Once upon a time…
There was a pair of young lovers…
A young man…
And a young woman…
They met as children…
They slowly fell in love…
And all who knew them knew no sorrow or hardship.
But there was one…
Who did not offer happy wishes…
On their wedding on the first day of spring…
An evil woman had hoped to make the young man her's…
But his love had ended this plan before it could begin…
So she devised a new plan…
A painful plan…
She caused a great war…
That ripped a nation in half…
The young man tried to stay home…
But the war was coming closer to their small plot of land…
He knew he had to go to war…
To protect his young wife…
To protect their small farm…
To protect their unborn child…
He swore to his bride…
He would return the next spring…
To see his newborn child and her beautiful smile again…
The sad irony of making such promises…
In times of vengeful wars…
They are never kept and hearts break.
The young man left in early summer…
And soon summer passed…
And autumn as well…
Winter soon behind.
One last mission a week before spring…
He told his commanders he promised to go see his wife and child.
On this mission…
He met three women…
Of incomparable beauty…
Though he'd claim his bride more…
He offered them assistance…
As he was raised to help those in need…
Only to find himself in need of help.
Back on their small farm…
The young woman waited…
A child in her arms as she watched the road.
Day after day…
Week after week…
Month after month…
Spring turning into summer…
Waiting for him.
But her husband never came home from war…
And soon his commander appeared with a letter…
For a young bride with a child in her arms…
And a small farm with only a few farm hands to tend it…
A letter telling her husband was missing…
Either dead or captured…
Was enough to shatter her heart to bits.
Donning the clothes of a mourning widow…
The young woman did not remarry…
And raised her child alone…
The farmhands she treated well and as family…
Despite the color of their skin contrasting hers…
When the war ended…
And they were freed…
They all stayed on for the sake of the woman…
Soon the child grew…
Found love of his own…
Married her…
And built a home near his mother's…
He worried about her…
She had only rarely smiled when he was young…
He just wanted her happy…
As a child…
The hands had told him of when she did smile…
Before they lost his father…
They told of her laugh…
Of the love that his parents shared…
All ended with a letter…
As his family grew old…
His wife slowly descending into lonely madness…
The young man lived on…
He was now a slave…
To she who caused him to be away from his wife…
And she created a monster from him.
For many years…
He did her bidding…
A part of him deep down praying his human wife safe…
His child born healthy and strong…
But his thoughts can't linger…
The tasks of his Mistress are never done…
And he needs no sleep…
And he is no longer even close to the man his wife loved…
He couldn't pretend for her if he tried…
Bloodlust or no.
So all day long…
He trained others like him for his mistress…
He culled the weak like he used to cull the steers…
Slowly…
The young man who went to war was buried deep…
Left for dead within himself…
Leaving nothing…
But the Major.