When I heard this song, I couldn't help thinking of Kain . What he could have been thinking on his way to the Pillars. My first time trying a songfic, so do be kind. Song is pretty easy to spot. If you want to hear it, drop me a line.

Couple of spoilers if you hadn't played BO1.

Man's Road

Performed by America from The Last Unicorn Soundtrack

Nightfall in the great forests of Nosgoth had always served to hide and protect ones daring enough to navigate them, and it was no different for vampires. Yet this one was not here to find cover amongst its many leafy branches and brambles; this one walked down the dirt path created for the easy movement of mortals and usually littered with them, with resolution. He strode with his head held high, although deep thought and an aspect of grief were cast upon his face.

He wished to help his land and his people, not destroy them. There was more suffering in this world, and it had been because of him. He will never forget what happened, how destorying the Nemesis in the past, he single-handedly started a vampiric purge. The terrible mob, angered by the death of the yet-to-be-corrupted William the Just, destroyed every last of his kind. Except him. The vampire ran a leather clad hand through his ashen hair.

He laughed in bitter irony. Now he was Kain, the Razer and Petty Pawn of the Circle of Nine.

He vowed never to be misled again; only that small voice inside will lead him now, which has guided him anyway, to places he has never been, but needed to be. Never again will he blindly stroll along a predestined path, allowing tales or intervention of others to guide him. Only what he discovers to be true will be taken as such. Somehow, Kain knew he could change this world, make it better for all inhabitants; somehow, he knew his very existance means the deathnell of those who seem to have a different objective in mind. His head lowered in dispair. Yet how does one save a world?

A bright light penetrated the thick canopy, snapping him out of contemplation. Morning sunlight broke through dark rainclouds.

Horizon

Rising

Up to meet the purple dawn

Dust beaming

Screaming

Grinning eagle to lead me on

For in my heart I carry such a heavy load

Here I am on Man's Road

Walking Man's Road

The dark clouds finally became strong enough to overpower the sun, and Kain felt the rain drops gather in strength as it hit his dark armor. It was a slow and gentle drone, as if the sky itself was weeping. He no longer had weakness within the rain, yet still he searched around him for a suitable haven out of instinct. His feet trode heavily on the soaked ground, feeling the fatigue of this journey; Kain could not recall the last time he had been reposed. Despite his wanted interlude, there was no such cover here, so on he tread upon the road which was fast becoming muddy.

Finally the showers subsided as the forest brightened under the light of midday, and the resulting wispy mist throughout the forest seemed to give radiance to all it touched, all but Kain's armor. This hellish scarlet abomination of his pure iron plate armor gave no glint or gleam, nor has it ever since his reawakening as a vampire; it too had collected moisture, yet it seemed as if the armor itself absorbed the light around it. The canpoy greatly thickened, blocking the sun's rays from reaching the path.

I'm hungry

Weary

But I cannot lay me down

The rain comes

Dreary

But there's no shelter I have found

It will be a long time till I find my abode

Here I am on Man's Road

Walking Man's Road

Once he found the passage out of the woodlands, Kain realized he had spent the whole daylight navigating the wood. A harvest moon of the darkest crimson he had ever witnessed had risen into the sky, periodically obscured by the clouds from the previous storm still clinging to life. He left the cover of the forest, still following the now lantern-lit gravel path leading him to the Pillars. His inner voice had been speaking to him again, and what terrible things it has been telling him. Kain knew at the end of this road was the conclusion of his revenge, the final guardians, yet somehow he felt as if this was not the end of his or Nosgoth's suffering, that something truly dark and sinister lay in wait for him there. Surely if there really is a great and benevolent god, there is a way to stop the conspiracies of evil against the land. There must be something that can be done, and why did he feel once that something is finished, it will be a price too steep from which to recover?

Moon rising

Disguising

Lonely streets in gay displays

The stars fade

The night shade

Falls and makes the world afraid

It waits in silence for the sky to explode

Here I am on Man's Road

Whatever happens, Kain knew on he must press.

Walking Man's Road