Prompt.
"Saying goodbye"
Grey skies
Grey walls
Grey steel.
Once they were alien too me. Now they will pass as old friends well-met and well-known.
Behind me there is a rumble and clatter of chains, the gate is being opened. The portcullis is rising and soon the drawbridge will lower. And I will pass them and leave this place. There was a time I would've been glad finally to escape.
Now I look past the great stone walls to the warped land beyond, and I feel regret and despair. And I long to dwell a little longer within these walls.
The rain is pounding down like a constant reminder of the burden on all the armoured shoulders of the castle. I hear bootsteps across the puddled ground. I turn to face him.
Reynald stops, standing facing me. His hand resting on his sword, the rain pouring off his leather cloak in sheets. Through the wet matt of his long hair, his grim eyes fix to mine.
"This is it?"
I nod.
"Our fate is a long and knotted thread it seems."
"Aye"
he lowers his face "Good luck." he looks me in the eye again. "Gods be with you."
I turn and stride away, towards the gatehouse. I stride purposefully, letting no-one see the urge in my body to run back at every step. The sheer terror that grips my heart. I know what I face, and it is death.
The wooden gates are now unbarred. If they were to attack now, we would be helpless. That we should trust their word is ludicrous. But what choice do we have?
The farmer and the freed murderer stand either side of the gates, waiting for me. I nod, and they pull the gates open just enough for me to pass. The battered strained hinges groaning as they move.
I step through and the gates creak shut behind. The boom of the bar being lowered tells me there's no going back now. Even if I asked they would not open the gate again.
I realise i've been looking at the ground and force my eyes up to look ahead of me.
The grey forest is scattered with red eyes, their bodies and forms hidden from sight by a shroud, like a blurred fog, they are both there and not. But they are there, I tell myself. Weeks in the castle showed me that much is certain. Horrifically certain
Some twisted forms near the front of the evil host, make my stomach turn. My knees are trying to crumble under me, but I won't let them. They feed off our fear, off our weakness. And though I feel it, I cannot let it stop me from what I must do.
Ahead of the darkness, before the castle walls. He stands, no bigger than a man. Not shrouded, no glowing eyes peer from this one. He stands, and the rain pours off his black armour. He stands, mocking us.
"Luther" I mutter through misty breath.
"Come closer" his voice is deep but not loud or booming, yet I hear it as if he were next to me.
I stiffen my legs and will them forward. Step, by step, I trudge across the drawbridge, The cobbled road, and off into the dark muddy ground that once was a green field.
He stands before me now, close. I can see his breath on the cold air.
"You persist in this futility" He smiles an innocent smile through the helmet slit. "Surrender now and your soul may find rest... unlike the others here."
His words make me want to believe them, but even if he did let my soul free. I would still be dead, and what would I do for my afterlife but forever regret this moment. No. I said my goodbyes to my love, I have nothing more to say to them, or him. Even if no-one hears of my tale, I at least will know i've done this one thing right.
My eyes meet his. Is it fear in his eyes I see now. He sees it doesn't he? My resignation, my resolve. Or is it more mockery luring me to strike?
Each second slows, the rain seems to hang in midair. His hand reaches for his sword. We draw at the same time and steel meets steel, blade twisting blade as we refuse to abandon the strike. Then we step away from each other and face off.
He is good, but not the better of us. I can't help but wonder what brought him to risk his own life fighting me.
Our blades ring against one another again and again, clashing back and fourth, giving ground and taking it. After several strikes, an opening finally presents itself. I twist my sword and thrust it deep into his armpit, blood flows from the gap in the armour there. Red blood. He grunts in pain and turns to bring his sword down for my head while i'm close.
I jump sideways to avoid the cut. Suddenly his offhand flashes out and a hot feeling fills me chest.
"What?" I gasp as the air seems wrenched out of me.
"You can kill me boy, but you will never find victory." he smiles as he lurches to his knees in the mud. A savage vengeance ignites in my heart. Now I see my chance to end it, to finish this torment and wake from the dream.
In rage my sword swings down ignoring the pain from my chest. His helmet cracks and his skull with it. Blood spray covers me like a terrible bath of honour. His corpse collapses into the mud and lies there, still, unmoving.
I am victorious. Without the dark one the host may leave, or if not, maybe they may yet be beaten. I feel energized by the victory, I feel like I haven't felt in a month or more.
"KILL THEM" A deep voice screams in my head
I clutch my head. What was that? That voice... I killed him!
"Fool, necromancers are born with blood, you think I needed that sack of flesh? It was dying anyway, growing weak. I need a new body. YOURS!"
I scream and drop to my knees. NO! NO! I have to focus, retain who I am, stop him somehow!
"You cannot resist me boy. Kings have tried, and failed"
The malice in the voice is tangible. I try to move my hands to my will. But they won't anymore.
"HA!HA!HA!HA!"
My hands rise, not to my own will, I watch in horror as they pull out the necromancer's knife and hold it in front of me
"I will carve out your heart, and your soul will die, and your body will be mine. I will be fit and free again, long enough to crush your mere mortal kingdom!"
I cried silently with no eyes or mouth to cry with.
A shadow covers us. It must be the end, the dark magic of this necromancer is finally taking my sight and soul.
But my head looks up, I see a sillouetted shape. A rock!
The world goes dark.
"good shot" Reynald tells the man by the catapult. He doesn't seem pleased by it though, and neither was Reynald if he was honest to himself.
A ray of light slowly appears through the grey cloud. The dark host makes bellows and roars of defiance, but slowly drift back into the dark of the forest.
"Goodbye my friend."