3 A Tale of Past
☯☯☯☯
The snap of bones resounded in the forest. The acute pain giving rise to a series of cries. Hearing it, the ravens sitting on the trees flew away.
"Silence!" The command was followed by the crack of a whip and a slight, strangled cry. "You cannot afford to be heard, even when you are injured – especially when you injured."
The deep sobs were slowly replaced by tiny sniffling whimpers as young Malazan pulled himself back together. At six-years old he knew full well he should not have shouted. He was stupid, so stupid. He had to think quickly.
Any moment now, Master Jordun would begin to ask questions, and he needed answers or he would suffer even greater punishment. How could he have fallen?
"Master Jordun, the battle has already begun! We should hurry!" a bald apprentice came in, screaming the sentence at the top of his lungs.
'Whew!' the thought of not being questioned made the young Malazan so happy that he wanted to kiss the shaved-head of this senior-apprentice-brother of his!
But immediately afterwards, he felt a chill across his spine and turned over to see Master Jordun looking at him with venomous eyes. He was starting to think his misery wasn't over just yet when he heard Master Jordan say: "Okay, let us be on our way."
"By 'us', do you mean I am supposed to come as well, Master?"
"Yes, you shall come along as well, brat."
"..."
"DID YOU HEAR ME?!"
"YES, MASTER!"
☯☯☯☯
Now that he thought about it, today was the day of battle for his eldest brother, Rokuz. He was the most cherished disciple of Master Jordun and the one who wielded the most power. And Malazan hoped to surpass his eldest brother when he reached his brother's age.
Since young, he had been told that the one who inherits the title of the Eldest Brother must accomplish a nearly impossible mission, and that was to single-handedly battle against the armies of the Kingdoms of Throbbo and Alsus...and even defeat them.
Yes, it is right. He must battle against them alone! No sane man would believe he could accomplish such an impossible task if they heard someone say this to them.
But they would start to think otherwise if only they knew of Rokuz's mass destructive power...
☯☯☯☯
"So the battle has already ended, huh?"
The master and disciple duo stood on the crest of a small hill, overlooking the gruesome scene. Strewn about were dead bodies as far as the eyes can see. Like rich fertilizer generously applied, vast amounts of corpses laid in the morning sun.
On a closer inspection, they saw a young man kneeling on top of another hill 200 miles away from them. As if praying for forgiveness, his knees held together and his head bowed down.
On closer inspection, even the hill he was kneeling on top of; was a small mountain of corpses.
The man was not kneeling because he was praying; he was kneeling because he was dying.
His right hand held a brilliantly shining beam of light that was embedded into the ground. Brilliant as the sword was, and it did not radiate any light and would not illuminate anything.
The man had long fine golden hair that reflected the light of the sun, yet he donned an armor that was as dark as night. Not a single speck of light could be seen reflecting off the armor.
The man was dying. Six weapons were stabbed into him.
"ELDEST BROTHER ROKUZ!!!!" Malazan ran towards him as if his life depended on it. He could not believe the brother he adored the most was going to die, or rather he did not want to believe it. He felt like as if his heart was being sliced open by a hot knife.
He, of all people, should have stopped his brother. If only he wasn't blinded by his faith in his eldest brother, he could have stopped him.
In almost no time, he reached where his eldest brother was.
"Brother, can you hear me?! It's me, Malazan! Nothing is going to happen to you, so please don't give up and die on me, brother!!" Shouted Malazan.
The young man looked up and Malazan could see that he waiting for the last vestige of life to leave him, warmth, deep sadness, and sorrow could be seen in his cold dying eyes.
As the morning sun rose, and the first warm ray of the sun hit his face,
'I am... sorry... Malazan...' were his last words.
A single tear slowly emerged from his glazed eyes. Crawling down his cheek, it overcame the various cuts and scratches along the way to his prideful chin, and then finally fell away.
"BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Malazan screamed. A scream so loud that the clouds covered their ears; the heavens shuddered under fear; the people lost their ability to hear; the deities stopped to sneer; and the birds vision became unclear.
A monster was born at that moment. Even after centuries go by, people will not forget to narrate his legend to their children...
'And they heard him say: I have stolen from the sleeping devils; I have spent nights with a demon and left with both my sanity and my life. I have ventured into the lands that others dread to speak of. I have talked to gods and committed deeds that made even the devils tremble. But most important of all, I have terrorized both the heavens and earth. You may have heard of me --- Malazan the Ruler'
