An Old Soul under a Canopy of Rope

" Why did you do that?! "

I remember when I was young, the first time I looked around me and truly understood what I was looking at. Its an experience I hold dear, as to me it is the day where the grass was its most vibrant green, and the water its clearest blue, and the wind the perfect temperature. I remember not truly doing anything, I was only running because to run was for some reason a thrill at the time.

" It was an order! "

It was truly the best day of my life, I could clearly see my parents faces. Mom was always over the stove making the next meal, or in her chair sewing our clothes, or she was out doing any of her many tasks. Then my father was always in sight, you couldn't miss him from the golden fields of wheat, or when he came back from the square with new toys and necessities. My brothers and sisters littered the land like specks, all up to their own knees in work, it still awes me to this day that to maintain the land, and its prosperity, even when its so small, we need so many hands. I could only wonder how many people it takes to maintain our country.

" Can you hear me? Quickly, get u-! "

It was like clockwork, more beautiful than any tower in the city, the hands of my family keeping our small little world alive and moving, as the sun and moon danced above our heads. I too grew into the same work with age, as time went on I grew, and by the time I was 13 it was evident I was different from my brothers. Even in their older age, the tallest only stood at 5'7, but I was a little giant, I was already 5'8, and I only kept growing.

" HES ALREADY DEAD,- "

By 16 I was 6'2, I was a behemoth amongst my family, and it was not fun squeezing into our parents house, my brothers told me that maybe I should make my own house a little early, as they had done in there later years, living on the land nearby. While I was persuaded by such an idea it struck me that the land was warm all year round. I had no fear of any predators nearby, as they were scared off by the usual activity of humans. So I lived in the forests edge, on the ridge of our land, I strung strong ropes and bonded them together to form a canopy. In the rain I hid under it, and in the clear I slept on it. The nearby trees soon became littered with makeshift shelves, and the ground trampled into human paths.

" STOP DRAGGING HIM WE HAVE TO MOVE, MORE ARE COMING "

I thought my life was perfect, that our country was perfect, that our world was perfect. It didn't take long for me to connect with the animals nearby, though they seemed to trust me, I could never truly speak with them like the legends say, they were in the end, just animals. Though, as I should of known, the good times never last. I was soon dragged out of my fantasy, no longer living off the land, helping my family with our farm, sleeping under a warm sun and temperate moon, watching the frogs in the rain make their great journeys to any hole of water.

" FUCK, FUCK, FUCK, I'M SORRY, I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE Y- "

I was drafted by a country I never really knew, grabbed by my father who told me that I was picked out specifically by our village head as the strongest man in the village. That the army wanted me, and if they couldn't have me, Id be tried for contempt of royal decree, and a deserter of our nation. It wasn't long before I saw my first city, amazed with its sprawling design, streets banding around buildings, it was a maze that would trap even the legendary minotaurs. I wasn't led down any of these alleys though, we were carted in by carriage through the main street, making only one turn, into a military facility to be trained.

What are those sounds?

I was trained first in the most rudimentary requirement of a soldier, orders, I was trained to jump when they said jump, to do as much as they demanded and no less or more. I was once told to raise the flag without a rope, I followed my orders and climbed the flagpole, dragging our great flag alongside me. They tried to break my spirit, but even with the training and my respect for our nation, my spirit was one of the lands, I did not care how much my body hurt, as my soul was still back home, under my canopy, watching out as the dirt turned to mud under the heavy rain.

Where am I?

They must of found me fit to lead, as I was put in charge of an expeditionary unit, it was meant for extraordinary combatants to scout ahead and clear any dangers, meaning enemy units of the same type, and relay our findings. I had seen many men come and go from my unit, as only the best survived the constant head on confrontations that happened nightly on the front line that was always shifting like the tide. I was a proficient with a sword, so much so that the country deemed me fit to be titled a swords-master, and a knight of the army. Though my requests to be commissioned a staff was still denied. They did not care for how much more I was proficient in it, but in the fact that a staff would not kill my enemy efficiently.

Who's crying?

The world wasn't kind to a man like me though, no matter how much I requested to be changed to a different unit, to be retired to the back-lines, and process the paperwork. I was to efficient early on in my career, and to stop now would be noticed, and Id be court martialed for blatant purposeful incompetence. I could only slowly get less and less efficient, though my perfect record never got broken, my unit had to slow down as I wasn't as fast anymore. I took three swings to kill a enemy that I used to behead in one. Slowly I was no longer our nations finest swordsman, as the young "heroes" surpassed me. I went as far as to nearly lose in a duel against one of these fine young men.

