The cold

Darky Cox

Eyene  was lazy, extremely so, in fact he was so lazy he had been comfortably hibernating in his little dark cave for the past few years, rather bored by mundane tasks like eating and thinking,  he had reached a stage where he found the world utterly boring and it was bound to happen someday, after all he was, as far as he knew, one of the oldest living beings on earth. There wasn't much earth had going for itself when he was born, perhaps a few weird shrubs here and there, a few lizards running about. He had no idea from where little creatures like humans and feys spouted, it was like nature decided to go boom and suddenly they were everywhere. Of course he was at the top of the food chain, it was one of the few perks of having a very early start. He was neither fey nor human , neither warlock nor demon, he was definitely not a ghost,he was just, as far as he knew, the only one of his kind. Over time he had come to refer to his own kind as 'Darky Cox', simply because he could, he was the only one anyway.

He walked around a bit, amused by how things were quite the same. The people were at least,  the present generation often convinced they were moving ahead, all the while fighting the same wars and making the same mistakes that their ancestors made. He knew why he was awake of course,  he knew too where he was needed.  This world had an old habit of giving him little nudges when things were starting to get interesting.

..............

" It is the one forgotten, the tainted soul, she toooooook mine life, hurts, rip , drip , dripping, rip , rip....." Neil got up with a gasp. He'd been hearing this strange voice in his head for the past few days, and this voice often talked about being killed by an old friend who was lead astray by an evil man. Of course the imaginary voice in his head was just that, imaginary. The "old friend turning evil and stabbing one in the back was a common enough story line, his brain didn't need all that grey matter to come up with it. But today, instead of hearing a voice , he saw an image, an image with Henrietta on the floor , her face twisted in pain, a person standing above her holding a bloody knife, face pretty much obscured except for the wide grin that person sported, the bloody knife slowly and messily ripping her limbs off. 

"Are you sure you aren't drunk?"Damien asked Neil, staring at him with a funny expression on his face. Nerezza huffed "Take a good look at him Damien , he is sober enough. I think it might be your gift Neil, perhaps you can talk to the dead or at least the dead can tell you things,  probably not that bad of a gift if you know how to control it, you know, get information you need from the dead , maybe contact a particular dead person, stuff like that" Neil scowled, the voice in his head was bad enough before knowing that it was almost real, now he felt more creeped out , who wouldn't if a dead lady just talked to them about an old bestie who stabbed her in the back and showed them an image about just how scary and painful her death was. 

"So, tainted soul, huh? person forgotten?" not much to go by for now....maybe it's  something that'll explain itself a little later, hopefully a little before the end of the world as we know it." Damien said with a scowl on his face, the scowl a rather permanent addition to his face, his mood rather sour off late , not that one could blame him , Neil thought, even though they were scared too and Damien taking out his frustration on them didn't help them much.

The eyes of all three were drawn towards the door when it opened, incredulously taking in the majestic figure that walked in, a giant of a man in a long silk robe, with midnight black hair falling almost to the man's knee and startling green eyes with specs of red in them. The man almost flowed into the room, chuckling lightly at their confused faces,looking around the room like he had not a care in the world. The man smiled, the smile somehow giving them the feeling that he was upto something "Now now little ones, there's no need for you energetic young uns to up your fort when it comes to little ole me, I'm quite ancient, with a heart all wrinkled and withered. Oh my, introductions are in order aren't they,  I'm Eyene, probably the first man , nah Darky Cox on earth and no, I won't trouble your silly minds with old english,it wasn't in use where I come from anyway, figures drawn on caves and wild gestures were in fashion then and I do keep up with changes in language, thou and thither wouldn't do me much good these days now, would it?"Eyene said ,cheerfully eyeing his confused audience .

Damien and Nerezza stared at the man open mouthed, they knew who he was , of course they did, he had played various roles at various points of time,  a person in a position of power even before the seelie court got it's first king, one of the world's mysteries, probably the oldest thing alive. They felt small, how could they not, when a being who had shaped history countless times before was standing right before them. The tables would turn if Eyene actually helped.

 Eyene laughed at the little boy's lack of reaction, he was young, far too young if he didn't recognize his name, not that he minded it, he felt no need to take offence at the child's lack of knowledge. It was a breath of fresh air in fact, since he didn't often come across new borns. It also amused him that they assumed he had come to offer help, he didn't particularly recall mentioning that.