Her Cruelest Choice

I was an ancient nature spirit, bound by a vow to protect the Beaumont family, a debt paid by saving young Clara-Belle from a deadly sickness, transforming myself into a human and pouring my essence into a spectral snake that rested on my arm. She became my wife, but her childhood sweetheart, Beauford, returned, whispering tales of magic to cure his feigned illness.

Then, Clara-Belle, the woman I loved, looked me dead in the eye and flatly demanded my snake' s heart for Beauford, calling it "just a snake" as if it weren't my very spirit.