Looking on

            I feel it as it grows, as it festers, I feel it in the depths of my very soul. It is a great evil, its true form hidden in a fog of darkness. The air was filled with a strong odor of blood and graveyard soil brought in by sweeping wind from the south, a stench that made the eyes of my companions blur with tears.

            I was once given a name, a handle by which the people who gave it to me could pull me in to do their bidding. My life was one of hardship. I was a barely a child when I learned of death and saw the smile on his face when it came to harvest souls with the minions of the underworld at its side. I knew that one day they too would come for my own. Cries in the darkness and echoes of battle were my lullabies as I was cradled in the darkness. My fear of death and darkness had vanished as I grew accustomed to their presence; I now embraced them as the only parents I ever knew. I would hear of fighting near by and pray for them to come closer not knowing who I was praying to, but hoping that they would end my existence.

            It was then that I got my wish. A battle concluded and the lone survivor came upon me. I thought this was it, this was where my time would end, but it was a much harder experience than that. The man extended his hand down to me in the shadows. Whether it was hope or curiosity, I did not know, but I took his hand and it was he who pulled me out of the shadows and into the light. He took me as his own child and I did not hear from my adoptive parents of death and chaos for many years. The moment was apparent to the man found me, the student was ready and teacher had appeared. Over the years coming I was trained in combat, taught the ways of nature and given access to knowledge through books. When I reached a time in my life where my curiosity heightened, I ventured the road many times over and found many friends in the most unlikely people in the most uncertain places.

            It is here now that I stand alongside my mentor and the friends I have made, their hopes and their trust along with thousands of others now rest upon my shoulders and the mantle of its weight feels like it could crush me at any moment. Here we stand now at the edge of the height of the sky, a few standing in wait for the many. The wind blows harder, the earth beneath us begin to shake, trees fall and many of the nature’s creatures flee the valley down below. The whispers soon grow to a static of hatred. Drums echo in the distance and boom the atmosphere. The swarm of darkness has emerged and grows like vines stretching out over the world while we stand in its wake watching, the swarm changes direction and reforms and it shows the truth, they know where we are....







.....and they are coming.....