The Diary of Zartoon

ENTRY 59

ENTRY 59

08.05.63.17.00

I was just a few miles from Tergina when I woke up this morning. There hasn't been much time for me to think until now. I have no idea how the white sword is going to help Pandorica, but something tells me that it will and that I will know how to use it once I get there.

The thoughts about that girl still haunt me. What in the hell did she need from me? Why were the Humans in such trouble? Maybe it was the same thing that affected the Zartoon city. I had no idea, but that was now in the past, so I had to put the thoughts behind me and just think about Pandorica and Rhosly and what I could do for them.

Finally, I was at the gates of Tergina. The guards didn't even try to stop me, not that they could if they had tried. Instead, they escorted me through the village and right up to the room where Pandorica was sleeping.

Her breathing was severely labored and, although her eyes were open, and glazed over, and I doubt that she could see anything. I watched as her body twitched and her hands tightened and loosened as if she was trying to grab something. I took her hand in mine and gently squeezed it. I could feel her pulse through her fingers. It was weak, extremely so, but thank goodness it was there.

"I am sorry Fa Nex, but her Highness may not make it," a priest said from behind me. Then he instructed me to come with him. He talked to me in a voice that wasn't even a whisper.

"I will not do that," I said in an angry voice as I shoved him and stepped back against a rock. "How could you even suggest that I do that to her?" My anger didn't dissipate as he explained that I was the only person who could save Pandorica's life and I had to do it right then, or it would be too late. I started to cry I was so terrified at what he had asked me to do, but he stated it was Pandorica only chance of survival so I reluctantly agreed.

He dressed me in a white robe and blessed me with the smoke from some herb that he said had been passed down for thousands of years. It smelled good, maybe too good. It made me think of the pot I smoked as a kid. "This will help you relax and do what you must do." Then he walked me back to Pandorica. I stood beside her as he and a group of other Zartoon walked in, surrounded her and started chanting.

I climbed upon the bed where Pandorica was lying. The priest handed me the white sword I had been carrying; I raised it above my head just as he had told me to do. I looked, and the blade was glowing with a bright white light. I guess he saw that I didn't want to do what he told me to do because his hand reached out and touched me on the thigh. "You have to," he said in a soothing voice.

I gripped the sword tightly. I could feel its power flowing into me. Suddenly, I took the blade and drove it into Pandorica's chest. As the blade entered her body, her eyes opened, and she looked at me with eyes that were full of pain and fear. Her body tightened beneath me, and I felt her go into one convulsion after another. Her blood flowed onto the bed and then on the ground.

My body and mind went into shock. Then the last thing I remember was looking at Pandorica's face; I could see the terrible pain she was experiencing. I loved her so much, and because I had listened to this Zartoon priest, I had caused my wife all this extreme agony. I looked at the blood pouring from the wound; it was all too overwhelming, my body must have agreed with the terrible anguish I was feeling because, in just a few seconds, I felt myself fading into darkness.