The Last Who Will Die.
by freeProphe
He lies, sometimes, to reassure himself that he has made the right decision. He tells himself that Luxa will not hate him for his choices; that Nerissa will not break further from the strain of his selfish conclusion. That the entirety of the Underland will understand.
He knows that he is not right. He knows that there were other, easier, ways to gain recognition and power. Allying himself with the rats should have been his last resort. He hates the Gnawers, truly, for what they have done to him personally, and for what they have done to his city as a whole. They murdered his parents; they murdered Luxa's parents. They attempted to take over the world, his world.
He knows that he hates them. But he cannot help but agree with some of their ideas. Even the ones that concern his species; the humans –the killers.
And he is so young; so foolishly naïve, that he believes that maybe he can change things. He can help, maybe, if he tries to. Maybe the Gnawers –King Gorger himself, at that!- knew for a way to make things right.
But in the end, he thinks, he is merely a sixteen-year-old boy, falling to his death, with not a friend in the world to help him.
And as he watches Ares, his bond, the one person he has vowed to protect and in turn be protected by, fly by him with the Overlander –the Warrior- on his back, he comes to a conclusion:
I made a mistake.
He has known it all along, but thinking the words now makes them sting with painful clarity. However, he cannot feel that he is going to die in vain, because everyone is safe.
As the final verse of the prophecy rings in his ears, Henry's back is pierced by sharp, jagged rocks, and he feels nothing more.
"The last who will die must decide where he stands.
The fate of the eight is contained in his hands.
So bid him take care, bid him look where he leaps,
As life may be death, and death life again reaps. . . ."
I re-read part of GtO recently, and I actually started to enjoy Henry's character. As a result, I felt obligated to write something featuring him. I came up with this. I wrote it in about thirty minutes, and I didn't proofread it or get it betaed or anything -it wasn't a big enough deal to actually go to any lengths for it. Any screw-ups with the tenses was unintentional, but unless it's really screwy, I'll probably never fix it.
I hope you enjoyed reading this -if you didn't, I can't really do much to help. You'll have to get over the five to ten minutes you wasted reading it. Sorry :)!
-Prophe.