DEMA

Shy Away (Josh Duns Chapter)

December 9th, 3000
Don't you shy away.
Manifest a ceiling when you shy away.
Searching for that feeling.
Just like an "I love you."
That isn't words.
Like a song he wrote, that's never heard.

The cold water froze my entire body, and I struggled to the surface as soon as I could.
The river was fast flowing, and carrying me further and further away from Clancy.
I managed to take hold of a fallen tree that half sank into the riverbed.
I used it to pull myself to the riverbank.
I hauled myself to shore and collapsed, gasping for air, my chest feelings compressed from the cold water.
I finally had time to process what had just happend.
Nico had used Clancy as a vessel to kill my entire family.
They were all dead.
And he had tried to kill me.
Clancy was in danger, I needed to rescue him before somthing worse happend.
I manged to stand up, and start walking towards the cliff.
I started on my grueling ascent up the cliff face.
It took me the bones of an hour, and when I got there, Clancy was nowhere to be found.
I searched the surrounding area, calling out his name, but there was no reply.
The Bishops must have got him.
I cursed myself for taking so long, for not returning from the hunt earlier, for letting him push me.
I felt nothing but greif and dispair as I looked around at the bodies of my family.
I was never going to see any of them again.
Not in this life anyway.
I buried beneath the biggest, oldest tree I could find, and marked their names into the bark.
They would be together forever now, a family.
I took the compass out from my pocket, it was dead and unresponsive in my hands.
I slept by my family's grave side for the night, I would make the long and lonley journey back to camp in the morning.

On my way home, I had a lot of time to think about the future.
I needed to rescue Clancy, even if it was the last thing I ever did.
Without Clancy, we'll never be able to bring Dema to it's knees.
But Clancy has a darkness inside of him.
And it could hinder our entire plan.

December 24th, 3000
The longer I traveled the colder it got, my fur was usually covered by a frosting of now and ice, and I felt as if my nose and paws might freeze off.
I must have looked a sorry sight, a lone wolf, solomly trekking trough the snow, night and day.
I lost weight, I couldn't hunt anything substantial by myself, and by the time I arrived back home, I had grown weak and frail.

I rembember it was the evening when i arrived back at Trench camp, the days light was fading from the sky and the campsite was starting to slow down.
I dragged myself over to the entrence and callapsed, exhausted.
I could hear voices circling around me, calling me name.
"Hey it's Josh."
"He looks tired."
"Where are the others? What happened."
"Hey... Leave him alone, he's in no state to answer your questions."
"I'll get him to bed, he can talk to us in the morning, poor guy."
The voices began to fade as as I drifted into a deep sleep.

December 25th, 3000
When I awoke that morning, I had the sorry job of relaying everything back to the seven remaining Banditos.
At first there were feelings of grief, loss, and hopelessness for our future, but I hadn't spent all that time journeying alone for nothing.
"I know it might seem like we have no hope remaining" I told them, "but as long as Clancy is alive, there will always be hope of freeing Dema, if you would be so willing as to except me as your new cheif, I assure you, that I will do my very best to get us out of this mess."
"Joshua Dun? As chief of the Banditos? Never thought I'd see the day" said one.
"You're not even Sharik and Skyes real son, are you not related to that guy who killed himself?" said another.
"SILENCE" screamed Micheal, who was somone who was only a few years older then myself, but I had a lot of respect for, "I would like to see any one of you go trough even half of what Josh has just had to endure, this man was thrown off the edge of a cliff, and into freezing water, managed to save himself, climb back up the side of the cliff, then had to bury his entire family, and then journey alone for fifteen days in the freezing cold, and he still has fight in him... If that's not the ultimate show of bravery, and proof that this man is a worthy chief, then I don't know what is."
The whole room went silent before the was an eruption of agreements.
I was voted in to be chief, and Micheal my right hand man.
As chief, I felt I was re-born, the events I had endured changed somthing withen me that I cannot describe.
The power to overtake ones former self is somthing I have now experienced.
My title is not cheif, but Torchbearer, I want to be the one who carries the light, guides people in the right direction.
I want to be a sign of hope.

1st of May, 3001
Myself and Micheal have spent the last five months training up a new generation of Banditos.
Every able bodied person is now a fighter, And we plan to infiltrate Dema and rescue Clancy.
I just hope he is still alive.
And I hope he still has room in his heart for me.

When I get home.
You better not be there, we're placing bets you won't.
Shed your modesty.
And the only thing to leave behind is your own skin.
On the floor.
When you get home.
You barely recognize the pictures they put in a frame.
Because you shed your modesty.
Don't circle the track.
Take what you have.
And leave your skin on the floor.
When I get home.
Boy, you better not be there, you're long gone.
Shed your modesty.
Don't circle the track.
Just break the cycle in half.
And leave your skin on the floor.