Stalwart
"And when the dragon's tail is gone,
Man forgets, and smiles, and carries on
To apply himself - too late, too late
For mankind has earned deserved fate."
--Mother Shipton
The prison cell was quiet for most of the day. Disturbingly quiet. Time and time again, the guards checked through the window to make sure nothing had gone amiss. And every time, they found the returned prisoner in the same spot and the same posture.
He sat on the cell bed wrapped in his furs.
And in his hands, he held a candle and a tiny parcel of earth.
---------------
Lee shook his head and went about his shift. He'd been able to see at least a part of the camera's tale -- not near as much as he'd wanted but the bit he saw was enough.
The truth almost made him smile -- a prisoner taken away without his knowledge only to come back of his own volition. And for a minute, he thought that maybe, even the sick could be honourable. Even the forsaken could be found.
He didn't think much more on it as his shift ended -- he wasn't the thinking-too-much type. Lee was glad he didn't think too deeply on things especially while on the job. It tended to create weak spots that a prison guard really shouldn't have.
----------------
Renne knew he was being watched now -- not that he cared anymore. He almost laughed to himself at the thought.
Once, long ago, he hated being watched. he hated being seen or observed. Then, once, being observed usually meant some humanoid was out to have his head on a mantle.
Time marches on
Now he didn't care. He knew he wasn't pretty by any standard, again not that he cared much. Beauty was, to him, a useless and futile thing to strive for. So he never did.
He almost laughed again as he sat there holding two of his possessions.
The transition had been slow, so slow as to not have been much noticed -- fear of even being spotted to an almost devil-may-care mindset of "What one sees is what one gets". The transition from the animalistic wilderness to not caring how few beings in Rhy'din had the spine to look at him.
Something else had come with that though.
That change wasn't so unnoticed.
Parts of him had softened.
The wrong parts of his mentality had softened.
And the wrong parts of his mentality had hardened.
He let his mind drift backward in a careful walkthrough of his life so far. His life outside of the Homeworlds.
He'd been to a wide range of places -- places he'd never set foot in if his life depended on it to places he'd return to in a heartbeat. Precious few, those. He could count those as few but they'd made a deep enough impact.
And he had something from them just as he had given of himself.
He'd given a lot of himself into one in particular.
I loved you more than you'll ever know
Renne put his candle away and held solely to the little bit of earth scraped from the ground. He knew where from the ground this had come; could still remember every last inch of a place now gone-but-not-gone.
He wouldn't speak the name verbally yet. Not until the time was right.
Renne didn't tune out the exchange in his mind this time around.
I am a part of it. It is a part of me.
-More so than the places you have encountered?-
Yes. I was a nomad then. Nomads never remain.
-And now?-
I am confused now. Adrift now.
-You are evil now.-
I am not! I am confused. Confusion can be eliminated.
-I am with you now.-
I do not wish you to be with me. You create darkness. Anger. Evil.
-I am with you.-
Go. You are not of me.
-And a scraping of earth is?-
Yes. It is part of what made me strong. It is part of what defined me for longer than most things.
-It is gone now.-
Not gone. "Gone" means forgotten. Nonexistent.
-And you are a part of it?-
Yes. I am. I always will be.
-A part of the past.-
He turned a deaf ear as the exchange began to turn into a grim, unwanted debate. There was little to do inside this little cell but what he could do, he did with some fervour. He'd said it once and he meant it.
If dreams are all that remains, then dream he shall.
South moves North, North moves South
Renne closed his useless eyes and half-unbound the tie to his parcel of earth. His fingers then began to run through the stuff like a child encountering sand for the first time. The steady, repetitive motion provided the needed catalyst for his mind to drift down the chosen paths.
He was conscious but not. He was aware but not. He remained upright and his hand kept sifting carefully through the earth. But he never reacted to the outside world, not a sound nor a smell that might have been new. And he started to dream.
A star is born. A star burns out
The only thing that stays the same is
Everything changes
Everything changes
~<>~
*Time Marches On; Tracy Lawrence
-Blind; Lifehouse
"And when the dragon's tail is gone,
Man forgets, and smiles, and carries on
To apply himself - too late, too late
For mankind has earned deserved fate."
