5.

horror

The girl had been sheltered all her life, on a grassy knoll to the north. She had been fed a delicate diet of honeysuckle and mare milk. Staying small, she never grew beyond the height of a small blueberry bush.

Her keeper was a sad old man, bringing her meals in small earthen wear bowl. He would brush her soft hair and plait it, mend her dresses and talk to her about bright things. He never seemed to get much larger, or much younger.

The girl was never allowed to go to the village. Her keeper made this too clear, too clear for her curiosity to be quelled.

She wandered into the village on her own, stupid little thing she was.

Despite her best dress, shiny hair and innocent eyes, none could see past her deformities.

The old man wept the day his half-kraken daughter was murdered in the town square.