[private] you've got the light to fight the shadows; rhory lionheart

[Rhory]

I have died every day waiting for you.
Darling, don't be afraid. I have loved you for a thousand years.
Life is … quiet.

What else could it be? He eats, he sleeps, he avoids the other members of the Tundra … and nothing else. Nothing else. There’s nothing else for him. After all, he’s failed in everything he’s ever set his mind to do, hurt everyone he’s ever known. There’s no point in trying any more.

He simply walks through the world alone, a shadow of his former self. A ghost.

And his friends …

He hasn’t seen them in years. But he never stops thinking about them, when he can actually spare a moment from his mind-numbing loneliness to think.

He wonders how they’re doing, what their lives are like. Are they happy? Are they still in the Jungle? … do they have any children?

But he doesn’t actually want to know. The knowing would hurt, more than anything. It’s better to wonder.

This particular day begins like any other, his tired blue eyes blinking at the far away speck of light that is the mouth to his cave. He stares blankly for a moment, trying to pull the thoughts together in his head, then sighs and drags his heavy body up on to his feet.

His feet carry him out the cave mouth, with no particular destination in mind. There’s really nothing for him to do here, besides live. There are no tasks for him to complete, no friends for him to visit. Nothing at all.

He wanders aimlessly, eyes dead to the scenery he passes. That is, until they snag on something. Another cave.

“Rhory lionheart …” Three youngsters, cuddled together against the cold …

Once upon a time that memory would have made him cry, but these days … these days he has no tears left. The blade of the memory, long dulled by time, digs at him and his feet suddenly begin walking him towards the cave’s entrance. Just one quick look won’t hurt, will it?

His shaggy head slips through the entrance, banging its crown on the cave roof (he remembers it being so much bigger). His watery eyes take a moment to adjust, but when they do, he can just make out a huddled shape on the dirty cave floor. It’s so, so dark.

He takes a step forward, then another. His eyes strain hopelessly against the dark of the cave. “Hello?” Then a scent reaches his nose … a scent he recognizes. No … it can’t be …


Rhory
I'll love you for a thousand more.