would smile at your ugly face. You think I don't know."

"Grandmother!" Agnes screamed. Her chest heaving from the overflow of heat exploding in her chest.
"I just asked where the donkey was."

"Did you just scream at me?" She asked taking her sandal in hand as she threw it at her head. It struck her temple.
"I knew you didn't consider me your grandmother, bring back my shoe."
Agnes left to Helen's only to discover the couple were not home and neither was her donkey. Clearly she had no way to drag the cart to the market.

"You're such a lazy child." Her grandmother cried upon her return.
"Couldn't the gods have punished me with another plight if I wronged them? Locust, disease, anything."

"Your son's death." Agnes bit her lips regretting her words after she said them. She stood for the slaps that remained in her face and body; she deserved them.

"You witch! You witch! How dare you say that to me?" She cried and Agnes cried because her grandmother's pain was raw and she shared it. This was the most broken she'd seen her since her son's death.

"I'm sorry." Agnes begged. "I'm sorry grandmother." Her pleas and hugs were still met with fists coming down on her then they stopped.

"Who are you? I demand you let me go and let me kill this demon." Her grandmother screamed.

Agnes opened her eyes to Adris' angry blue glaring at the old fowl.

"I'm her friend and I need you to stop to this madness."
She was briefly muted by Adris' face.
"You're my he-r friend?" She stammered.
"This proves you truly are a witch."

"Please watch your words. You don't want to lose your only family" Adris said.

"I don't need her. And piece of advice stay way from her and save yourself the pain. That child is cursed."

Adris went to Agnes checking her cuts from the older woman's claws then he linked their hands.

"Beautiful people can really be stupid too I see." Her shrewd eyes fixated on Adris' hands and hers.

"If you don't want her, I'll take her away and give your wish."

Agnes' mouth dropped. He didn't mean it.
Her grandmother didn't think so either.
"You take her? What use would she be. Not even a good lay, or cook or anything for that matter." She laughed.
"And even if you wanted her she will never leave, will you Agnes?"

"I will."Agnes replied.

Those were moments when Agnes took pride in remaining unaffected by her grandmother's words as they made little impact to affect Agnes' emotions until her grandmother spoke again.

"You know what? Take her in exchange for a donkey."

Agnes tore away from Adris and staggered towards the woman who was just now trading her for another donkey.

"Grandmother..." the words carried by broken breaths and the stinging of tears in her throat and eyes.

"What?" Her hard eyes met Agnes. And try as Agnes could to find some emotion beneath the overwhelming hatred she saw, she couldn't.
Had all grandmother's love for her in her early childhood dissolved as sea foam on the beach? Because Agnes possessed those memories, the realization constricted her heart, lungs and every other organ in her body.

"Sir, you can take her as she is. She owns nothing in this house. I'll be expecting my donkey tomorrow."She said then retreated into the house.

"Grandmother!" She screamed knocking on the locked door. "Grandmother. Did you even love me? Come out and answer me. Am I truly no better than a beast? Grandmother!"

"Go away. You don't have anything here."

The shattering of her heart happened in cycles. Ice trickled through her veins down to her toes and the world shut her out and left her to feel every second of her pain.
She was truly an orphan. She had no one.
The tears couldn't be helped. There would be no one to wipe away her tears.

The large body collected her in his arms and he chased away some of the pain with his words,
"I'm here for you."

Gods, she'd never needed to believe in words more than then.
She wept in Adris' arms.