[ MP ] Listen to this piece , then write a response

Death waited painfully out of reach for the girl, biding its time and letting her abused soul decay in suffrage. She was but a heap of beautiful blood and bone; once gold tendrils now drab with dust and gnarls, and cornflower blue eyes beaten into the shades of glassy misery. 
 
 
 Raising her head in a painful attempt to see the sun outside her cavern of imprisonment, the girl put every ounce of faith she had left into one last act. A prayer for the end. 
 
 
 As she lay there, yearning for death, a shape emerged over the lip of the cliff face her cave rested upon. She blinked once, twice. The edges were blurry, but as the figure came to full height she could not mistake the form of a man. A sword rested at his side as he looked into the gloom of the cave's mouth, and she felt a curious flutter of excited panic within her ribcage. Had Lord Death answered her call? Was he here to collect what was left of her spirit? 
 With every bit of strength she could muster, the young lady lifted her cheek from the gritty wall of rock and watched this stranger approach. As he entered the dank cavern, one arm raised against the dust and stench, she realized this man was not death, but rather an all too familiar face. 
 
 
 A joy so achingly powerful it nearly devastated her exploded within the girls broken body. She tried to stand, to meet the man halfway as he rushed towards her, but the clanking of her shackles shocked her into stillness. He came to kneel beside her, taking hold of trembling, cold hands and pressed his forehead to hers. 
 
 
 “ Aye, ” His voice, hoarse and catching, shook weakly. “ I knew it. ” The girl squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, bathing in the sound of his northern lilt, so familiar after years of deprivation. 
 
 
 
 Their sweet silence was shattered with an earth shuddering groan. They both looked to the black of the cave, watching as a plume of dust bellowed out towards them. Another moan, this one louder, echoed through their bones. 
 The man backed away, catching his lady ’ s groping hands. 
 
 
 “ I won ’ t leave ye. ” The promise rang true within his heart, but she could not find a place for it in hers. Terror shredded its way through her like a bowl of hot broth tilted down her spine as she watched him slip back outside the cave and out of sight. 
 The caverns ceiling sent down a shower of debris as the beast moved deep within its shadows. A deep thud sent the ground under her rolling and she huddled tightly against the wall, watching the dust and rock pelt the earth from above. Another quake followed, and then another, each one tugging her hearth further into her throat. With a long groan, the beast settled and the dust quelled itself. 
 
 
 It ’ s head, easily that of the size of two cart horses lay out of the depths, the fat lips sagging around its chipped tusks. Although the beast snored, his ear gave a lazy flop against the sound of the girls shackles, and she resisted any temptation to move. With the giant only yards away, she let any hope of escape melt away. 
 
 
 But that was not an option for her savior as he eased back into peril. Skittering across the hard granite, sword at the ready, the man watched this beast with calculating discontent. 
 
 
 “ I canna free ye without waking him. ” The man knelt in front of his lady, taking hold of her hand once more. Her gut lurched and she squeezed his fingers between hers in a vice. He clenched even harder. “ I ’ d rather die with ye than live a hundred years without. ” The two souls stared at each other, their devotion and loyalty as bare as it was on their wedding night, and an understanding passed between the two. With a firm nod, the girl swallowed fear and replaced it with the will to lay with that man once more, to hold him in their home, and to bear his child. She ’ d fight along side her love, she decided, and would live the same. 
 
 
 “ Stand up, stretch the chains out, ” He helped her stand, speaking steadily in the dark as to provide what comfort was possible. She did as he asked, pulling her feet as closely together as she could, stretching the chains taut on either side. He steadied her with a firm hand upon her shoulder. 
 
 
 “ Ready? ” The cave was so silent his voice seemed to vibrate within the walls. The girl took one glance at the giant and nodded. 
 
 
 With an enormous heave, the man smashed the chain of her left shackle, steel against steel clanging through the stones like thunder. The beasts eyes shot open, dust flying as it snorted with surprise. The girl squeezed her eyes against what was sure to be her demise, but her husband lifted his sword yet again, braking the right chain with twice more force than the previous. The giant bellowed, flipping onto his stomach and planting two massive hands against the cave floor. 
 
 
 As her captor rose, the girl was swept into the man's arms and he dashed for the exit. She watched over his shoulder, the beast stumbling towards them, his arm extended and fingers groping for the stolen treasure. She whipped her head forwards again to watch in terror as the man hurled them off the cliff face. 
 
