Empty Shores

"I said once I'd not leave. I meant it."




Renne knew what time it was.

Little understanding of Human timekeeping had been learned over the years but there were always those few times that remained known. He knew the night Silver had called him a NightRunner. He knew the night Silver tried to take that away and took his heart instead. He knew the night he learned to fear guns. He knew the Ides.

And he knew the night inexorably coming forward.

He sat at the edge of a place that he knew well, perhaps too well, and he thought on all the things he knew. Renne knew much and knew precious little, knew what home was and what it wasn't. A hand went up to the earring in his right ear.
Renne then asked himself what he had to show for these ten years.
He asked if Pen had died in vain.

Unsurprisingly, no one answered.

Empty Shores
Reflections of a Cynic

"To those who stand on empty shores and spit against the wind
And those who wait forever, for ships that don't come in."
--Joe Diffie; Ships that Don't Come In




The relic stood as it always did.

When he made it to this place, it seemed to slowly hit that the years had not been entirely kind to the creature coming here. It was too long and too short a time and he was still gone.
Renne had little, if anything, to show for it.

More scars. More time, a cynical streak.

And his sense of loyalty remained intact, for better or worse.

Life went on around him and without him. Here, time itself seemed to have forgotten this tiny place in the middle of nowhere. The plants, trees, vines and grass was as verdant as ever. The waterfall on the left side plunged over its rocky cliff in a roar that was quietly deafening. And the black stone remained intact.

He went to the relic and dusted off a year's worth of things, working all through the day to have it shine like it did when he first created it. The emerald eye-stones glittered again as the sun arced through the sky on its daily journey. The name plate was starkly readable and beneath it, the tiny vault lay locked as it should.

As the sun set, Renne came to sit at the relic's foot.

When the sky became dark, his thoughts turned backward, inward and around.

He thought about never leaving here again.