By: Rita Barakat ---------------------------
I vaguely remember the sound of crying...yes...I do...the sound of crying,is so clear.I also remember somone's soft touch,gentle fingers running along my spine.I remember lots of cooeing...from...I'm not sure who.Up to this day,I can hardly grasp these memories full in my head.I recall distant chattering,more cooeing,that drastically turned into crying...and then...all else was gone,and for the very first time in my young,new born life...I had a dream.
It was about somthing pointy...and shiny...it was about raven colored eyes.It was about the moon,the sun,the stars.It was about boys...and girls...and love...and death.The chronicles of life,and how one would live it...and when I woke up...from that wonderful dream...I realized my purpose in life.Was to live my life to my heart's content.And what would that be,may you ask?Becoming somone who represents all that I am,and all that you are,reader,dear reader,all that you and I are.We are the people,of,no,not just a single nation that stands out alone...but an entire group,of one to many literate beings on this earth,who too,yet have to find their own soul purpose in life.Here I am...laying...half dead,on my spread besheets,on the cold,draggy floor,with nothing but a few blankets to cover my bare body.I sit hoplessly...watching these few little lines...move up...and down...and up...and down...like mountains.They were rich colors of green.I faintly recall somone warning me that if the color suddenly changed to violet...well...I guess I forgot the rest of what the young female said...she burst into to tears at that moment,perhaps,of the thought of what would happen if those...seemingly harmless little lines were to change color.I became scared,at the memory of that mentioning,because right when that thought struck me full force...it was too late.
My throat immediatly shut closed,and had I not noticed how my diginity and sense of life was slowly dripping down my finger tips,I wouldn't have made the horrible screeching sound I had at that moment.No one was in the small,cramped,room.There was nothing,but a single candle,and that unfamiliar system that contained the screen and wires,those lines continously moving for the past five hours until they finally came to a halt...slowing instantly into a flat,violet line...and then...
Blank.
It was June,24,305 B.N,...my birthday.
I watch,as the cresent wind wafted through the soft,spring air,brining in the cool esence of summer.I smell the evening smells of farming,and fresh cut oak trees in the distance,and observe as peasants and town foke stop their businesses to catch a scent of the very first smells of summer.I sit,in virtually nothing,practically floating in air,watching all of this.I take a moment to step away from the serene setting of new come summer,and turn towards my knobby,skinny,out worn body.My hands limp inbetween my legs,my arms and muscles bruised and bandaged.Heck,almost every single part of my body was bandages,wearing nothing but lose over cut pants,also ripped and torn at the edges.My body,not expectadley cold,but in a sense,feeling how you'd think chocolate would feel...rich,melting chocolate.I tried to taste the feel of chocolate on my tongue,nothing came.I was broken in every esscence...blank...completley blank.
I overlook once again,the rich feilds of the kingdome I have come to call my home.I study these feilds and recall a time they were not just an enjoyable place to look at,but to play in.I remember a day where it was blazing hot,my friends and I,rolling around the tall,new farmed grass.I remember the elderly farmers getting angry at us for ruining theiry perfectly cropped grass,hoping we'd appreciate how long it took them to grow all of it.I remember all the laughing,all the joking in the market place,as peasants and nobles were gossiping and chatting about peacful things,music,and recreation.And then...my attention swayed violently towards a period of time where there was always screaming...crying...no laughter or joy...it was replaced with hate towards another...for what reason?...
We were sworn enemies.
It was the year 304,B.N (before Neopia),I was but a young squire during that time,I'd finally made it through my entire knight's ordeal,alongside all of my best friends in the knight's academy of Meridell,the kingdome I knew and loved.By the time I'd received my final knight's badge,a war had struck,followed by receiving famine from the other side.I was overwhelmed during such a time,being my first full scale war.I never had time to reminence with any of my pals,read,or do anything I liked.I never had time to get an education.Never had time for courtship.Everything got left in the dust of constantly padding foot paws of various NeoPets,trudging off towards the rages of war.I was hoping for a happy,enjoyable life in the once peacful kingdome of Meridell...what was soon to follow towards the end would top all monsters...
We had lost that war.The 'other side',Darigan,had won.
Now,reader,I dearly understand how much you resent me repeating or explaining such things about either side,having to sit here and read all of this over,but you must know,at least,just a few things about Darigan...
At the time,they were a nasty bunch,a completley,utterly,evil,despicable bunch indeed.Not a 'bunch',such a childish way of describing them,but a 'kingdome',just as we are,of mutated,forms of us,preying on our very bodies and souls,and the good of our side of the war.That war ended with Darigan's former Lord of their Citadel,(floating castle up above Meridell by 10,000 feet),dying a tragic death,being controlled the entire war,falling into the matter of attacking our kingdome for such reasons.Your thinking why on earth(or Neopia)would anyone want to harm in ANY form of way,our peacful kingdome of Meridell.Well,it's alot of land...wealthy land...with quite a few talented farmers and citezens,therefore being a good place to CONQURE if you had such skill and wits that of Darigan.
