RedRavenPoems

PAINFUL JOURNEY

Her Auburn hair whipped around her, a halo of flames. Eyes smoldered with golden light, seeing all that lay before them. Around her, a chill wind blew fanning the flames of her hair to even higher states. It caught at her white dress, flaring the hem high and wide. All in all, it made her terrifying, yet oddly beautiful. 

  CHOSEN. Her lips barely moved, no more than a whisper. Yet it reverberated through the air like a crackle of thunder from some unseen heavenly storm. The ground quaked, the air hummed, and my body felt as if a thousand hammers had struck it all at once. The force of it nearly drove me to my knees. 

  OATHBREAKER. WE HAVE CHOSEN, NOW IT IS TIME ONCE MORE. 

 This time I fell to my knees, not from the force of the words, but from the bitter reality of what it meant. I knew that voice, a mixture of sounds that encompassed all things. Neither male or female, it simply was. I despised that voice. I despised what it meant.

  No, I whispered. Not again, not her. 

WOULD YOU DARE TO REFUSE? The thunderous whisper asked, a hint of smugness in it’s cacophony of discord. WOULD YOU ALLOW US TO MAKE THIS JOURNEY ALONE? WITH THIS VESSEL?

    No. Hell no I wouldn’t, and they knew it. The decision was made after all, and they knew I would not dare to refuse. I never had, and each time it always cost me a bit of my soul. By now I was sure they relished each and every time that I carried out this duty.

Why her? Was my only response. Why chose her out of the millions of humans, why her? Never before had I asked this, even though the thought always crossed my mind. 

  ANY OTHER HUMAN YOU WOULD ABANDON. YOU WOULD SIMPLY WALK AWAY. Was the reply. One I couldn’t deny either. I hated them with everything in me. Hated this world. Walk away? You bet your ass I would. THIS VESSEL ENSURES YOUR COOPERATION, AS WELL AS YOUR PUNISHMENT.

 You’re not happy now? Even after all this time?! I yelled, almost a horse shriek in my anger. You’ve forced me to watch the woman I love make this journey countless times now! Forced me to watch her die! What will it take to make you happy!

For the longest time they regarded me in silence. Gazing at me from the body of the woman I had loved. I felt condemned. Dirty and unclean. I felt as worthless as I had on the day they first called me the oath breaker. The day all of this started. They spoke then :

 THE MITHRIL TREE MUST FADE AWAY

 DARKNESS COMES NO LONGER AT BAY

 TERROR CONSUMES ALL BECOMES DECAY

  UNLESS THE TREE IS REBORN

  AND THE OATH BREAKER MUST MOURN.

  ONLY WHEN THE VESSEL IS TRUE

  WILL LOVE RETURN AND PEACE BE ANEW.

That damn prophecy again. It was more than that. It was my curse. I would mourn, for what seemed liked eternity. If that’s what they wanted then fine I guess. I opened my mouth to tell them what I thought. Yet the words wouldn’t come, and in the silence she spoke one final time.

WE PROMISED YOU LOVE OATHBREAKER, WE NEVER SAID YOU COULD KEEP IT. TIME GROWS SHORT. THE MITHRIL TREE AWAITS. 

I closed my eyes against the burning in them, then nodded. It was time. A part of my would die again on this journey, and I wondered, would I still be me at the end?