Challenge 78: Martyr
Years before two friends fight, years before a princess loses her heart and gains it anew, years before two shadows fade, there is a man who smiles. His smile dazzles like the sun and his wife said once it was the reason she married him. He smiles because he has always known happiness. This man has never wanted more then what he has; his boat, his wife, and the child her own half-smile promises.
It is soon after his wife comes and tells him the news that he begins to dream of new places at night. Stars shining brighter then he has ever seen, so much that his smile comes without bidding, stretching his face so wide it almost hurts. They are too bright to touch though and he stays back for fear of being burnt. Then the stars then begin to fade, a slow black blanket tucking them good night.
He is out fishing when a new dream hits him. It is ten times more vivid then the ones he's had at night and in this dream there are no longer any stars. Only space, endless dark and alone, and when he comes back he is crying.
Two days later he sees something out of the corner of his eye. He puts it off as imagination, but at night he can not help but shiver, seeing a creeping void slowly swallow the room. Shadows dance on the wall, creatures wih large heads and smaller bodies that leave him feeling as empty as the worlds of his dreams.
He is fishing again when he comes upon a cave. It glows brightly, the same sort of shine as the stars of his dream. He smiles happily, stepping through to unlock the door.
Years later there is a boy. He fights his way through a castle that isn't, people who once were attacking him at every step. There are so many that he does not pay attention, following his key without thought. He does not notice the empty grin of one Assassin, briefly exchanging blows and jumping away when it explodes into a burst of dark stars. He simply continues through hollow hallways, pursuing the the faint light of the moon in the sky.