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#101
Old 07-13-2010, 04:54 AM

52. Old (cont of preservatives)

"Such treachery will be the death of us all!" Old voices echoed into the garden courtyard where she sat. They were flooding out through the wide stone windows and she imagined the leader, now her husband, sitting calmly and bearing it all with that grim determined look on his face.

She stroked two tiny leaves of a seedling poking out from the soil and felt it's Life beneath her fingers. It stretched beneath her fingers, growing taller and more mature with her presence. Satisfied with the result she brought the same hand to her swollen belly. Life was growing there too.

It was the reason for the voices.

"You would destroy the ways of our people, for some woman? Sacrifice for our future generations has always been our way. You would rather your son starve as an infant than lose this Elreen of yours."

"There is no guarantee it will be a son. I will not sacrifice myself for a daughter either. I will find a new way." her husband said calmly.

"And you would damn us all for it! This is our way, it has always been our way. We are only dying out because fools like you get silly thoughts in your head, and lose faith in our purpose. Why do you think so many sons were born, or the jungle began to die"

"It lives now!" His voice was raised now, impatient, "She makes sure of it!"

"At what cost? You would go against nature? Perhaps we were dying out because we were meant to."

"But sir..."

The sound of deep bellowing horns interrupted them. She watched as a flock of birds scattered from the trees, fleeing from the sound. A cry was taken from all who heard it.

"We're under attack!"

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#102
Old 07-19-2010, 03:14 AM

7. Heaven (cont of preservative)

Much like a deer when it senses danger in the wood, she froze at those words. Panic echoed into her bones and with it a pain swelled in her belly, glueing her to the spot. She placed a hand there and felt the unborn child stirring inside, "Not now," she whispered as she peered over her shoulder at the great wooden gates. She could already hear the sounds of horses and men's shouts from the other side, "Why now?"

Chaos sprang up around her as the men panicked. She wondered if they had ever been attacked in this place before, they didn't seem to know what they were doing."All men to your stations at once!," His voice rose above the overall clamor as he came onto the balcony to stare down into the gardens.

Many of the men heeded his call, and found order in his voice but there were others who did not. The older gentlemen had followed him onto the balcony, "Do not forget this man is a traitor!" The one who had been speaking early shouted down to them, not taking his eyes of their leader, "Or have you forgotten his foreign wife that is down there with you, carrying the child that he would break tradition for."

A deep resonating sound came from the gate, the attackers were attempting to break it down from the other side. "Now is not the time for this," their leader said fiercely. His eyes were ablaze with a sense of pride and the will to protect his home. "When we survive this I will do all the discussing you want but now is a time of action, not words." He turned to the men below, "Do you hear me? Whatever I may be to you, it can be settled after we rid our home of this menace! Shoot them full of arrows!"

It did not take long for them to realize they would fail. While the Shieto could easily cut down a clan of peaceful Elreen without any trouble, they were not men of combat. They fought with an eye for advantage and when that failed them there was little else they could turn to. The gate was beginning to burst as he reached her in the garden.

"Morigaan," He cradled her in his arms, tucking her head into the crook of his neck. She was sobbing fitfully. Her contractions were worsening quickly.

"Roku," She muttered, "What will be the point of this?" She clutched at his arm as she stared up into his eyes, "Will he be born just to die?"

"It will be a son?" he asked. There was a softness in his eyes that calmed her. She almost laughed.

"Our world is crashing down around us and you want to know about your unborn child," She winced as another pain shot through her, "It is a son, if he can make it long enough to be born,"

"Don't speak so," He said softly as he stroked her hair. "It's bound to bring bad luck,"

They remained together as the gate was breached. They heard the groans of men dying. There was barely the clatter of metal in defense. They were being slaughtered.

Roku rose then and drew the short sword from his belt, "Morigaan, I no they'll not kill you, but us, my people. Even you could agree that we probably deserve it. Just promise me this," His eyes met hers, shining with a love she had never expected from the man who had attacked her people so many years ago. "Never cry a tear for them,"

Tears rose in her eyes at the very words, and with them too came the rain from the heavens. "I'll not shed a drop for them," she sobbed. As he turned away to face his death she closed her eyes, she couldn't even bear to watch.

