A picture can tell a thousand words…
Evening, Day 62
Exhausted, I close my eyes and see a vision of green fields bursting with ripening vineyards. The sun finishing its lazy decent into the horizon marks the end of the day. Crimson and molten gold filling the sky, casting its glow upon one of the most beautiful faces the gods created. Softened features only accentuated by the sharp angle of her jaw and a smile that can cause a man’s heart to pause. I laugh in the fields, talking to the only woman to have unlocked my lips and my heart. As I feel my body begin to relax from the heat of her close to me, she touches my arm. I look down to her caressing one of the many scars that adorn my body, one of the oldest. A phantom pain begins to well up from my gut, that anxiety of an old wound screaming to be let loose so that it can finally heal. I look to her comforting face, golden in its radiance I notice the scar begin to fade away as though she herself is taking on the pain so that mine is lessened.
Stealing a gaze once more into her eyes, she begins to smile as if saying, relax and be calm, you have done your duty, the world is a better place because of you, let someone else take over your work and be at ease, your son is safe. My peace has a name, Jalarzzi.
I look deeper in those complicated eyes for vindication and truth, wanting to believe and finally bury my burden in the soil of Fangorn vineyards, easing my way into the retirement that is rightfully mine, to be the father that Makaus deserves.
I begin to feel an itch upon the very scar that was trying to fade away, turning into an annoyance similar to that of a rat chewing upon an old bone. I gaze down at the first and oldest scar my body received. It was gifted to me by a creature that had no natural ties to this earth. A fat, disgusting creature smelling of decay, brought to this world by the greed of man to do his bidding upon the fields of Emeridy Meadows.
Night almost upon me as the sun extinguishing its last rays, I notice the scar begin to move under my skin, as if wiggling, yearning to burst free from the bonds of my skin. In my mounting horror a green oozing worm busts forth from my arm, screaming like a new born child. I look to the hand that was my strength, her hand bony and withered, with a long crooked black fingernail she gouges my skin open to aid in the release of the worm child.
My confused eyes meet the face of the woman whom I had attempted to give my soul, was not the woman I saw in the fading light of the sun. Beauty unlike anything I had ever seen bespoke of what this woman was. Hair black as night, skin white as milk, her gaze fell upon me with obsidian orbs, laughing with the most musical voice to ever grace a man’s ears I noticed black bat like wings spread from her back, I close my eyes.
When I open them I look upon a starry night filled to the brim with more questions than answers. I gaze over at the dying light of the fire, whipping the cold sweat from my face and realize that this, succubi visited me again in my sleep. The feel of the jagged little stones digging into my back causing slight amounts of pain, reassures me that I am awake. Looking upon my arm to the old scar that is my best friend reminds me why I am here. I need my pain.
My pain is my strength. She tried to take it away from me, realizing that it is my armor, she almost succeeded.
Pain is my weapon, turning it back upon those that do not belong in this world. I use what is usually their patent against them.
I am bound by Duty…be not a victim, be not a perpetrator, and above all, be not a bystander. For Makaus and Jalarzzi I continue on.
Wary underworld, for I am coming.
