Wardenheart

Sleep

Reality came to me as through a door that open and shut of its own accord. Lucidity was but a memory, and knowledge came and went as needed. Faces and names, disconnected from one another, flashed by in streams of odd, disjointed purposefulness. Then I saw her.

There she was, standing on the cliff's edge, staring down in to the unknown abyss below. She was covered, save for her head, in pitch-black plate armor. Her blonde hair swayed in the breeze as she contemplated the blackness beneath her. She was my knight in dark armor: Margo.

I was moved to her, and happiness filled me upon seeing her. My eyes filled with tears as she turned around to face me, her chocolate-brown eyes filled with tears of joy. I embraced her, caring not that she was clad in cold metal, instead focusing on the warmth of how she held me.

"I missed you so much." I told her, choking out every word as if it were a great trial. "So, so much."

That was when I awoke. Fate, she was a cruel mistress indeed.

Tears were still in my eyes, but judging by the mood I was now in, they had nothing to do with joyfulness. I wanted to go back, far back to my fantasy in which I never had to lose her, where I never had to cry again.

To find joy at this moment in time was not to be my destiny. It was to fight for my happiness, and as I would soon discover, that fight would take many different forms.

I stared up at the ceiling, my eye following the wooden beams that supported the leaky roof. Rain had come in the night, it seemed, as the sounds of dripping water, landing on the floor of the loft in which I slept, came in an exacting frequency akin to a metronome accompanied by the distant sound of birds.

Such low living conditions were nigh-alien to me, but I recognized the generosity of my compatriots in not only feeding me, but clothing me and sheltering me in the loft of the stables, generally used to store hay, pitchforks, and other such necessary equipment.

I sat up, blinking hot tears from my eyes. I breathed slowly and unsteadily, still clinging to the fake, but pleasant memory of holding her once again. Technically, it had been more than five years since I had last seen my beloved, but to me it had felt like no more than a couple of days. Something was in my mind, twisting it around and warping it, treating it like nothing more than a toy. Something was in the air, a sudden difference in the spirit of the world.

I dressed myself and tried to mentally awaken as quickly as possible. Today would doubtless be the day where I started my new work, and I now had a lot of debts to repay. I looked down at the mark on my right palm, the shining gold circle above two diagonal lines that connected at the bottom but faced away from one another. I had a strong feeling that that this mark was of great importance, and meant a great deal to the people of this newly forged civilization.

I climbed down from the dusty loft on an old, rickety ladder to a well-swept barn floor. Around me I saw the horses in their pens, and the stable boy giving them their hay for the morning.

"Good morn," the bright-eyed boy of about sixteen said, carrying a small bale. "How was your rest?" He himself looked like he had not rested well himself, and had instead resorted to drinking his fill of tea to keep himself awake.

I figured it would do no good to tell him I dreamt of my long-lost lover, and awoke crying, so I lied.

"I slept very well, thank you." I said to him.

"Well, that's good to hear. Thunderstorm kept me up damn-near all night, same with the horses. I stayed up with them and kept them pretty calm, so I guess in the end everything turned out fine. Do you like horses?"

"I have been known to ride on occasion." I replied. "Though I have not been the luckiest man to ever ride, that is a fact."

"Why? You get bucked?" He asked me. "If you did, you're one helluva lucky guy."

"Robbed, actually." I replied. "Hammer Guild mercenaries jumped me."

"Well, can't say that's ever happened to me, but it's probably ten times better to get stopped by highwaymen than to have one of these beautiful creatures throw you."

"I shall keep in that in mind, er, what did you say your name was?"

"Yumur." He said, shrugging. I detected a hint of embarrassment in his eyes. "My folks never were very religious. Now what's yours?"

"I am Theris." I said. "My parents were."

"Good on you, mate. Good on you. Y'know, I don't get why anyone's got to be named after a god, do they, powerful beings beyond our mortal realm, really feel that they're not being worshipped enough, to the point where our very names can't be ours without dire, arbitrary consequences? People like you have it easy. You know a god's claimed you, you know you're going to ascend." Yumur said, sighing.

"Perhaps the gods have other plans for you." I said to him. "You may do something necessary and important with your life that the gods cannot ignore. Names aren't the only way to ascend. Pray and give their deserved devotion to them, and you may be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams."

"Or I might just end up dead, like everybody else who fought in the war."

It was clear that the matter of religious rites and wars were a more than a sensitive topic for him, so I decided to steer clear of it. I had no use for enemies, even if they were significantly younger than me, they could still do damage to my mission.

"I understand." I said to him. "I am not very much a fan of politics myself. So let us not dwell on them."

"Agreed, Theris." Yumur said, finally setting down the bale in one of the stalls. "Oh, Thelma wanted to speak with you, she's going to show you the ropes of how we do things around here."

"Thank you, Yumur." I said, walking out in to the sunlight. "For everything."

"Don't mention it. Seriously, don't, I don't want everyone thinking they can just hole up with me whenever they want."

I nodded with a chuckle, and then took my first step toward what would be the first day of my new life.

Author's Note: Welcome back to another chapter of Wardenheart, I really hope you're having fun so far, I know I am! I also would like to say thank you for the continued support, I greatly appreciate it. Please remember to vote and leave your feedback in the comments below. Thank you :)