Those Special Words
Mat took a step and came in view of a little village backed up against a wood. He told the Band or rather Talmanes to set up camp and set off towards the wood. Tuon dismounted and followed him at a distance. He strode off at a fast pace and soon came to a little clearing with a little lake just big enough not to be called a pond. He stopped dead in his tracks. Then he slowly moved toward the lake, as if in a trance. He got to the bank and collapsed on his knees.
His slumped shoulders shook with something other than his usual laughter. Tuon made her way closer a could hear a low moan escape from his lips," My Riannon. My little Riannon." "Matrim", she questioned. "You wouldn't believe me, Tuon. You'd call me a liar." "Not anymore. "She recalled the morning's earlier conversation with Thom."Matrim , just tell me. "So he began his tale. His voice was shaky then grew steadily stronger.
"Just before Hawking's War, I was a different man.I wasn't called Mat then. I was Aradril. I was married to Elizabeth. We had three beautiful children. The two eldest were boys - John and Sam. Then there was Riannon - my baby girl. We were happy. Blissfully happy.
Riannon was three then. She couldn't swim but she had decided she could. She was supposed to playing out front but snuck off to the lake. I heard her splash about, but I thought it was just Sam chucking rocks into the lake again. He loved to watch the ripples. Then, I heard her scream."
At this point in the story he took a deep breath and gave himself a great shake. There was a sadness about him. A haunted look in his eyes. He took another deep breath and continued his story.
"I ran around from the back where I had been looking after the horses, but it was too late. She was gone. Dead. She floated face down, her little pink dress spread around her.
A few years later we were among the last to fall under Hawking. Elizabeth grew horribly ill but Hawking's forces had ravaged the land and there was nothing to stop her from dying, too. Dead. Just like Riannon. Hawking's forces came and every man I killed was for them. For my girls.
John was just old enough to join the army, while Sam just ran away and passed for a young Carhienin. Sam was little more than a boy and soon joined Elizabeth and Riannon in the Light. John, a young man, didn't stay with me much longer either. Their deaths became my constant fuel. Soon I was commanding armies.
It was the last battle in Hawking's War. I was the commanding general. We were outnumbered so badly, it was pathetic. I was drop dead tired and hadn't slept in two days. I walked right into his trap. We were crushed by the hammer against the anvil.
Hawking rode with his men. He carved a path before himself. I foolishly stepped in his way. Tried to kill him. End this madness. But he wasn't a blade master for nothing .He stabbed me again and again. I remember the last thing I thought of was my family. Especially Riannon."
Mat's shoulders shook harder and harder with the sobs wracking his body. Tears rolled uncontrolled down his face. Tuon pulled him close a rocked like a baby. He started to drift toward sleep and just before he went under he whispered so softly she thought she might have misheard. He whispered ,"I love you, Tuon." She held him tighter and closer to thought about his story and the rest of his memories. She decided and leaned over him and whispered in his ear, "I love you, too, Mat."
This is just one part of Mat's story I am telling about him. Who am I, you ask. Why I am Thom Merrilin.