[private] Out with the golden we sew // Rodrik.

[Rodrik]

The gift of immortality often has promised everlasting youth and life. Some, however, are unfortunate to be gifted with the ability to live forever. While immortality to live forever seemed to be a gift to him at first, it has been a curse. He can feel the youth of what it is like to be a young stallion, but mentally and his soul begs for it to come to an end. However, he does not want it to end either. It cannot end. The afterlife is simply a place of hell, much often a place you would often think paradise lays at, that the old and dying beg to find the light in the darkness. There is simply no light for him there. Only darkness remains in both the living and afterlife for him. Rodrik chooses to live where he is free (most of the time). There is the hungry-driven within him that cries out into the night. Darkness entangles him, making him a prisoner. But it is his own fault for choosing this life. He had accepted the call—filled with greed and hunger for power. He wanted it all. And he was freely given with it all, accepting the price. It was a price he did not know how heavily it would be. He was naïve of the world, one that would take every bit of his life within him. Rodrik is careful to mask the emotions he feels right now as the scene unfolds in the dark of the night. He is never one to give way for his emotions. They are carefully hidden by years of mastery and deceit. He often has played many roles and parts. Only few could possibly override his mastery. He does not move from where he has stopped. Carefully, he watches her—the mare that masks his mother almost. The way she moves, tossing between her thoughts, quickly deciding if she should run or not are evident. He knows when the prey has accepted death, when it is close in the hands of a predator—but she is not a prey, simply deciding (knowing so strongly) that she is safe. “Uncle Rodrik. It’s me Kagerus. Your nice.” The words strike him—memories of old come flooding back. A family he had once been a part of. A family he had cherished. But is it a family he still has? “Kagerus,” he says softly. It has been so long since he had thought of his family. The years have passed and he thought by now the rest of his siblings had died off—immortality would forever make him alone. He cannot help but wonder what has become of them all now. It has been so long since he has been part of the world. He became nothing but an old forgotten tale, a boy who had once been a king. “Too many years, it has been,” he says softly because what she says is true. “I do not remember the last time I ever saw someone.” He smiles softly, a genuine smile that hardly ever touches his red torn lips. “You have grown to be beautiful, my dear niece.” He cannot help but comment, the way the spots illuminate her body only remind him of the beauty of his mother. He misses her so much.

character info: here | character reference: here | image © rostyslav zagornov