 
 Stomach lurching, she waited for impact, for bones to break and skin to tear. But they landed solidly and unscathed, swooping upwards once more on a sudden gust of air. She opened her eyes. 
 
 
 The dragon was small by an armies standards, but beautiful none the less. Its neck stretched forward in a gleaming sheath of green scales, and the wings on either side of the couple rode the wind as gently as a birds feather. 
 
 
 “ Seven hells! ” She could n't help the exclamation, nor the bubbling laughter that followed. Her husband laughed as well, holding her tightly to him with one arm, the other out stretched to hold his dragons reins. The trio burst through a low cloud bank, basking in a ray of sun, before dropping back down towards the cave. 
 
 
 The giant stood on the edge of the cliff, screaming into the air and pounding meaty fists against the mountain side. They swooped lower still, and the girl could n't ignore that deep within her flesh groaned a creature of doubt. 
 
 
 The man turned his wife so that she sat astride the dragons saddle, securing her hands around the horn of it. 
 “ He will not rest until he has you. ” The hot breath of his words tickled the soft tendrils of hair that curled around her ear. Their dragon soared even lower until they were only yards away from the monster “ And I canna let him have you. ” With that, she felt him drop away. Screaming, she twisted around to watch him drop, landing roughly upon the giants back. The beast roared, pawing awkwardly behind himself and bucking manically. Her husband drove his steel into the giants back, pulling it out in a spray of blood. Grabbing hold of the attacker, the giant ripped him from its body, smashing him downwards. 
 
 
 The girls scream could be heard for miles, carrying along the mountain tops like a sirens call of the sea. Cresting around the mountain, her husbands mount let out its own bellowing cry. The two them sailed the wind in silence as the dragon turned back, desperately searching for its master. Mist veiled their return and the girl urged the dragon to dip lower.She leaned forward, stretching along the armored neck and pressing her cheek against the cool scales. 
 
 
 “ Find him. ” She pleaded, letting the last of her water supply drip out from under her lashes. 
 
 
 Silence gripped the mountain range with a heaviness that made her sick, and the girl scanned the ground, wanting nothing more than to find her cave of tortures once more. There! Ebbing through the swath of mist she spotted the gaping maw. 
 Two heaving shoulders were visible as the giant looked down upon the girls husband, and she did not take more than a second before digging her heels into the dragon and taking up the reins. 
 
 
 An archers arrow could never match the speed and dexterity of that dragon, as no warrior could belch out such a battle cry as the wife upon its back. The two shot through the air and just as that remorseless behemoth turned to deliver a killing blow, the girl flung herself off the mount in a pounce that sent them both over the cliffs edge. As they plummeted, her hands digging into the flesh of the giants throat, the girl felt victory for the first time in her life, springing forth from the darkness that haunted her soul and shining like a red buck upon the crest of a hill. She would defeat this beast not by overpowering it, but with absolute refusal of the fear it tried to strike within her. 
 
 
 A screech from above was the girls only warning before one taloned foot grasped around her middle and wrenched her away from the giant. She watched as he fell, eyes finally holding the terror she carried upon her shoulders for so long. The dragon pumped its wings, carrying them upwards until she was able to scramble back onto the cliff. 
 
 
 There he lay, bloodied and limp. 
 
 
 Swallowing down an urge to turn away, the girl crawled towards the man. Despite the surge of strength still swimming through her veins, she could not manage to stand but only drag herself over dust and rock. 
 
 
 Taking his head into her hands, she swept away dark locks and stared into the face she ’ d loved for so long. Married for only a fortnight before she ’ d been taken, her memory began to deprive her of his features. He was not one of fine lines and fair hair like the men her friends had pined for, but the girl decided long ago he was the most beautiful thing she ’ d ever seen. With a dirty hand, she swept her thumb across one wide cheekbone, watching a smudge of color blossom underneath. 
 
 
 “ Wake, my love. ” She whispered, lowering her head to place a gentle kiss upon his lips. She stayed there, flesh pressed upon flesh, and did not move when she felt a hand slide up her arm to settle gently at her shoulder. 
 
 
 “ Strong as steel, my wife. ” His words were nearly silent, meant only for her as they passed from his lips onto hers. 
 
 
 “ Sweet as sunshine, Husband. ” 
 
 

