- Hope for the Forgotten [pt. 2]

They came with spears and swords and axes. Shovels and rakes and torches in the night, racing like a lame across the fields they burned and tore and broke down doors. Their faces were strewn in anger as they yelled like a mob, their torches rising with the fires of the night and from their eyes they saw their greed rise.

Fields of unharvested crops, half grown, and half crushed by the mob as any tore through the garden and the livestock. They ate and they pillaged and filled their bellies full with whatever they could grab, while the more stable of men dragged out the family inside.

The farmer struggled and screamed for his wife and child, who were torn from his grasp and taken away into the night, past the empty minded folk whose faces wore masks of greed and vile hate.

"Stop! Please, take all you want but leave my family be!"

The farmer fought against the men, and it took nearly ten to hold him back as he tore at the dirt under his hands. Then he felt his bones being rushed as a boot stomped down on his outstretched hands, as a voice both vile and bare tore through the night's clean and calm air.

"Why are you doing this?"

It was the farmer who had tears in his eyes, looking up towards the man who led this mob with tears in his eyes.

"We need the food. We aren't guilty of anything, you…you should have shared."

"I did! I gave you all I could!"

"It wasn't enough!"

The man grabbed at his face as if he was trying to keep himself from tearing apart his own flesh, his skin like thin paper on his bones.

"We aren't guilty of anything…we had to do this. We had to…"

He sounded desperate, almost convincing to himself as he tore his eyes from the burning house and back to the farmer below his feet. He was calm and angry, he hated himself for what he was doing, but he convinced himself that it wasn't his fault. Hunger was driving him, and he was in the trunk.

"Please…"

The farmer's sad and tear-filled eyes pleaded and begged the man, who appeared like some haunting figure that loomed above him, as the fire and mob tore through the farm, pillaging all they could.

It would feed them for a few days at most, but they didn't care. All that mattered to them was the food.

"It's not our fault, so don't forgive us."

The man repeated as he began to walk off towards the direction they dragged the farmer's family away, his eyes hollow and lost in the night as people yelled and cheered all around him.

"After all,…. you're not one of us…"

Then he was gone, vanishing beyond the crowd of people who tore down fences, struck torches against the wood of his house, slaughtered livestock with their axes and knives, all while the father watched on in horror as the world burned around him.

His mind turned and twisted, cracked and broke in holes as two men held his arms and dragged him forwards, his eyes leaving the fire that burned before him. All he saw was the dagger on one of his warden's belts.

His mind was broken and full of anger, and all he could see was the shimmering of the fire in its steel reflection.

He didn't think so. He didn't realize what had happened until it did.

Blood was spilled that night, as the man's escape was hidden by the fire light.

***

Lia watched as the many villagers, their skin hollowed and sticking to their bones like a tight shirt, piled one by one into the various carts Totalac had cleared out for them. She stood next to the man himself, watching his eyes as he watched the line of villagers continue.

She wanted to ask, he wanted to ask, though she knew it wasn't her place to ask, she had to know.

"Why?"

It was all she asked, but they both knew what she was talking about, they both knew the meaning behind her question.

"I just saw them. There wasn't much to it."

"No, you can't just forgive them and give some half assed reason like that. After everything they've done to you, why did you just…."

She caught herself, knowing that she couldn't say more on the matter, for it was not her place. Her emotions had gotten the better of her, and she couldn't stop her mind from wavering with every thought.

Everyone around her was forgiving the heinous for their deeds, yet she didn't have the courage to forgive him.

"I saw how hurt they were, Lia. You don't know this, but the money they got from selling my family away was used to buy seeds and small crops. They thought they could rebuild with the chance that I had offered them, but they were wrong."

She saw it in his eyes, the revenge he had been looking for, the hatred that sparked like fires as he kept himself back, gripping the silver dagger on his side like he was holding on for dear life.

"I hate them, but now I can lie knowing that they sold my family away, and what little hope they had was crushed like my life was. Let them live with that guilt. Let them live with what haunts them inside. None of them will recover from this."

Silence tore between them as the cool wind blew Lia's hair back, past her crimson eyes that burned like embers of a dying flame.

"But how do you do it? How can you just forgive them?"

She could feel her own heart beating with anger every time she relived the story of his life, the details he shared on that night by the campfire, how the world burned his home to the ground and everything he had loved was taken from him.

He could see it too, lie the dreams he had of his wonderful life given back into his hands. But he could see something more vivid past that, past the hatred and past the anger. He could see his family smiling as they were dyed in a golden hue of light, and at last he felt peace as he breathed out, sign as his hand fell from his dagger.

"They're probably dead, you know."

His words snapped her from her senseless anger, a feeling of creeping sadness that compelled her heart to beat like the silent rhythm of a drum.

"...your family?"

He nodded, and Lia could see the tears brimming in his eyes like small glints of diamonds in the sunlight.

"My wife wouldn't want this. She would want these people to live and be at peace with themselves. And my daughter, the innocent little girl that she was…she was only trying to feed who she could, and they took advantage of that kindness. They wouldn't want this."

Their eyes met the villagers and piles of the many who cried and thanked the people of the caravan as they passed out what food they had, gave them blankets and warm clothes, smiles sprouting on their faces as if this was the greatest day of their lives.

For many it was.

"And what about you?"

She asked, her voice like a dull and silent ring of the glass against the ground as it shattered the silence of peace around them.

It was a moment before he spoke, but when he did it sounded as though he was gritting his teeth, his voice bellowing like the choked sobs he held back with each word.

"I hate them. I want them to feel pain and I want to kill them all. But even when I had the chance that night, I couldn't."