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#103
Old 07-29-2010, 08:16 PM

21. War ( cont of heaven)

She didn't know how long it lasted. Minutes? Hours? She lay alone in the gardens, her and her still unborn child. The pain in her belly grew worse and for a time she couldn't she was lost in it. She rolled onto her back and looked up at the gray clouds that had formed overhead. They were swollen and waiting as she was, waiting to give birth to something.

She heard a deep bellow from somewhere far away, a war cry. Maybe it was Roku? Maybe he was surviving. Maybe he would live and they could be together. Her and her unexpected husband that had killed all of her people, and her son.

But tears rose in her eyes as the impossibility of it all overwhelmed her. The heavens answered her tears, raindrops falling on her sweat-drenched skin. "If we survive this," she whispered placing a hand on her swollen belly, "You'll be a child without a father," She closed her eyes and let the drops of rain wash over her as the waves of pain in her belly crashed over her.

Silence.

Then there were voices, voices that spoke in the tongue of her dead husband and her people. She waited, listening to the tones, wishing she had learned more of what they meant.

"Weaver. There is a woman in the center plaza," A strong gruff voice said. "You did not say anything about a woman."

"Peace. I did not say she would be there because I did not know she would be there. Not all are visible to my Sight." This voice was soft and young. There was a gentleness there, but a power too. She shivered.

"Shall I kill her?" The gruff voice again.

"No, I think I should see this unexpected woman."

She forced her eyes open. There were for man around her. Three held weapons tightly in their grasp. The other, kneeled beside her. The rain had stopped, but water droplets clung to his wavy red hair he brushed it out of green, very green, eyes. "Elreen," he breathed. Her heart ached as she recognized the word, the word for her people. "And with child." The other men tightened their grips at this. "Stay your hands," he snapped at them. "As a Weaver I can not allow this child to go unborn,"

"A shieto half breed no doubt," one of them spat.

"All deserve to breathe their first breath just as you did. And to be named," he said calmly in replay, "Shieto half breed or not."

Last edited by Sho-Shonojo; 07-30-2010 at 03:50 AM..

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#104
Old 07-30-2010, 04:32 AM

97. Safety (cont of war)

The other man grunted in reply.

The green-eyed young man ignored him and leaned in to brush her wet bangs from her forehead. "My lady," he said and she started as she realized he was speaking her tongue, "You have nothing to fear here. Calm yourself." He placed a hand over her eyes, cool upon her fevered brow. She let his clear voice slip into her thoughts, washing away the panic that had filled her. "This is the way of all things. Release your tension and let nature take its course."

It grew easier. Where she had fretted before, she was calm. Something in her now knew what to do. Some buried instinct inside her guided her forward, told her not to worry, that this was natural. This was what every mother went through and this was how it was done.

She gave birth to the babe there in the gardens of her husbands home. On the other side of those walls men were disposing of the bodies of his people and him as well. Blood stained the stoned floors where it would rest for years before the final bits of red were washed away by time. She gave birth to a son, her and Roku's son.

The young man with the green eyes pulled away his cloak and wrapped the newborn in it. The babe took his first breath and let out a cry. The man smiled. With a thumb he wiped away the blood on the child's forehead and blew a cool breath into his face. The babe stopped crying and blinked a pair of violet eyes at him. And in that moment the young man with the green eyes Saw. The future of that child flashed before him. He knew what this child would be.

"Heso," The other man grunted, "You've done your duty, it's time the last Shieto of this place was killed."

He shook himself, as if waking from a dream. "No," he handed the bundled baby to his exhausted mother and as if to further dismiss the other man he spoke to her instead, "Your son, Shonasha,"

It made her gape back at him. How had he known. She had harbored that name within her for months. She had hoped upon hope that she would have a son that she may grant him that name. How had he known.

He smiled back her.

The other man shook the younger's shoulder with a jerk, "What do you mean no? He should be exterminated just as his fellows have been!"

Heso rose to his feet. Though his figure did little to compete with the larger man, his defiance and pride gave him an air that could not be opposed. "I have Seen what this child will be. You cannot comprehend the damage you would do by killing him. They will both be allowed to live."

