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Night engulfs the man. He holds a torch aloft and it casts a circle of light about him. Flickering like it were something totally impermanent, something not of this world, like it were brought forth by some witch's spell. A creature of light from lands unseen. The man walks into the mouth of a cave and the light bounces off the wet walls and shines there the color of the setting sun. He walks forward with a hand outstretched as though torch alone wasn't enough for this dark corner of the earth. The cave walls flow senselessly from here to there and the man follows them like he were on a tightrope, never straying from the path. Suddenly the cave opens up into a large room and there is a pool of water he could see by the light of his torch. The sound of water dripping into it and then the sound of crunching. The man stops and looks ahead. His feet move before his heart has the courage to and he thinks that maybe that is what real courage is. He moves deeper into the cave and goes through a hallway of large arches cut of stone. The man comes to a large room at the end of the hallway and there he lays eyes upon the beast. Crouched on its haunches and biting into the limb of someone long dead. It stops and stares at the man, wide-eyed, as though it were caught in the midst of a mortal sin. The corpse drops from the creature's mouth and it stands tall. Towering over the man. He unsheathes his blade and drops his torch and then all goes dark. Then a scream. The boy rides atop of a workhorse and he wears a straw-woven hat atop his head that blocks the sun from his eyes and sweat gathers at his brow and he is pale with dust of the subaked ground. He rides the horse that pulls a large hoe behind it. He stops the horse when he sees a rider in the distance and he steps down out of the saddle and waits for the rider to approach. His mother rushes outside and looks at the rider, both of them do, but the rider is too dark to see. Shadow takes him in that blue horizon as though the world after a certain point were unmade and things come forth born from blue shadows. As the rider came from the horizon they could see now he wore all black, and the boy knew his father had died. He rode for weeks to find the cave. On his hip he wore a sword and on his person a chainmail vest that was too large for him and some leather armor that was much the same. His mother did not want him leaving but he told her he had no choice. When he found the cave it was early morning. He stepped out of the saddle and lit his torch and went in. He tread the same path as his father before he met his demise and the boy took in the same sites. As though he were taking in the works at some museum of the dead. He saw the pool and the archways but he heard no chewing. The boy entered the large room and he held his torch aloft. Bodies here, bodies there. Some missing arms, others missing their legs and some even heads. He walked forward, taking it all in, unphased. As though he knew he were born into a world of death and so death would not bother him. As he walked forward he heard crying and whimpering and he held his torch aloft again and there he saw the beast, cowering with one arm against the far wall. It was thin and pale and its lips were dry and beside it he could see his father's corpse, untouched. Please, said the creature slowly, slurring the word. The boy looked at the creature and walked towards it. It cowered, cowered. Until its feet were scraping against the floor of the cave and it was huddled against the far wall. The boy dropped his torch and he went to the creature and unsheathed his blade and he plunged his sword once into the creature's heart. It cried out a horrible cry and the boy stabbed it again, and again, and again. Until blood came forth in such heaps that he was bloodied and the creature cried no more but sat lifeless and pale. Then the boy stopped. He looked at his father, and in his eyes he saw nothing. Neji | |