Wishing Well

Once upon a time there was a small boy. He longed to be king of the world, but couldn’t see how he would ever manage such a thing. After all, he was too little to command an army, and his birth was rather commonplace, not at all noble.

Out of ideas, one day he came upon a wishing well.

Throwing a couple of copper coins into the well he pledged, “Someday I will be King! And a woman will come to me – she will be some sort of magical creature… like a vampire or a witch!”

A thousand years later the boy eventually somehow did grow up to be a King, albeit of rather small and out of the way kingdom. He’d almost forgotten about that wishing well when one day at court a dark figure approached him.

She was indeed a witch and a vampire.

Much enthralled by her, he set about wooing her. And she seemed to stick around.

“She’ll never leave me,” he crowed to his court jesters, confident in his catch. “She never leaves!” And so the King saw no need to keep wooing her.

But lo and behold, were the King to pay attention, he might notice that the vampire doesn’t come to court much anymore.

And when she does, she is after his blood, not his company.