"The lord will object"

"That is for my father and I to discuss! I will provide for the pair myself if I must!" He shouted. A quiet settled over them all, "Now, if you would be so good, send our scouting back to the home to announce our success. I want the rest of you to search the area. If you find any others please send for me. I will be attempting to move this woman inside."

"Yes sir," the man grumbled. The lot of them left the gardens, finding their fellows to distribute the orders.

Morigan clutched the babe to her breast. Never in her wildest dreams would she have believed that she would face such dangerous men twice, but also find a savior among them twice.

But a lingering fear lay inside her, for just as the green-eyed man had glimpsed the events of the child's life, she had seen one vision. Her son grown,standing beside the green-eyed man as woman lay dying on the floor.

Last edited by Sho-Shonojo; 07-30-2010 at 06:07 AM..

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#105
Old 07-30-2010, 06:07 AM

32. Denial (cont of safety)

He had aged eight years before she felt comfortable taking him out.

For eight years they had lived under the protection of Heso, the green-eyed youth, son of the lord who had ordered the attack on her second home. He had offered her anything she would need and she had taken most of it and hidden away in the rooms provided for them. They weren't the rooms she had shared with her husband, but they were something.

Eight years she had spent segregating herself and her son from those people. She accepted the three daily meals in her quarters and allowed servants to clean while her child napped in her arms. After eight years though, that world she had built up to keep others out was no longer big enough to contain him. She relented to free him from his cage, her only sanctuary.

His violet eyes sparkled to see the world suddenly much bigger than he had thought. Of course she had told him, but what were stories compared to what can be seen? His shoulder length white hair trailed along behind him as he ran down the halls, passing door upon door to other quarters much like their own.

"Shonasha," she called after him as she made for a hall that led outside, "This way."

It could have been a greater sight. The garden where he had been born was little more than some patches of dry shrub and short prickly cactus. True to her word, Morigan had not cried a single tear after her husbands death. Just as it had been when she had first arrived here, the jungle had withered and died. The winds had changed and few clouds passed over the mountains to the north. Heso's father had had men slaughtered for this land only to have it dry up around them. Nothing lay outside the walls for miles aside from desert. But they lived on.

She shook away the thoughts as she watched her son take to the earth. Whatever he had gotten from his father, he was still a child of the Elreen. The barren earth cried out to him weakly. Humming to himself, he raked the ground with his fingers. The dry dust fell away before him as he dug deeper. Here the ground was at least somewhat moist. "Here you are," he said as he packed the earth around a shrubs base. "That feels better doesn't it?" he stroked the plants dry fonds and exclaimed when he found a single bud adorning one of the branches. Without a thought he reacher out to the bud and drawing from it's Life, forced it to bloom.

"That's quite the power you have there,"

Shonasha started and tumbled off his feet. He had been so caught up in the plant that he hadn't noticed the man step up next to him. Instinctively he looked about for his mother, but she was on the other side of the garden, tending to some of the worst of the plants.

Remembering what his mother had taught him, he rose to his feet with a jump a bowed his head to the man, "Hello. I'm Shonasha, son of Morigan, it is an honor to meet you."

The man chuckled to himself. Shonasha looked up into his bright green eyes as he wondered what was so funny. "Ah," he said, noticing the inquiring look, "Most races are paternal,"Another inquiring look," they go by the lineage of their fathers."

"Elreen don't," Shonasha said proudly, "It would be an insult to the Great Mother who birthed us all. Besides," he said shuffling his feet in the dirt, "I don't have a father."

"No, I suppose you don't," The man smiled sadly, "Well, Shonasha, son of Morigan. I am Heso, son of Hasen, Lord of the West. It is a pleasure to see you again, your quite a bit bigger then you were before." he said with a chuckle.

Shonasha's violet eyes grew wide, "You know me? Truly?"

"Truly," Heso smiled, green eyes gleaming, "I know much of your past and quite a bit about your future. Would you like me to tell you?"

"Oh yes. Please do te-"

"Enough!" Morigan cut in. There was a fury in her as she shoved her son behind her, blocking him from the young man.

He rose, straightening casually and fixing her with his green-eyed smile, "Morigan, how are-"

"Silence! I do not know you boy." she spat. She gripped her son's shoulder behind her, taking strength in the need to protect him. "Your kindness does not give you permission to speak to my son."