His mind drifted back to the moment when his whole word was on fire, how he grabbed the silver dagger from the belt of a man and tore it into his flesh. Though he was most likely dead now due to his wounds, Totalac couldn't kill him that night. His weakness was stronger than his rage.

He ran, hidden by the fire as he disappeared into the forest night.

"But I don't understand, it's so foreign to me."

"What is?"

It took some effort for her to speak, all the moments when this weakness could have taken control of her, she fought it with rage and anger to her flame.

"Forgiveness."

Totalac could see the sadness in her eyes, he knew that her heart was tearing itself up inside, and he was reminded of himself all over again. And he did not like the sight of it.

He took a deep breath, and thought back to his daily life, his wife and his daughter, how the days passed by ceaselessly with endless peace and happiness. He was contempt then to die if he needed to, if the knock on his door ever came. But now he needed to last just a little longer and face the demons all over again.

Then he spoke, and the words came to his mind like the golden hue of the sunlight that passed though the mist and the clouds, spilling into the village streets of stone like a fire of burning gold.

"Let the monster take you, but only for a little while. Let the Coward drive the body, but only for a little while. Let the world pass you by a little at a time, and you'll make it through life without a haunted mind."

Cain.

That was the only name that came to her mind as the tears that began to form on her eyes disappeared and dried in an instant. She felt his warmth, she felt his touch, she felt his intoxicating smell and sense of security. He was with her then as his arms wrapped around her body, his chest against her back in a warm and comforting hug.

She didn't know when the tears fell, but rivers flowed like an endless chilling rain down her skin.

So, she silently sobbed as his name filled her head in vain.

'I'm sorry…'

And then the warmth was gone, like the fading chilling wind of the dawn.

***

The sun was finally out like a warm blanket of cool and beautiful light that spilled over the valley and the meadows that stretched as far as the eye could see. Years of farmland had left this place barren of any life, of any forest or rock, hill or woods. It was now all just meadows and Lia hoped it would never end.

The morning mist and fog had now spilled away, letting the sun and clear skies spill out into view, as the sun danced like shimmering glass over the blades of grass.

Then she looked up, and before her, past the fading fog and misty air, in the cool wind and smells of clear skies and sun, stood the stone pillars of the Fortress of Balkhaven.

Its pillars of carved and intricate stonework stood before the impenetrable mountain that reached and scraped against the sky. Lia could see the distant grass and trees that grew on its sides, the sharp and sheer cliff face that gave way to mounds of stone formed and carved into statues of great men wielding weapons of war.

Their faces stood like watchers in the sun, looking over the valley of the dead that hung and lingered in the air like ghosts and phantoms. Smoke and fire that had once burned and filtered through the sky like clouds, stained the sides of their enormous gates like the darkness of the black soot.

This was a home to warriors, men of honor and women's of virtue who led their battle against her own kingdom with weapons dyed in blood and slick with sparks of steel. Now hidden behind its large and mighty walls lay a beast with great wings and a mighty roar, his breath of fire that tore through the land and made a mockery of the warriors who called this mighty fortress their home.

As she stood with her back to the town, her friends and allies pouring over thoughts and plans while Totalac made ready to lead the villagers away in his caravan, she felt the wind at her back and the warmth in her chest.

"I thought you would show up."

She said to the empty air and the roaring wind. Then in a blink of an eye that warmth was beside her like a fire burning bright.

"I will always come when you call."

Cain stood by her side, a mirror to her empty and blank face as their eyes watched the fog and the mist row over the hills of meadows and grass.

"Are you ready?"

He asked, his voice like a deep cut through her skin, like the roaring air did nothing to silence it.

"...I don't think I ever will be."

"I'm afraid that you may not have a choice. It's now or never."

She nodded her head, her eyes stretching up to the far distant pillar of stone that reached to the sky like an outstretched hand.

"Tell me Cain, I've been thinking…will I die here?"

His eyes twisted and turned to her, though he never moved his head, she saw from the corner of her eye his stiffening body.

"You know, don't you?"

She had her suspicions; she had her beliefs and her hopes. The world was calming down around her, the endless problems that seemed to breach her mind and haunt her now floated ceaselessly into the past, forgotten by nature and man.

Cain said nothing, his eyes held no response, and his face showed no thoughts. He was empty inside like his mind had been the moment he appeared before her like a dream.

"You don't need to tell me. I already know."

She reached out her hand to grasp the wind that tore through her fingers and spilled against her skin, roaring like the sounds of the Dragon she heard that day.

"The world seems to act in strange ways, Cain. Perhaps I am meant to die here, the peace before the war, as people call it. But that's okay."

She turned to him with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes, though she fought strongly to keep them back, they showed like diamonds in the sand against her tanned skin.

It was a sight that made Cain's mind spike and wander the plains of the empty and forgotten. It was an image that needed to be framed in his mind, so that if he was ever lost in the desserts of sand, this face, this image would keep him going past the sun and scorching heat, and through the dawn of tomorrow.

He hated the sight, because it meant goodbye.

"I'm not afraid to die."

She turned back to the fortress before her and set off, her feet running smoothie over the ground as her mind drifted over the meadows of tall grass and flowers, past the mountains and the forests, the woods and the skies.

She traveled like a deathly march to her maker, the fear of the dead that shook her, ringing her mind like bells and gongs in the churches of the cities and streets. She didn't look back, she wasn't afraid to fight on, to walk faster, just a little farther, before her legs would give out and she would feel the darkness creep into her soul.

She was not afraid, but her regrets and shame still haunted her like ghosts she brought along.

And so, in her final moments, the last she would see of the sun before the dawn of the darkness crept through her mind and her eyes, she whispered a final and last goodbye.

'I'm sorry…'

But Cain was already gone fading from the mind like a lost song.