Of course,Meridell was just glad the war was over,me being still in one peice,and better,and not much loss occuring in this war.I was appointed champion,and later in the years,which were ten to be exact,I was appointed Prince of Meridell.I was 24 by then,I young lad,still single.Of course...not for long.I had run into,while rummaging for a few special items in the Market place,a young lupess,such as myself,(I was a lupe as well),with light blue fur that seemed to glitter in the sun's spactacular rays,tiny,chandeleir earings shaped like stars adorned both of her slender,circular ears,her tail,soft and seemingly limp behind her long,slim,flowing dress that nearly touched the ground,covering up her bare foot paws,her hair reaching half way down her waist,with thin points at the end.I was shocked to see such a beautiful,young female...literally on the floor,begging for food from me at first sight.I took her in,of course,I was supposedly a role model,considered a God for such people on the streets of Meridell,fed her,had her properly groomed,and finally,when she'd been around our castle halls for at least a good year or two,asked her hand in marraige at age 26,she being only one year younger.We enjoyed many night's together,and when summer came,we built our own,personaly home just 5 miles outside the kingdome's boundaries.We never had time to settle and have children,war struck the poor land of Meridell,still recovering from the horrid debris of the last war,once again...
The war was of the receiving kingdome,Darigan,yet again,only big twist;...they had a new lord...a WARlord...
Lord Kass.
An even MORE,VILE,EVIL,DESPICABLE,eyrie(eagle)neopet,with ugly,twisted fur,claws as sharp as pointed swords,and a deadly smile representing every depth and fathom of hell possible.His wing span was unbeleivably,and undoubtedly,the largest of any eyries I had seen in my days,I was 27 when the next war had struck,once again,in attemtp to overtake Meridell on the side of Darigan,beint quite jealous of our crop wealth,and wonderful weather.
I was at least a tad more prepared for this war,ready with my sword and sheild at hand,and by then,our troops were rallied full force.It was a long trek,many theives and raides and mini battles along the way,but our final battle changed everything...especially when I had uttered the words, 'Goodbye Lisha'...
And then let go.
Of everything.Of life,admitting to death.Of pride, admitting to giving up all hope,and abandoning my kingdome,my love,and worst of all...my 6 year old sister who I had been reunited with only months ago with...leaving them trailing in the wind,pampering my shoulders and beaten body,as I fell...from that full,exact 10,000 feet,down to the unwelcoming land of Meridell below.
I'd known I'd hit (reached) the bottom when I'd started to see many rivals of colors,and then finally,for some odd reason,a pinkish,peachy hand drew forth from the corner of my pigment,and then immediatley went black,suddenly feeling searing pain tearing through my body like paper in a shredder,as if I'd shut my eyes too fast,awkwardly pulling a muscle.But no,I knew it,as long as my brain was still functioning,I had been convinced I was dead...
AND that nobody came and found me.How sad huh?You'd expect somone such as myself,being loved my many,important to all in the kingdome of Meridell,would be missed dearly.
Obviously,no one had heard of my tragic death.
The touch of some foreighn creatures hand in the next few,what seemed like minutes,made me realize many things.That I was a tad on the selfish side,that,maybe...just maybe...I was dreaming,and that I hadn't felt true love in what seemed like years,and was truthfully half a decade...
So now...your wondering where this all leads up to...right here...on my death bed...
Where I lay,still fighting,watching the little lines on the pattered screen,not once giving up the fight for life.They'd said I had a disease.They'd said we lost the war.They'd said my wife had become pregant out of no where...well...all of those were wrong,some where the opposite.My wife had actually died in our home of a raiding into Meridell,which was,ironically,at the same time I fell.For quite some time after my death,everyone had claimed they saw me fall.It was as if Lisha,my dear little sister,was carrying out my message in honor of my death.Yes,I wanted everyone to know how dreadfully upset I was no one bothered to find me,Lisha made that clear to everyone who had the chance.And later,she had a complete breakdown,locking herself in her room for a full straight week.
We had won the war.Kass had died,that evil war lord,most say,got what he deserved,haven't heard,or seen from him since.But what all of us have noticed towards the end of this spactacular war,was that the former,FORMER Darigan Citadel leader,Lord Darrnan,Darigan himself,had returned...errr...from the death?No one actually knows exactly how he got back up to 'our living world'.Most of the 'oldey's' who still enjoy the purpose of gossip around these parts say they 'accidenly' burried him alive,and he finally got revenge at his people by 'supposedly' taking Kass out and reighining his Citadel once again.
I still search intently for my friends,hoping at least a few of them are still alive,praying I might catch a glimpse of my now grown up sister,and wishing...praying...hoping...all of the above that I may somehow thank the mysterious figure,or creature,or whatever that saved my life and at least helped me live...long enough...to say goodbye to the cruel world I had rand through in a 'chronicle of life and death',ending directly on the hour of my birth,the second I entered the world,my mother kissing my forehead saying;
"Welcome to the world...Jeran"
I felt...that she had truthfully said...
"Abandon all hope...Jeran...you are now leaving me...and the world...goodbye."
And then I went blank.
The end.