"My lady, you cannot keep him hidden away forever. All boys must become men one day,"

"Then let me return to my homeland where he can be raised to be a man of his own people," She pleaded.

"You will never make it there alive," Heso said. Shonasha found himself staring at him, for the man's green eyes suddenly looked as if they were fixed somewhere far away, "You would die before either of you ever saw it."

"Then I will raise my son as I see fit!" she spat. Shonasha was whisked away, back the rooms where he had spent the first eight years of his life, but something had changed. Shonasha was no longer content to stay there in the company of his mother. He now knew that there was much more to be seen, much more to be known. He wanted to talk again to the man with the green eyes that looked far away, he wanted to know.

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#106
Old 09-24-2010, 04:13 PM

83. Sick (cont of Safety)

Morigan sat in the bed she had been given. Her newborn child dozed in her arms. While she held the child tightly, her attention was not on him, but the green eyed young man who was seated in a chair by her bedside. Even this did not interest her, for she thought only of the vision she had seen and the way the young man's eyes never left her sleeping child.

"Weaver, is that what they call you in this country? Seers born of mortals that bind the strings of fate?"

"Yes, my lady, but you may call me Heso if it pleases you."

"Weaver," she tasted the word like a poison in her mouth. His green eyes met hers, "I wonder that you should use such sacred power to do such evil. To destroy a pair of lovers that cared not for the world that had abandoned us, how can you live with the knowledge of what you have done?"

"It is the nature of this world my lady, but, if it is any consolation, if you are in need of anything, I will provide for you as long as you are here."

"Such was to be the role of my husband!" She spat at him, but she checked herself as her child squirmed in her arms. She stroked his delicate cheeks until he fell back into slumber, "All I want, is to return to my people."

"I cannot allow that."

"And why not? Is it because you have seen something? You have not taken your eyes off of him since he was born."

He looked away guiltily, "Forgive me my lady, I did not mean to offend you."

That sat in stiff silence for a moment's time. "I have seen a vision of my own Weaver." he met her eyes and she was satisfied by the trace of fear that lay behind those emerald colored orbs, "And you shall not come any closer to my son than you already have."

"Very well," He rose and crossed to the doorway. He was about to leave, but stopped and looked to her one last time, "I will say only this. All visions can be misinterpreted. After all, your mother did not think you would love when she sent you to this place." He turned away, "If you have need of anything, please call out." With that he left her.

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#107
Old 10-02-2010, 04:50 AM

85. Sick

The man closed the door softly behind him. As he noticed the two brothers standing in the hall waiting for him, his hand tightened on his bag. The younger of the two, Heso, spoke up. "How is he?"

"Your father is very ill. He will need plenty of bed rest if he is expected to make a full recovery.

"Then we should take him back west shouldn't we? It's far more hospitable and..." The elder began.

"He can not be moved." The doctor interrupted, "In his condition, he will not be able to survive such a long trip."

"In our condition this entire will not survive. I don't know if you've looked outside but this entire place is becoming a desert!"

"I stand by what I've told you. Good day gentlemen." The doctor turned away and left.

Once he was out of sight the elder brother turned on the younger. "This is your fault! You read the future did you not? How did you not see that this would come to be?"

"Not all things are visible brother. I saw but one of many possibilities. This one had not presented itself."

"Damn. Stuck in a desert with an Elren who won't make rain. You can't even make her cry, that stubborn woman. Not to mention her damn child." The younger turned to study his brother. "Useless half-blood. Why did you keep those two here, they haven't done a thing for us."

Heso shrugged, "One day I may find a use for them. Come." He gestured to the elder, "We must share the grave news with the others.

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#108
Old 10-18-2010, 03:59 AM

65. A Moment in Time

"You must never wonder into the forests alone, lest some manner of beast eats you whole. And if you are unfortunate enough to find the Shieto, never return home, for if it finds us we will be nothing more."

Or so parents will tell their naughty children. But Maeryn had always felt that those around her were trying tell her something much different.

"Go on. Flee into the forests. May the Shieto eat you so that we may live in comfort once more."

