Platinum

Prologue

A man sat atop a small cliff peering out into the darkness of the night. A light rain drizzled from the thick clouds that blocked the light of the moon. This night is a dark one indeed. A small cry broke the man from his trance and forced him to remember why he was here, peering out into the darkness. "I'm sorry." He rasped as he forced himself to his feet.

 His rain matted hair and the trails of water dripping from it were hurriedly tied away as he tightened his headband. After completing the task he looked towards the source of the noise. A baby, wrapped in a single soiled towel laid on the ground beside him. He sighed at the sight of the nearly white tufts of hair atop the child's head. 'She looks just like her mother' he mused, in an attempt to not think about the task he had been given. "I'm sorry." He repeated as the baby cried again. 

True, unfiltered, remorse filled him. "You were not meant for this world." He croaked, as if the act of speaking was draining the life out of him. 'This isn't wrong. What I am doing has to be right. She cannot exist here.' He reassured himself as he took the newborn into his arms. Her umbilical cord was still attached from where she had not long ago been taken from her mother. The baby wailed at his cold touch, even though her lips were already turning blue from the temperature of the falling rain. 

As the man prepared himself to follow through on his gut wrenching mission he couldn't help but pause as the child opened her eyes for the first time. She silenced her wailing and simply looked into the eyes of the man holding her. 'It's like....she knows what is about to happen..' he thought with a horrified feeling beginning to build up within him. 'How can she? She's not even two hours old!' he thought frantically as he reached for the pouch strapped to his hip. 

The man's breathing became uneven and shallow as he drew a weapon from the pouch. The child's almost glowing sapphire eyes stared back at him. He held her in his arms as he placed the kunai tip against her small chest. This is what he was supposed to do. He had been ordered to take the life of this babe by his own hand. It would be the only way to ensure that she was truly released from this world. 

As he began to press the weapon into the child, she began wailing. A heartbreaking cry that caused a silence in the forest surrounding him. Even the creatures who called it home had paused to hear the sound that shattered the mans resolve into pieces. The rain had been light before but was now pouring down with a force that made him feel as if the gods themselves were weeping for the tragedy that was unfolding on this small cliff in the middle of the night. The mans hands quivered before the weapon slipped away from his grip due to his own instability and the rain drenching him. 

Breathing heavily the man stared in horror at the wound he had left. It was deep but not deep enough to kill her instantly as he had intended. Instead a river of crimson blood was pouring from the child as she grasped the towel she was wrapped in and screamed. Her thrashing almost made the man drop her, a fall that would take her into the darkness and away from this world. Realizing he would never be able to complete his mission as ordered he realized that there was another option. 

Looking over the cliff he stood upon he could only hear the roaring river that raged below them. Normally this river would be but a mere stream but with the rain pouring down on him adding to the rain that had been falling over the last several days had swollen the slow gentle stream until it became a mighty river waiting for a victim to be dragged into its watery depths. Even the most skilled swimmers from the man's village refused to step foot in the stream when it was like this. It had taken many lives in the state that it is in now. 

Holding the wailing child at arms length he apologized one last time. "I'm sorry." With that he released her into the darkness of the night. He could not see her fall but when her cries were silenced he knew that she had landed and an end to her suffering was finally given. An emptiness set into the man as he gathered his fallen weapon. The child's blood would be proof that he had completed his task, though no one would ever know how. His hands continued to shake as he turned away from the cliff and began his journey back to his village. His soul felt as though it was quivering in his chest and tears ran down his face, hidden in the rivers of rain dripping from his headband. 'I did the right thing.'