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"The Warrior's purpose."

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Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
***

The next morning, most of the fires had died down, leaving only the black, smoldering skeletons of the village. Torva trotted down roads, simply pacing. Purposely not looking at any of the destruction. Purposely not going anywhere near his old home.
There was no point in looking for survivors. Torva knew, deep in his heart, there were none. He was alone. Alone without anyone. Without purpose.
He was nothing.

Days passed, and Torva slept little. He ate nothing, but did*’t seem to lose that much energy. Perhaps in becoming nothing, he needed nothing to sustain himself with. Perhaps he’d just wither away.

It was some days later that he got his first visitors.

***

Torva was sitting on a burnt log, staring into the dirt, thinking about nothing, when suddenly, a group of strangers approached him.

Torva did not even bother to regard them for a few moments. He knew without looking who had come. Who had come, and why they had come.

With a soft ‘ahem’ from one of the strangers, Torva slowly looked up. A tall, imposing man in glorious armor stood before him. The most curious thing about him was his long, white wings and golden, four-pointed star he wore across his chest.
The other two with him were simple men, armored in white metal, bearing similar stars.

“You were once of this village, were you not?* the large, winged man asked.
Torva did*’t respond.

“Please, I bade you answer me.” It spoke again.

Torva again, said nothing. The two men beside the winged stranger fidgeted uncomfortably at Torva’s silence.

Unflustered, the tall man spoke again. “Some time ago, I gave a smith in this village special iron, to make blades to aid you with your war against the demons.”

Torva gripped the blade of his sword tightly, as he used it to stir dirt beneath him carelessly.

“My lord would ask you to pay back that debt.”

At this, Torva rose. “I owe your lord nothing. Leave.”

02-Apr-2013 16:25:53 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:10:34 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
The tall man’s mouth fell into a frown. “Please, if you come with us, we will aid you in gaining revenge on those who did this to you.”

“If I wanted revenge,” screamed Torva, “I would take it myself. I will give your ‘lord’ nothing. He will not buy me from gifts he gave us out of his own will.”

The tall man nodded. “I see. Then you are against us? After we’ve helped you?”
Torva drew his blade now. *Leave.”

The tall man flapped his white wings. “You are no more than the demons, fool.”
Producing a long, white blade of his own, the winged man struck at Torva, who parried the blow with surprising power.

The winged man looked with surprise. “You are… unlike any human.”

“Leave.” Torva repeated.

The two knights also drew their blades, approaching Torva.

“I am afraid you are a danger to us, if you will not join our ranks.” The winged man retorted. “We must put you down.”

They clashed.

***

Days had passed since then. The three corpses of the strangers sat, motionless where they had fallen. Torva knew it was only a matter of time before others came.

And came they did.

All sorts of men and creatures. Small bands, large groups. They approached Torva.

Some were angelic, such as the first stranger, flying on wings of white. Others flew as well, but were different. Bird-like creatures that cawed and patrolled the airs from high above, others were lumbering giants, shaking the earth with their steps in barbaric march. All of them under different ‘lords’, all of them wanting something different.

All of them fell to Torva.

But it was empty, pointless bloodshed. It achieved nothing.

What had to have been months passed. Every day was fighting of some kind.

Fighting whatever new, strange beasts approached him. It was pointless.

Purposeless.

02-Apr-2013 16:26:00 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:11:54 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
One day, on a mindless whim, Torva walked the roads that took him to a painfully familiar sight. It was his ruined home.

Without even thinking about it, he dug through the burnt, broken rubble. Dug until he found her.

She was white. White as a ghost. Her body lay there, half-crushed under a large piece of stone. She was still so beautiful.

Torva felt he should cry. Felt he should hold his wife’s body to him, and weep. But he did not.

Instead, with silence, he dug a grave, and buried her. He kneeled at the grave for some time, apologizing in his head over and over again for being unable to save her. What was left for him now?

He looked out at his ruined village. Nothing but death. Nothing but crushed lives. Ruined purpose.

Torva grasped his blade again, his fingernails digging into palm.
Quivering, he fell to his knees, and brandished the sword at his own chest, the still razor-sharp point poking slightly into his flesh.

He stayed there, like that, for some moments. Caught, motionless in the act of taking his own life.

Before finally dropping the blade.

Breathing heavily, he pounding the dirt. After everything he’d lost, everything he’d failed to save; Torva still did*’t want to die. But how could he live? What was left for him?

He pounded the earth over and over again, his fists creating small holes in the ground. Suddenly, his mind flashed to the night the village burnt down. The words the beast, Nex, had spoken to him snaked into his memory.

02-Apr-2013 16:26:07 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:13:17 by Ghondor

Ghondor
Oct Member 2023

Ghondor

Posts: 3,764 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
“Come to me, then, human. Come when you are ready for a new purpose.”

Swallowing hard, Torva picked the blade up again. He looked upon it, and even though it had seen so much bloodshed, so much death, it was still beautiful. Still perfect. Its edge still sharp, its handle still sturdy.

Torva placed it into the ground, the blade slicing through the earth with ease. With the blade, he marked his wife’s grave. There was nothing else left for him, here.

Walking blankly to the edge of his village, Torva gave it one last look. He did*’t see a village of burnt rubble and corpses, but a village of life. Of peace. A village where everyone was happy, and could prosper. A village where he and his wife could have the family they always wanted.

A village that was impossible to have now.

Torva looked out across the world. It was so wide, so distant. He’d never been far out into the forest before, the war with the demons taking him as far away from his home as he’d ever been. What was out there for him?

The same words played in his head again.

“Come to me, then, human. Come when you are ready for a new purpose.”

Torva knew, without knowing, exactly where to find the strange beast from all those nights ago.

“I’m waiting.”

Torva stepped down the path leading off of the hill. One foot in front of the other. Easy. He walked. Walked to lands he never knew before. Left his life, his village, behind.

Torva walked to find his new purpose.

02-Apr-2013 16:26:13 - Last edited on 02-Apr-2013 17:14:22 by Ghondor

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