A single word that prodded at my sanity, one that did not herald my return with a sleepless night filled with strange tongues and confusing images, but did so a month beforehand. It was a quiet affair, my return. Ironic that it would herald the tide of irrevocable change for my people as I walked down the small harbor and towards my freedom.
Just because it was a quiet affair, it did not mean that gossip stopped. It went unhindered throughout the sleepy hollow of a town like wildfire, and worst of all is that I could hear everything they were discussing about. On and on it went, like a circus gone mad. From my irregular release upon their town, it inevitably landed about who was going to be robbed or killed by me.
It wasn t long that I was on the road to somewhere, anywhere. Gold coins were clinking about in my new leather pouch, as I thumbed the polished pommel of my sword. A smug smirk was threatening to spill out to my face as the cries of the robbed townspeople reached my ears, a sweet melody to them.
Brother.
I rubbed my eyes vigorously, having dipped my hands into water as I rubbed the last of my sleep away. Somehow doubting there was any left from the disturbing dreams and visages I d seen in the last couple of days. All I knew was that a House was involved from my investigations and rumors across the land. It seemed as if trouble always hounded me, even after my penance in that darkness.
The stolen sword rested on a nearby table, the moon still high in the sky as its light filtered through the window and into the rented room. With a soft sigh I walked towards the window, hands softly gripping the window s wooden sill as I bathed under the moon s glow.
The flickering flames of the guards were a gentle sight that slightly calmed my tense nerves, their slow and steady movements a relief as they did their routes. I blinked and turned my gaze upwards towards the moon, the sole witness of my blurred time on the land and of my sleepless nights in the wilderness.
With another sigh, I turned my gaze back towards the abandoned streets of the sleeping city, and with the slow closing of my eyes from the relaxation is when I heard the breathing. My eyelids felt heavy as one ton boulders of pure stone as they rose, my throat contracting as I heard the gulp in the deep silence of the night.
My body tensed and it obeyed slowly as it turned around to face whatever being that was now present in the house. Sharpened nails spread out and apart in the air, long fingers followed the nails lead as the open palm of a dirtied golden skinned hand was beckoning me in a greeting. My gaze followed the hand, to the arm, shoulder, neck and into the three-eyed face of a monster.
Brother.