The Promise of Dawn - Part 5

Dominus removed his straw hat from his head, and allowed it to fall slowly from his hands, drifting down towards the battered and frozen earth.

He reached up for the topknot that held his salted grey hair in place, and he allowed it to swim down to his shoulders for what would be the last time.

He cast aside the oversized grey goat that he wore, with the length to it making it seem like a cloak, and with it he threw away his shirt, until he was nothing but bare chest, trousers and sandals in the cold winter air.

The poison ran across his back like a dark tattoo, his scars mixed in with them, telling the story of his life, and the many battles that he had fought, and won. The purple coated everything now. Only one of his arms was free from it, and then, only partially.

Even as corrupted as his skin and body had become, the poison could not hide the density of his old muscle. Well into his sixties, the man's back rippled with power, each muscle easily definable.