Since birth she had felt it. She was separate from her fellows, an outcast, all because of a vision her mother had seen the moment she had given birth. Her daughter would be a sacrifice to the Shieto in the south, a fierce killer that fed on the flesh of man, and her people would go on living until the next woman would be offered years later.

Like a twisted symbiosis they went on living. They received a sort of protection by living so close to the beast, and if they had to give up a young every thirty years, well, what difference did it really make. What was one life for the protection of many?

How Maeryn came to despise them and the way they averted her eyes as she walked past.

"Go on. Isn't it time the Shieto had you?"

But they bore through their guilty consciences until the day finally arrived. She was sixteen that day. She was a woman by her people's standards. It should have been means for celebration. But they packed her away in a carriage and sent her south. South to the Shieto, her husband-of-sorts who would consume her alive.

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#109
Old 05-04-2011, 07:18 AM

66. Snow

Heso stood on the battlements looking out across the treetops to the mountainous regions beyond. He could not help taking in a deep breath, and immediately regretting it as the icy air caught in his lungs. Overhead pregnant clouds threatened a winter storm. Heso prayed they would hold off until Shonasha's return.

"What do you look so solemn about?" came a snide remark over his shoulder.

Heso turned slowly to view the source of the biting words, though he knew the voice all to well. "Good day milady, Maeryn. Are you sure you should be out here in this weather? With your lean figure you are sure to catch your death." He said with all the sound of respectful pleasantness in his voice.

"I am not so frail as you make me out to be." She responded, though her cheeks flushed with indignation, "My husband was a Cambion if you'll remember, and with not a servant to keep his home warm in the biting cold of winter. Besides," she said, "You have avoided my original question."

"Possibilities my lady," he said, spreading his arms out wide as if speaking of a divine providence, "One who sees all possibilities cannot help but dwell on those negative ones that he fears may one day come to be. And so I stand here, as a gargoyle stands watch at the top of a tower, waiting for a possibility that I hope may never come to pass." Here he turned away from her, and she saw a flash of the glass vial that he shoved into his pocket as he made to walk away, "It gets late though, and I've only seen this possibility rendered possible during midday."

"May I ask what is that, that you carry clenched in your fist there?" her voice had softened considerably, enough to make him turn to view her once more. She held her hands clenched at her bosom in an almost pleading manner and her face was touched with the worry that only a mother could no.

"You recognize it?" He said, removing the vial once more and displaying it in his open palm for her to see, "Tis your husbands own concoction for curbing his bloodlust. If his journals speak truly he became quite accustomed to relying on them when he was beside you. I carry it now because of a possibility that your son may have need of it when he returns." He turned away from her again, pocketing the vial as he did, "Though it is only one possibility, one of many."

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#110
Old 05-05-2011, 06:36 AM

43. Nature's Fury (cont of snow)

The hunt had taken them deep into the wilderness, to the very edges of their territory. Shonasha was further than he had ever been from his home, but such a momentous feat was not even on his mind. As the other member's of the hunting party joked and carried on, Shonasha was serious and went about his task with a sense of duty that was beyond someone his age.

"There they are," Shonasha said, peering through some frosted bushes to where a pair of deer were pawing at the hoarfrost in search of the heather below.

"Good eye, Shonasha," Oscar smiled, patting the younger man on the shoulder. They had been tracking the deer for several days, a welcome sight when so many of the animals had moved to better feeding grounds.

Luck, or perhaps the hunters skill, had cornered the animals against the steep side of the mountain. The hunters had the higher ground. The animals were doomed.

The shots were fired, and the majestic beasts went down with echoing bellows. As the men made to celebrate their victory, the sound of a wolf's call was heard on the wind. Oscar raised a hand to silence them. As they sat listening, the beast and it's partner showed themselves. They jumped down from a low cliff on the mountainside, right into the basin where the deer had fallen.

"They're going to take them," One of the other men cried.

"Hold," Oscar said, "One can see they are only scavengers. They won't take much. When they've had their fill we'll scare them off." He turned to his right, "Shonashsa..." but the young man was not by his side. "Somebody stop him!" But the youth had already disappeared into the basin, dagger in hand. "Maeryn will have my head if something happens to the boy."


