text: Words do not come easily. My hands do not write well, it is slow and strange. But I have a story to tell, I do not know why I must tell, but the words want to be together and to be seen. I am guarding all the time, I stop the ones who enter without being allowed, I stop them quickly and I stop them forever. There is blood, there is screams, people call me a monster, but they know to fear me because they are not welcome. The last ones I stopped were young, they wore matching jackets with a big letter on them, I heard the word “senior”, but they are not old, so I do not know them. The one that I still remember was much more little, a girl, tiny and very strange to me, she smiled at me and made noises that were nice. The tiny girl came to my lair, holding a smaller bear that was not alive, the tiny girl had her eyes tight against the light and smiled at me. She did not fear, she did not make the loud and high noises, so I believe she was welcomed, I did not stop her from entering my guarding place. “Aren’t you lonely up there?” she asked of me, I did not answer, I am not meant to feel ‘lonely’. She sat under where I rest and spoke to me of things I do not know. She said that she was a princess and I was a king, and I was trapped and would one day be free. I did not know that I am a king, but I like that, maybe it is the reason I do not remember before guarding the tall plants. The tiny girl spoke to me more, asked me if I was sad because I do not have anyone to speak to, I did not know how to answer, none have spoken to me since I began to guard, so I shook my head. The tiny girl jumped and then clapped her hands together, she was happy I moved, all others are not, they run when I do, and I know to chase them. I climbed from my perch, the tiny girl smiling at me as I towered over her, I asked her the only thing I could put into sound. “You not fear monster?” The tiny girl laughed and then clutched one of my legs, the words she spoke are still in my thoughts, “Yeah I’m scared of monsters, but you just a big ol' friend.” I do not know who 'friend' is, but I think it is my name, so I will be Friend. “Princess not think monster?” I asked her, confusion is new and confusing. “Nuh-uh, you’re the king and I’m the princess, you hafta stop monsters!” the tiny girl said, stamping one foot to make herself known. “I am Friend-King, I will stop monster,” I now know my purpose, it is my purpose given to me by the small one, my tiny princess. The princess stayed with me until the light went away and the dark started to appear, I could feel how she feared when she saw the darkness. She told me she would be back the next day and we would do more of the playing, I led her to the edge of my guarding place. The princess did not lie, she came the next day and the next and for many more after, each day telling me of our guarding place. It was called a 'Kingdom' and we were good and protected people, and that the kingdom next to ours had monsters who were gigantic and evil and pretended to be nice. Princess would not let me destroy the monsters, she told me that the monsters were not always evil, that the monsters were good in the light, but when the darkness came, the monsters would hurt people. Tiny Princess looked very sad when she said this, she touched a place on her face that had a different colour to the rest of her. The princess told me that she had tried to fight the monsters of the darkness before, but the monsters were stronger than her. “Tiny Princess is strongest, teaches Friend-King and is good and is welcomed,” I told her, I made the Tiny Princess cry, but I do not know how. Tiny princess clung to me, I had learned in days before that when Tiny Princess did this, I was to do the same, but very, very gently, because princesses get hurt easy. I held my Tiny Princess until she did not cry and was silent and asleep. She woke when the darkness had come up, fear was her feeling once she realised, I held her hand as gently as I could and took her back to the edge of our kingdom. She let go of my hand and started to run, quiet-yelling she would come back at the next light. I waited in the place where it is darker, then I followed, to make sure none of the monsters lay in wait for my Tiny Princess, she was very brave going back to the bad kingdom every time it reached dark. She entered into a building and disappeared, she had reached what I think is her place in the bad kingdom, so I returned to my castle-perch to guard the night against those unwelcome. The next light came and I waited. The light after that and she had not come back, in the many lights I had known my Tiny Princess, she had always come back. I waited until the darkness and moved to her place in the bad kingdom. I could hear voices, their words were loud and strange, they spoke of another, but they spoke quickly and with anger. On the outside of the place, I climbed and peered into the clear walls, all but one were empty. My Tiny Princess lay in one, asleep with strange colours on her face. I ran a finger down the clear wall and she opened one eye, the other looked to be made wrong, strange and the wrong shape, and a bad colour. “Y-you came to see me,” she said with quiet-quiet. She moved the clear wall and I climbed inside the place. She smelled of pain, and of blood and of ending. “Friend-King worry, Tiny Princess gone,” I wish I had better words. “It’s okay, I-I’m j-just-,” my Tiny Princess started to cough, it was a bad sound, I had made that sound happen to the unwelcome, but my Tiny Princess should not make that sound. The ending smelled stronger, my Tiny Princess looked in pain. “Monsters hurt you?” “They didn’t mean it, I know they really don’t I-,” Tiny Princess was in pain again. I helped my Tiny Princess to lay on the soft raised ground. I crouched next to her, watching for her ending, I cannot stop endings, I can only make them happen. “Please, hold my hand.” I held my Tiny Princess, not just her hand, as she made small sounds and her ending happened. She held me with her her tiny hand and in the last moments before she went away, I spoke to her. “Do not be feared my Tiny Princess, Friend is here, Friend will hold you.” She smiled the same smile she had given me when she first knew I lived, and it was what her face held as she ended. I do not know time, but I know I held her for much of it, until the ones in the bottom of the place made noise coming to the top. A man and woman, they were making loud noises, they were angry, the man more than the woman, the entry to my Tiny Princesses place flew open and a man who smelt of sourness, rot and sweat stood in the light. “What the fuck have I told you about-,” the man said, he stopped when he saw me, he held a belt in a hand, it had a big metal front, it smelled of my Tiny Princesses pain. But he smelled of fear, he was not welcome in this place, it was not mine to guard, but it was the place of my Tiny Princess and he had made her have pain. He had made her end. He was unwelcome and I let him know. The woman tried to flee, but she smelled of fear and of the same pain the man’s belt held, she was an unwelcome one. I made them both stop, I made them end. My Tiny Princess asked me if I was lonely when we first met. I was not then, but I am now.