Abberthorn

Lost Beauty

Making their way through the charred crumbling remains of the fallen settlements, Aramore and his companions were made sick to their stomachs seeing the unbridled rage that was taken out upon these villages. There was not a soul left alive. The buildings that were left were barely more than foundations left to hold up the still smoking stones. Piles of stones that were once called home. As they slowly walked through in complete and utter silence, they did their best not to look at the faces that protruded occasionally from the rubble. The faces that still showed the horror and fear of the events that had taken their lives. Limbs periodically protruded from the fallen stone, as though reaching out for help that never came.

The glum silence of the city did nothing to help their sombre mood, as death surrounded and overwhelmed their every thought. The smell of burning wood, singed flesh, and hair filled the air, as the sound of the loose gravel crumbling beneath their feet dashed across the ruined city and back to their ears. Unable to take any more of the deathly silence, Daemon finally burst at his seams.

'You knew that these villages had been raided Aramore. You knew that we would find nothing more here, than death and destruction. Why did you choose to bring us this way, why did you not simply lead us around all of this carnage? Do you have some morbid fascination with death and the loss of life?' The group stopped dead in their tracks, with Aramore at their head, while Daemon had stopped a few meters behind.

'Is this too much for you Daemon? Can you not stand to see such death, or the utter annihilation of entire communities? Do you wish to go around all of the fallen settlements that stand between us and our destination?' said Aramore loudly, causing his voice to echo through the valley.

'Don't be so hard on the boy Aramore. He's young and has not had much occasion to see such atrocities as you have. He's understandably disturbed by the sight of all of this mayhem' said Leakly.

'This is not mayhem Leakly. Mayhem was what it would have been when all of this was still happening. If you can't handle the sight of all of this long after it has already happened. Then how do you to expect to deal with it, when it is happening before your very eyes?' asked Aramore.

'I don't know Aramore, I am not so accustomed to death as you. I cannot stand to see such things, though I know I will have to face sights far worse than this before this war has concluded' yelled Daemon back.

'It's a good thing that you are not able to stomach such deplorable sights and smells Daemon. If you were not even slightly disturbed by such sights, I would have worried about you. The fact that you do not welcome such visions of pure evil, means that you are pure of heart, and that you will always strive to do what is right' said Leakly taking Daemon's part.

'You're not wrong Leakly. However, he needs to get used to seeing such things. If he does not, he will not be able to keep a level head when the true war begins' said Aramore.

'You say that as though you think that this will be nothing in comparison with the true war?'

'That is exactly what I think Leakly. I think that what you have seen here today will be but a small drop in a vast ocean, when the whole of Abberthorn is at all-out war.'

'But Aramore you cannot possibly believe that it will come to that. The whole of Abberthorn at all-out war? Is it not our mission to prevent that eventuality from happening?' asked Leakly.

'No Leakly that was never our mission. All-out-war will soon be upon us and there is nothing that will change that. Setherin has always sought nothing less than complete conquest. Our mission has always been to re-establish the Grand Council so that its members can decide on the best course of action by which to defend Abberthorn from the attack that Setherin would eventually unleash. Now, having seen the measures that Setherin is willing to go to in order to stop us from succeeding. I fear that Abberthorn will be in all-out war before we have finished holding the meeting of the Grand Council' answered Aramore solemnly.