--Mother Shipton
The prison cell was quiet for most of the day. Disturbingly quiet. Time and time again, the guards checked through the window to make sure nothing had gone amiss. And every time, they found the returned prisoner in the same spot and the same posture.
He sat on the cell bed wrapped in his furs.
And in his hands, he held a candle and a tiny parcel of earth.
---------------
Lee shook his head and went about his shift. He'd been able to see at least a part of the camera's tale -- not near as much as he'd wanted but the bit he saw was enough.
The truth almost made him smile -- a prisoner taken away without his knowledge only to come back of his own volition. And for a minute, he thought that maybe, even the sick could be honourable. Even the forsaken could be found.
He didn't think much more on it as his shift ended -- he wasn't the thinking-too-much type. Lee was glad he didn't think too deeply on things especially while on the job. It tended to create weak spots that a prison guard really shouldn't have.
----------------
Renne knew he was being watched now -- not that he cared anymore. He almost laughed to himself at the thought.
Once, long ago, he hated being watched. he hated being seen or observed. Then, once, being observed usually meant some humanoid was out to have his head on a mantle.
Time marches on
Now he didn't care. He knew he wasn't pretty by any standard, again not that he cared much. Beauty was, to him, a useless and futile thing to strive for. So he never did.
He almost laughed again as he sat there holding two of his possessions.
The transition had been slow, so slow as to not have been much noticed -- fear of even being spotted to an almost devil-may-care mindset of "What one sees is what one gets". The transition from the animalistic wilderness to not caring how few beings in Rhy'din had the spine to look at him.
Something else had come with that though.
That change wasn't so unnoticed.
Parts of him had softened.
The wrong parts of his mentality had softened.
And the wrong parts of his mentality had hardened.
He let his mind drift backward in a careful walkthrough of his life so far. His life outside of the Homeworlds.
He'd been to a wide range of places -- places he'd never set foot in if his life depended on it to places he'd return to in a heartbeat. Precious few, those. He could count those as few but they'd made a deep enough impact.
And he had something from them just as he had given of himself.
He'd given a lot of himself into one in particular.
I loved you more than you'll ever know
Renne put his candle away and held solely to the little bit of earth scraped from the ground. He knew where from the ground this had come; could still remember every last inch of a place now gone-but-not-gone.
He wouldn't speak the name verbally yet. Not until the time was right.
Renne didn't tune out the exchange in his mind this time around.
I am a part of it. It is a part of me.
-More so than the places you have encountered?-
Yes. I was a nomad then. Nomads never remain.
-And now?-
I am confused now. Adrift now.
-You are evil now.-
I am not! I am confused. Confusion can be eliminated.
-I am with you now.-
I do not wish you to be with me. You create darkness. Anger. Evil.
-I am with you.-
Go. You are not of me.
-And a scraping of earth is?-
Yes. It is part of what made me strong. It is part of what defined me for longer than most things.
-It is gone now.-
Not gone. "Gone" means forgotten. Nonexistent.
-And you are a part of it?-
Yes. I am. I always will be.
-A part of the past.-
He turned a deaf ear as the exchange began to turn into a grim, unwanted debate. There was little to do inside this little cell but what he could do, he did with some fervour. He'd said it once and he meant it.
If dreams are all that remains, then dream he shall.
South moves North, North moves South
Renne closed his useless eyes and half-unbound the tie to his parcel of earth. His fingers then began to run through the stuff like a child encountering sand for the first time. The steady, repetitive motion provided the needed catalyst for his mind to drift down the chosen paths.
He was conscious but not. He was aware but not. He remained upright and his hand kept sifting carefully through the earth. But he never reacted to the outside world, not a sound nor a smell that might have been new. And he started to dream.
A star is born. A star burns out
The only thing that stays the same is
Everything changes
Everything changes
~<>~
*Time Marches On; Tracy Lawrence
-Blind; Lifehouse