Lion Head Mesa girl or woman

it's been only a year.

time stalks behind a lake cub and turns her into a tower and a lady. but the tower is far too short compared to the one that came before it, and the lady is far too young, and carries far more ogre's blood than her contemporaries.

time and those that follow it say that now, she is a woman. but how badly does she wish to refute that she is still a girl — much too young to be thinking of children, of marriage, of duty. she has yet to bleed. but she must. she is told she must.

time stares her in the eyes under the deepest of night skies. in her cold chamber before bed, she asks it how much does she have left; before womanhood comes and all the bitterness and loneliness that accompanies it.

time only looks at her with pity.