At the Edge of Eternity
Prologue
He sat, hunching his wiry shoulders in against the cold. It was always cold now; he could never feel anything but the numbing pain in his limbs. He slowly raised his eyes and glanced around the small clearing, scanning the trees for something that was not there.
Almost unconsciously, he added wood to his pitiful fire. It was being drowned by the slight snowfall that seemed to linger over his days. It was the cold that scared him, it was the cold that hurt him, it was the cold that was slowly and surely breaking his spirit. Pulling his cloak about him, the shrouded figure coughed slightly, and watched his breath fade into the air around him. He knew he would die if he stayed out here, but there was nothing he could do. He would never go back.
It had taken every ounce of his spirit to stand up, to walk away from his past. But it was too much – there was too much blood in his memories for him to continue fighting forever. Better to run, he thought, than to be destroyed by simple inaction. He sighed, and tried not to think of filling his belly with…something.
The dulled blade sat beside him, its once-shimmering surface now bland, and coated with a fine layer of biting ice. It was a companion, but every time he stared it at he felt a pull at his soul. Every time the blade caught the firelight it seemed to sing to him, tell him that he was wrong. Go back, it seemed to whisper, return where you are needed most. The romance of his past was calling to him, and though he sat motionless, it was all he could do to resist. It was all he could do to forget.
His dark green skin tensed as he fought with himself to withstand the cold, he concentrated every fibre of his being on staying alive.The hours melted away, and darkness finally blanketed the barren landscape. The stars shimmered off the snow, and somewhere in the distance a wolf howled. And a tiny campfire cast a flickering shadow across the features of the cloaked figure beside.