Prologue
A blonde man sits by a lake, toes gently grazing the water, eyes full of sunlight and crickets and gunshots.
It's different here, by the water. The rain falls more than once a month, and the green throbs loudly everywhere he looks – it almost sickens him. But it's better than parched tongues, silver revolvers and yellow, arid expanses.
His breath hitches as his foot hits the sharp edge of a rock. A gorgeous crimson bursts from the pulp of his heel, violently disrupting the tranquillity of the water. The sight of the red swirling in a cloud upsets his tender stomach, and he twists quickly to retch on the stones at his side.
He'd almost forgotten the shade of his blood.
Standing, he presses the wound into the rocks, painting a sanguine trail along the edge of the lake. His feet are gory cartographers, macabre artists – he welcomes the tartness of the pain like an old friend.
As he turns back to watch the horizon, the desert is in his eyes, twisting and burning like a fever dream. Sometimes his eyes swim across his vision, blue and knowing and young. He wishes someone would beat them from his mind, and every other memory that comes with them, but they always linger, like dust mites. Always watching him.
It's cooler in the evenings here – he can feel the air biting into his neck, gripping him from behind. He doesn't have the capacity to shiver anymore. He moves further into the trees, searching for a bed for the night.
He'll be back the next day – he always is. The blonde man by the lake, shoulders broad and strong, hat tipped low as he picks at the dirt beneath his nails. The blonde man by the lake, skin too golden to be local, slowly losing his mind to the tide.
A/N Okay so this is the prologue to a fan fiction I have been requested by merthured (her blog on tumblr is amazing and makes me so happy please check it out). It's a Western fiction (I have yet to decide whether it's Merthur, I will have to consult Anna on that one). And I mean Merlin and Arthur as cowboys... Am I right? But of course, I won't leave with about 300 words max, that's just mean. Chapter One will also be up shortly, and I'm already working on Chapter Two! Don't worry, Cold as Death should keep on coming too.
Happy reading!
-tapeandblades