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#111
Old 07-30-2011, 06:54 AM

13. Running Away

Shonasha had not expected anyone to be there. The roof was falling in at the front and the porch was over grown with weeds growing through the rotted wood. It had seemed like a perfect place to hide and lay out of sight while the patrols thundered past, the hooves of their cantering horses shaking the very trees to their roots. Never had he expected someone to be living there.

"Who's there?" a frail voice said from behind him.

It was only as he turned around that Shonasha noticed the flicker of a fire's light dancing on the wooden walls. The frail voice had come from a hunched over old man seated in a thread bare seat by a tiny stone fire place. The fire was burning feebly on a few dry twigs that crackled as they were eaten away. Shonasha instinctively pulled the hood of his cloak further over his face, "Just a traveling stranger. I mistook your home for abandoned. I'll be leaving now, it's best you forgot you even saw me,"

He made to exit through the door, but the sound of the old man's voice made him stop, "I couldn't even see you if I wanted to my boy," There was a taste of irony in the words, like it hurt the man to even say them. Shonasha turned around curiously and saw in a flicker of the firelight the man's impossibly pale eyes. He was blind. "And if you're hiding from the patrol that just passed by, I wouldn't leave just yet. That was just the broad sweep, they'll be checking more thoroughly in a few minutes and I do believe they would find you quite easily."

"Well I'm afraid grandfather," he added the term hopping to win him over with respect, "That unless you have some way of hiding me here, that they will find me if I stayed as well."

"Grandfather," The man said in his dry voice. He seemed to be testing it on his tongue, as if trying to remember how to say it," There's something I haven't been called in many years. Why don't you come and sit by the fire?" He gestured to a dusty worn rug at his feet in front of the fire place, best to keep yourself warm while you still can."

Shonasha thought about turning around, exiting through the door he had entered from and hoping that the old man would forget he had ever been there. But what if the old man decided to speak to the patrols and tell him of the stranger who had passed into his house. Then they would know that they were looking in the right area.

"Very well," Shonasha said begrudgingly. He crossed the few strides of the room's length. He unhooked his short sword from his belt and then sat down on the little rug with a sigh.

"There, that's better now isn't it?" The man said with a toothless chuckle. "Now, while you are seated there so comfortably, how about doing me the honor of telling me your story. It's not everyday that I have a criminal passing through my home."

"I'm not a criminal," Shonasha said rather sternly. He shot the old man a glare, aware that he wouldn't be able to see it.

"The patrol seem to think otherwise," He packed a pipe with tobacco as he said this, "And they are usually the authority on such things." He chuckled into the pipe as he lit it. The red embers casting their glow onto his lined face, " That is, unless you'd like to convince me otherwise."

Shonasha could have left. He could have thrown caution to the wind and tried his best to escape unseen. But Shonasha got a sense that it was safe here and perhaps the old man was simply lonely and wished to hear another voice in that dark world he lived in. So Shonasha told him his story, and not just the abbreviated version that he had shared with many others before. No, this time he laid out the story in it's entirety from the many years ago when he had grown up in the manor house on the hill, to the recent events that had occurred at the coronation. Is was a story that only he and Heso, who he had abandoned on that cold night, knew.

As he spoke, he couldn't help but think how ridicules it all sounded. But what difference would it make, the man could disbelief if he wanted to. Shonasha almost wasn't sure if it was all how he said anymore. But it was a good story.

When he had finished, the man puffed thoughtfully on his pipe, "May I be honest with you my boy?"

"Yes grandfather, of course," Shonasha said, though he was a little weary of what the older man might say.

"I think you're a damned fool,"

Shonasha would have protested this point if the man had not gestured him to silence. Outside there was the sound of hoof beats. Very quietly the man said, "The stone below you hides a crawlspace. Quickly!"

With no time to ask questions, Shonasha lifted up the dusty rug to reveal a loose stone underneath. Below was a small musty hole, that smelled as if it had once been used to store food. "Now it'll be used to harbor a murderer," Shonasha thought grimly as he dropped down into the space. The stone was replaced above him, and it became impossibly dark. He heard the shuffling of the old mans feet overhead and then a hollow banging. The patrolmen had come to the door.

He did not trust himself to listen to the exchange but instead thought back to the past that he had just been speaking of. Surely he had not come this far to be discovered in some stinking hole. When he heard the stone being moved again he reached for the dagger hidden in his boot, but he was relieved to see that it was only the old man.

