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(Complete story for my entry in the arena contest)
He once lived under the name Matheo. Father of two young girls and widowed at his 5th wedding anniversary, he owned a small property in the outskirts of a merchant village. He was a nice man and always helped and served when needed. He did more for the village's people than they did for themselves. One day, however, fate turned its back on him. A group of bandits assaulted the town, but odds were heavily against them. Greatly outnumbered, they chose to hold some of the inhabitants captive in order to exchange them for the people's gold and escape safely. Unluckily for Matheo, those hostages turned out to be his daughters. They all gathered at downtown and menaced to kill the girls if their requests were not fulfilled. This had been a really harsh season for that village and giving away even a pound of gold would have broken what was left of the townspeople 's wealth. No one said a word for over 10 minutes, in which Matheo took the time to run home and back with all the gold he had. He gave the bandits the little bag as they glared at him dissatisfied. They yelled for more but yet no one moved a muscle. Matheo pleaded for the villagers’ generosity but yet, they feared being unable to recover from such a monetary loss. No one even blinked at him as he knelt in front of each family, his face covered in tears, promising to find a way to refund the gold. Several minutes passed and there were no results. The bandits, getting inpatient, rose a knife on one of the girls’ throat pushing it hard against her soft skin. She was now crying and screaming, but paralyzed in fear. Matheo yelled at everyone who just stood there, watching the spectacle, but words escaped him and crashed into what seemed to be deaf ears. It was getting darker and one of the bandits decided they had been waiting enough. He took out a knife of his own and looked at one of his partners swiftly. In a blink of an eye, they both sliced the children's throat and pushed them to the front as they ran away an rode their horses into the woods. Matheo ran towards his daughters' choking little bodies as their blood was quickly emptied from their arteries. He knelt before them, embracing them both strongly. They coughed a little before life had completely abandoned them. Matheo was speechless, mouth and eyes wide open as tears were dripping wildly across his face. The people of the town went back to each of their respective homes, one by one, deepened into a great remorse and a shallow feeling in their chests, leaving Matheo lying down alone beside his babies. He didn't move an inch from there and it was midnight already. A little spark chimed out of a torch nearby, lightened by the thieves themselves. It set the dried grass around Matheo in fire, and before he could even notice, he was covered in a funnel of flames that isolated him from the outside of its circumference. A voice called his name. It promised him justice and he was desperate and irrational out of the shock. The voice's terms were simple: He had to give up on his life as he knew it and follow his instincts in return for the great powers he was promised to be given. As anger fueled his mental blindness, he accepted the voice's terms and the funnel of fire engulfed him into a deep darkness. He rose feeling exacerbated in hate and power. His villager clothes had been replaced with a black armour and a giant glowing sword was standing in front of him, clipped vertically into the ground. He picked it up as a mist of pure evil emanated from him, his eyes glowing crimson as neon. He turned around looking towards the village of the people that had betrayed him and began to walk slowly towards it, grasping the infernal sword with his left hand, and he prepared for revenge...
Bellick · Tue Feb 19, 2008 @ 11:17pm · 2 Comments |
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