Why is it so dark?

My charade didn't go unnoticed though, the few who were in my unit from its dawn knew that it was a sham. That I still could fight with a casual look on my face, and that they still couldn't beat me. I was one day called in by the grand general, leader of the entire military, not just the army and its many facets. It saddened me to see it was not a man I knew but a young bureaucrat barely 30. He didn't even have me sit before he got up and told me that I was to follow him to an audience.

Who's touching me?

It was the first time I had ever met the king, and to my surprise it was face I barely recognized but still knew. It was the young general I had met when I was first recruited, and brought to the training facility. I now remembered the rumors surrounding him, how he was supposedly a prince being tested, or punished, or both. I could only have a slight smile remembering my early days, how time had passed. The grand general tried pushing me on my shoulder to kneel when he saw me smiling, shocked at my perceived disrespect. Though he didn't succeed of course, by now I stood at a staggering 6'5, and even for him who was 6', there was simply no beating the height and strength difference of a bureaucrat and a sword-master.

Why are there hands so big?

The king told me that my charade had gone far enough, and the army's commanders had not taken my attempts to get out unceremoniously kindly, that the nobles feared me strength and the fact that I was to obedient to the army. That I had never even denied an order, that I never involved myself in politics, that I was never a puppet on there strings, just a soldier. He would let me leave it all behind me, to let me leave on my own terms, I just had to do one last job for the nation, an impossible mission.

Why cant I move?

A mission that the entire army had been doing for the last 300 years, a mission that all of humanity that was once divided now stood together for, a mission that would make the entire world peaceful like the land I once knew, if I completed. I had to lead a force to slay the devil himself, the monarch of hell and king of evil, his name was a secret even to us, locked away in the royal library, its said that only one book contains his story, his name, even his looks, as all thoughts of him could be used to invoke his presence, just as it had done 300 years ago.

Ow! Who did that?

I could only agree, it was do this one mission, or die slowly, living out my life as a soldier that could never retire, for if he did, he would be killed off by those above out of fear. I was granted armor made of royal steel, blessed directly by the pope and the choir of saints, I was granted a personal chaplain by the church, and one of their saints came with me. I was given a unit of a hundred, alongside a few who had been in my expeditionary unit since its founding. The sword I wielded that day was one only previous kings had held, a sword meant only to be brought out on occasions that would unite humanity.

Ow stop hitting me!

We left the capital, taking three weeks to arrive at the forward most fortress. I walked through its inner workings like I had built it by hand, I had been here for most of my years, killing our enemy without ever even learning their names, their language, or there strange arts. Today though I learned the name of one, I learned the image of one, as a book that was sealed in mud made through holy water, locked in a box of pure meteorite steel was shown to me. I learned of hell, I learned of the enemy we were fighting and their origin, and I learned the past of the world I lived in. I realized at that very moment, even if I killed him, I would never live past the moment, I would be killed as the danger I posses by even knowing his name could bring the world back to this point.

Why are my eyes watering?

It took four months… I killed more in this time than I have ever killed. I met beings of such size that I finally believed what I had read, as their torsos poked out of the ground, their other halves still in hell, stuck in a portal. Every time we slay one of these behemoths, while the portal closed, you could see into their world, there hellish world where no being should ever live, in some places the land was made of mud, as flies would bite you to death, while others the heat was so scorching it burned the air outside the portals.

Why do I feel like crying?

We finally reached not a castle, but a single throne, built in the center of what used to be a city. Looking at the streets, they felt familiar, and that was because the capital was built from the blueprints of this very city. This used to be the capital of our nation, before it fell to them. In that throne built out of bone, crudely melted down gold, mixed with so much blood it turned a weird shade of black, sat not a devil with two horns, but a man. A man with clear eyes, a man who knew what he had done, not a beast.

W-w-wh-w

He was not strong, he was actually quite weak, his biggest strength was the command over these demons, which made me realize more than even that book why they sealed such knowledge, and made me understand why they will kill me after this is done. Any man could gain this power, if all they knew was the name of the devil. I remember asking him in his final moments why he would do such a thing, and his answer. " I was bored, I was sad, I was alone, I am human. " As if to be ironic, after I finished stabbing him through his heart, even though I could have dodged, and I felt the slow attack coming, I was stabbed in my own heart. I could only smile as I was finally released from my mortal coil, my soul returning to me from those now dampen lands, that laid resting under a long broken down canopy of rope.

" Waaah-Wha-Wha-Waaah! "