"They've gone, and with any luck they won't be returning again." The old man watched as Shonasha pulled himself out of the hole, then he shuffled aside to fill a kettle with water.

"Thank you grandfather, I'm sure you're kindness will not go unrewarded," Shonasha said. He hoped that the gratitude he felt was present in his voice.

The man however was not listening. He was hanging up the kettle over the little fire which he showered with a spare few extra twigs, "As I was saying before, you are a damned fool. Granted there are certainly strange things at work to have brought you to my doorstep,"

"How...?"

He did not let himself be interrupted again, "You see, like your 'friend' that you have left behind, I also was once gifted with the Sight. You are probably unaware of this, but no gift such as that can be misused without repercussions. In your self-centered folly, you probably missed all of the signs of the pain he went through to get you this far alive. You see, to be gifted with the Sight is to lose all privileges to the 'self'. You are not your own person anymore, and to act in favor of your own gain is a sin so grave that death seems to always be in its wake.

"When I was but a young man I had a friend whom I quarreled with. We had both fallen for the same woman you see, but of course she could not share her heart with both of us. I had a vision one day of his death at the hands of a rock slide. The very next day I invited him to travel with me to that same place from my vision. And just as clearly as I had seen it the night before, I watched my friend die under the power of the great earth. In that moment I felt a twinge behind my eyes, but I waved it away with the excuse of excitement.

"My young and stubborn heart leapt with joy for surely the woman would now welcome me with open arms. I did not, however, foresee the impact his death would have on her. She attempted to kill herself. But visions always presented themselves to me and I was able to stop her from doing the deed. Each time though, when I drew away the knife she grasped so tightly, or pulled her from the depths of the river she wished would drown her, the pain behind my eyes grew stronger.

"Finally, we were married in the springtime and I saw a smile bloom across my love's face once more. I thought we would finally be happy. A year later she gave birth to a daughter, my pride and joy, but the fates deemed that one should cost the other, and my wife passed away just three years later.

"Do you know what it looks like to peer into the future young traveler? I can only liken it to trying to upon a spider's web when the sun is shining very brightly all around you. The possibilities and crossroads are all laid out before you, but they are so hard to glimpse. You stare for the longest time until you hope that you've seen it right, but by then your eyes are burning from the inside and the present is passing you by.

"I tried so hard to give my daughter everything she could have ever wanted, but in doing so I lost sight of the her that was standing there before me. Before I knew it, I could no longer look upon her face. The only way to see her was in the fuzzy remains of my memories or some washed out glimpse of her future.

"She grew up and married a man in the village. They had a son together, my grandson. He was born blind, I expect, as one last attempt to spite me for my selfishness and then a fire burned down the entire village except for my home.

"As you can see, the forest has been content to grow in around what was left of it. All that remains are the few graves of my family that I've tended over the years.

"It seemed to me, that this friend of yours has probably been making sacrifices for you, and you have not even noticed."

But Shonasha wasn't listening. He was thinking back to the night of the coronation, how he had found Heso resting in the foyer, a damp cloth laying over his eyes. There were other occurrences too. Shonasha had always thought he had looked tired, but perhaps it was the pain in his eyes, whittling away at his sight. "So then," he said quietly, not wanting to say his thoughts," I've made the wrong decision."

"There are no wrong decisions," The old man said as he leaned back in his chair, "There are simply those decisions we are glad to have made, and those that we learn from. Never should we waste our time on regrets. It will not change what has happened. But learning, that effects what we will do in the future."

"Of course," Shonasha said, nodding his head before looking up suddenly, "You have sheltered me from the patrol and have opened my eyes to much, how can I repay you grandfather?"

"I have but one request of you my boy. I am old, my time grows near. At this point in my life the only thing I wish for is to be buried beside my family. I do not wish to ask such a thing of a stranger, but you see I have no one else in the world to supply such a service."

"Of course grandfather, it shall be done."

Two months later, when the springtime had just begun to soften the land, and the animals once again returned, Shonasha dug a grave on the outside of the man's garden and laid him to rest, where he was once again reunited with the family that he had longed for all his life.
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