Indigo was a beautiful girl, young and pure
Skin pale, hair light, and features so kind
By sight, Indigo gave an attractive allure
For everyone knew her looks, but none, her mind.

Her sires had brought her house fortune and fame,
With rings wrought in gold and gems with dazzling gleam.
For there was more wealth than one could imagine to her name,
Yet, inherited fortune was not something that Indigo ever did dream.

Many wish to be born to affluence and power,
But Indigo was different, she desired a free future, a life on the road,
Living like a hedge knight, traveling by day and resting in any open bower,
Indigo would adventure, help those in need, and live by the knight’s code.

Born alone without close kin, her father’s only heir,
But a life of aristocracy gave Indigo a ghastly fright.
Finally, disheartened, her father gave a speech that would raise one’s hair,
Saying, “Sending you away will make you right!”

Indigo’s mother’s heart was torn asunder,
For she loved Indigo, knowing there could be change in her heart.
“No,” said she, her voice like thunder,
“For I am her mother, we shall not part.”

To the mother’s dismay, her cries fell on deaf ears,
For life is cruel, a game some great deity would play.
Indigo was to be sent away for many forgotten years,
But as fate would have it, Indigo tried to run away.

Making to flee from her father and ancestral home,
Indigo tried to escape from her deepest dread, a boring death.
Across dense forests and over tumbling waves, Indigo wished to roam,
Living in a hero’s story until her final breath.

Running under the clouded sky, tangling with the shadows,
Indigo weaved through the estate, doing a desperate dance with fate.
In the hour of the wolf Indigo could slip away, one would suppose,
But destiny had the last laugh in those twilight hours, for Indigo was too late.

That next morning, Indigo’s life changed as fast as an executioner’s swing,
Picked up and dragged, taken away and held tight.
For Indigo knew she would be forced to learn to curtsy, dance and sing,
For that was what her father wished, “To make her right.”

Indigo was taken leagues away,
Dragged to a place she had never known,
No friends, no family, no familiar room or hallway
For the first time in her life, Indigo felt solitary, completely alone.

The estate was a mass, bulky and pale,
It had arching spires, towering pillars, and windows of unbreaking glass .
It looks formidable and strong, thought Indigo, a place no enemy would assail,
But an outside attack was not to be feared after she turned that door handle of brass.

This new fortress home was filled with monsters and beasts, a scene to abhor
For it was the dangers inside that Indigo had to fight,
Poisoners and sirens were her continuous foes, her own unending war
For Indigo never could rest, she fought for her freedom day and night.

The poisoning brutes got their way through force and guile,
With their probes and powders, Indigo felt congested and cold.
Saying, “Mayhaps this will work,” as they used her as their trial,
Testing their evil alchemy on her, the brutes held Indigo in a vile hold.

The sirens were beautiful, dressed in immaculate white,
But hidden in their beauty, deep in their pockets, were knives of steel, dripping venom.
“Be still, this will not hurt,” the sirens lied, as they stabbed her every night,
For this poison bound Indigo so tight, she could not even use her body as a weapon.

Bound and held in this nightmare for weeks, Indigo rarely cried for help,
For the terror and the beasts had become too much to bear.
As screaming for nights cut Indigo’s voice to a yelp,
Indigo’s struggle was reduced to rocking in the corner, gasping for air.

The doctors and nurses around Indigo never felt right.
For they listened as she bent and contorted, screamed until she coughed.
For Indigo could not struggle in her jacket that was so tight,
Trying so hard to get out of the room with the walls so soft.