text: There was once a great statue of a powerful looking woman, with broad shoulders, muscular arms, and the calves to match. Her hooked nose was complimented by a strong jaw, and her gaze looked proudly upon whoever came by to pray. With crossed arms and a smirk set deep into the stone statue, it was said she brought courage and strength to those who showed respect to her. The village built and grew around this statue, the awe and amazement never dwindling. Legends were told from grandparents to grandchild, who eagerly wrote down stories of the Stone Temptress and the enemies she defeated in battle. As legends go, her truth was twisted year by year, generation by generation. Only the old texts, buried deep beneath her stone feet, told the true story of the Stone Temptress and the glory she held in the battlefield. It was said that whoever found these texts would be granted an eternal seat beside her soul, walking the lands after death and watching over the children of the families that had fought beside her all those years ago. As life tends to go, people started to forget just how important this Stone Temptress had been to them as they grew into adulthood. Sure, grandparents still told her stories to their young relatives with a faint gleam in their eye, a smile dancing at their lips as they retold the fights they had with wooden swords around her statue when they were small. The people of the village had built a mausoleum of sorts around her, which took many months, as she was as tall as she was wide. They had wanted to protect her from the world, or rather the world from her, as legends said the statue would start to move at apparent threat to the village. They wanted to pray to her in peace, without the outside world peering in and making its noise. Until, one day, an unholy earthquake shook the village, and the ground beneath the precious statue of their Stone Temptress collapsed. There was no hope of ever retrieving her. She was all alone, and the texts understand her strong stone boots now certainly destroyed. The Stone Temptress was all alone, and without their protector, the people could not stand to be in the village any longer. Their hope had been destroyed, as had their luck it seemed. She was all alone, until one day, a small buck fell and broke his leg in the hole that had been created all those years ago. Next to him lay the Stone Temptresses statue, and her texts revealing her true story. And the buck seemed at peace. His heartbeat slowed, and his head lowered in fatigue. He was not afraid anymore, and neither was the Stone Temptress. A faint glow had started to emit from the statue, and her soul reached out. With a fist grasped at her chest, the Stone Temptress laid a hand on the bucks antlers. He had succumbed to his fate, and they were not alone anymore. They had nothing to fear, the buck and the Stone Temptress. Not anymore.