Men who play games of war and soldiers born from circumstance...
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Scroll 02 : 08
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The fires that rage around him and the strewn bodies littering the ground no longer register as he makes his way back to his home. A haze of blood covers his mind, reducing his thoughts to little more than a static of red. A Ranga cries in distress as it lay dying along his path and Kso’ppghiel does not spare it a glance, his steps only halting long enough for him to run his sword through the creature’s skull, uncaring of what number this latest kill has made in his death toll. The adrenaline and rage that devoured his system left long ago to leave him feeling rather numb. Everything that had ever meant anything to him has been taken, so he repaid them all with the only compensation he could accept. Their lives. Large volumes of smoke rise up into the air from the burning village beyond, the streaming colors of red and grey blocking the sky. He cannot tell if it is still day or if the night has already come to wash everything away, and he does not care very much either. It does not matter. Nothing matters anymore. Kso’ppghiel stops in his path as he reaches the lifeless form that was once his father, no emotion springing forth as he kneels down besides him. Clawed fingers reach forward to carefully close the lids over pupiless white eyes. Kso’ppghiel pulls his hand away and stares at his father’s broken form for a few moments longer, finding that Mithghiiel’s face is oddly at peace. The days that had come prior to all of this, his father had carried only a hint of sadness with him. Did he know what was coming? Did he ever have any intention of coming with either his sister or himself at all? Glancing to his side, Kso’ppghiel’s eyes fall on Mithghiiel’s weapon; as dropped and discarded as he, the leather covering the hilt stained red with his father’s blood. He rises slowly and turns away from the scene to move towards the house only to find that his sister’s dress is also soaked in the same crimson shade. Bending low, Kso’ppghiel carefully lifts E’nerii’s body and moves back out of the house to carry her to where their father lay. Staring down at them both for only a moment longer, he returns to him home in order to gather a few tools. There is one thing he will need to do before they can be laid to rest...
Emotionless white eyes glance back over his shoulder once more, taking in the three mounds of dirt that mark where his family now lay. Soon E’nerii and his father will be covered in the same moss that blankets their mother’s grave and for this he finds he can take a small measure of comfort in. Kso’ppghiel takes in a deep breath as his eyes shift down towards the two swords he now carries. Taking from his father and sister what was also taken from their mother and combining it to make the only companions he now has left. Even if the few surviving villagers attempt to rebuild their lives around him, there is nothing more for him here and so with these, he will take from the world what the world has taken from him.
“You not want any of that? Come on, pretty ones like that are rare, most of them make Ranga look attractive.” The man laughs. Kso’ppghiel shakes his head in the slightest at the soldier’s offer of women, turning back to the fire to ignore while they continue to socialize, drink and laugh behind him. He had been on his own for a few weeks now, jumping from clan to clan and attempting to join up with smaller groups as they plotted their attacks against the larger armies. He has no desire for companionship or friendship, he only wishes to destroy. And above all he wishes to find the ones truly responsible for his family’s death… The nights beyond the coast were cold and long, giving him far too much time to think and to remember. With a sigh, Kso’ppghiel’s eyes travel down to the covered swords that lay by his side; one his father’s, containing pieces of his mother and the other his own; the hilt wrapped in his sister’s wing and capped in his father’s horn containing locks of both their hair inside. This is all he has left of them and he will always keep them close.
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