I am the Lady of the Lake. I tempt, I attract, I play. I am death in a beautiful guise. What you wish, I am, I will be, and will give you pleasure as you've never known. I will make your dreams come true.

There was a monster in that lake. One that had bested any who tried to kill it. Some of the greatest knights in the realm had tried and none had come back. It had killed my master, and sponsor, Sir Reginald of Keterra. I not only needed vengeance, I needed to prove myself to some other knight so I wouldn't be condemned to life as a lowly peasant.

I had my master's spare sword, and the dirk I had been given when I became his squire. What else did one need to do heroic deeds?

Well, armor would have been nice, but I hadn't earned the right to wear that yet.

But I was determined to do something. To avenge my lord, my friend.

“I am Palan,” I told the inn keeper. “I need a room for the night.”

“Two coppers, in advance.” The man told me with a suspicious look. The bag I was carrying was too long and too thin to be traveling clothes and provisions. I mentally kicked myself for that mistake, but gave the man his exorbitant price with more than a little grumbling though I did bargain. Not arguing would have raised more suspicions than I cared to worry about.

I ended up paying a copper for a room that I should have been paid to stay in.

At least there weren't many fleas.

I looked down at the lake that had such an ill reputation and considered things for awhile.

That was interrupted when I felt a tug at the sleeve of my rough spun tunic. “Beautiful, isn't it?

“Yes it is.” I answered while taking in the rolling hills the bluffs, and the clear blue waters of the lake. “But it is perilous.”

“Only to those who attack the lady.” The girl, pretty and not quite into her womanhood told me. “She is kind to us here. We have Plentiful rains, good crops, our kine prosper. Why do people come wanting to kill her?”

“She killed my lord.” I answered. “I have to seek vengeance for that.”

“No.” The girl told me. “You don't. Vengeance only begets more of the same, it is a circle that never closes. My name is Ygraine, come take my maidenhood and forget this quest to kill something that does not die.”

I was sorely tempted. Ygrain was a lissome lass, with the promise of her womanhood showing all too well. I was tempted. Sorely tempted.

“Much as I would like to do that.” I told her while giving a kiss to her forehead. “I have to do this.”

“Then I will not see you again, my lord.” She lowered her head and I could see the tears on her cheeks.

“I am no lord, girl, just a man who has honor to uphold.”

“Honor!” She spat. “Half our men have died for that, and it proves nothing. Nothing!

“Do not go to the lake with what you plan.” She almost begged. “I will give you all, everything I am, and our children if you will simply stop this madness that has it's hold on you.

“I would pledge myself to you.” She added. “If you would forget going to the lake.”

“I have to do this.” I told her. A man telling a woman that she shouldn't interfere with what a man should do. “But I will be back for you.”

“No.” She mournfully Answered. “You will not be back.”

I put her woman's prattling aside, and strode to the lake as if I really was the knight that I only hoped to be. “I will be, then I will have something of worth to offer when I claim you.”

“Stay!” She clutched my legs and almost begged. “Do not go to the lake!”

“Enough woman!” I shoved her away much as I would have liked to land on top of her, and walked to the shore of the lake.

“Monster!” I shouted. “I am here to end you!”

The lake didn't change for a few breaths, still giving that placid, beautiful appearance that hid the monster in it.

“Monster!” I shouted. “I have come to kill you!”

The water stirred, then roiled, and what came out was not the monster I expected to see.

“Would you kill me?” The most beautiful woman I'd ever seen asked in a voice that stroked me like soft velvet drawn against my most sensitive parts. “Could you even think of hurting me?”

Her large intensely blue eyes bored into mine. “I can give you your wildest, fondest dreams. Would you kill that?”

I wanted to do just that, but I couldn't. Her delicate face, her mass of midnight hair tumbling across her shoulders and down her back, and the rest of her that I will not relate here since she was nude, captivated me.

“Yes.” I answered through gritted teeth. “I came to kill you, and I will do that no matter the illusions you throw at me monster!”

“Ahh.” That so lovely visage smiled at me. “Then we should get to that, don't you think?”

I clumsily swung my borrowed sword at her and she lightly danced away.

“You will have to do much better than that to kill me, child.” She taunted.

I quelled my anger and my urge to lash out, and simply stood there to watch her. “I have nowhere to go, nothing else to do. I will get you.”

Her laughter was like music, bells playing a song even if it was mocking. “Ahh, the great warrior to be proving himself. Come to me, and you will forget that. I will make you forsake all if just you come to me. You won't care once you do, lover, I will make you forget all else in my embrace.”

“No!” I shouted and moved to strike at her again.

“Clumsy, apprentice warrior.” She taunted. “I've seen girls do better than that.”

“You killed my master!” I shouted. “I will kill you in return!”

“Histrionics like that aren't needed.” She smiled then changed to look like Ygraine in the village. “Come with me, I will love you, give you children.”

“Monster!” I shouted and tried to hit her again, a thing she quite adroitly avoided, with a mocking laugh.

“You think your meager skills are enough to kill me with that long piece of steel?” She laughed. “I have eaten others who tried that, my dear.”

“Then come to me.” I told her, suddenly understanding what I needed to do as I tossed the sword away. “Show me the pleasures you've been taunting me with.”

It was a risk, but I still held to the dirk I had been given when my master had chosen me to be his squire. It was sheathed at my back and out of sight to one looking right at me would see it. Direct attacks had failed, so I would lose my honor and use an indirect one. I had vengeance on my mind.

“You were too easy.” She told me as we coupled beneath the lake. You always were simple.”

“Not so much.” I answered and drove the dirk into her heart. “Die monster.”

She stiffened at the strike, and I felt my manhood shooting into her as she died.

But she gave me a look that was mixed gratitude and sorrow instead of pain or rage.

“My thanks, dear one.” She breathed with bubbles of blood coming out as she said that. “You have freed me.”

And she simply dissolved into the water as if she had never been there.

Then the pain hit me.

Like nothing I'd experienced it tore at me, ripped at my innards, and my soul.

It was then that I really understood just what I had done.

And the consequences of that.

I am the Lady of the Lake. I tempt, I attract, I play. I am death in a beautiful guise. What you wish, I am, I will be, and will give you pleasure as you've never known. I will make your dreams come true.

And there is a sword at the bottom of my lake. What am I supposed to do with that?