Find a centuries-old oak. To walk there will be slow work.

Listen.

Kill three wolves. There will always be wolves.

Kill the man who wears a wolf pelt on his back.

Enter the cave mouth and follow the flooded dirt path.

Reach a mass of heart roiling within roots. Do not

touch it. You were told not to touch it. You were told what

              you should do.

Remember. See yourself moving but not what moves you.

              Far past the hillock in a village called Downwarren a

              woman may hand you a fist of white myrtle under the

              light of an old seer’s moon.

Eat them, or brew, with celandine and sweet alcohol, an

              antidote to pops’ mold. You may

take the woman to bed but none would advise it. You may

repay her with a wolf’s liver but none would advise it.

Travel south by morning.

Gather one raven feather and a spirit’s buried bones. You

              were told where to go. You are not wanted here or

              any place along the long road.

Remember that you are the monster and a monstrosity must be

              read.

Keep walking. There will be black horses. There

              will be fields of black horses rippling through

              breeze. There will be a moment when you can

make the right choice.