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Drysendia and Durallene

Warning - Story contains violence and mention of death. Mild cursing involved.

"You might have heard about how I earned my current occupation and the adventures I experienced in the army, but I believe that I never told you about the time in between, and why I am the way I act now rather than how I was in any stories you may have heard. Let me tell you what happened before I became Commander Drysendia of the Dragon armies, but know that it is certainly not a fun story to listen to." And thus, Morgana cleared their throat and began to speak.

"After my seventy-eighth birthday, I was in a stable enough position that I could pass my time and fool around. Now that the grueling work and torturous drills were over and done with, and since I got the job I always wanted, I could consider settling down, maybe getting a big house and a spouse to take care of me while I was out on the King's campaigns.

"I told Garan about my wishes, and he laughed it off. In fact, he even told me I was getting lazy, since everything was calmer. I told him that even if it meant I was lazy, I would still have more of a life than him. Still, all jokes aside, I could not get the dream out of my head.

"So I would flirt with the men and women I saw when I could, and many of them would stay with me - but none of them were looking for a long term commitment. I took many lovers for the next decade or so, and each time I would inevitably break it off and my confidence would waver. Perhaps I was not meant to get a spouse, or even fall in love.

"The most entertaining parts of those years were not when people took me up on my offers, but when they did not. Most of the ones who did find the courage to turn me down would be polite about it. However, there was one who reacted rather hostile to my invitations.

"Her name was Durallene, and I kid you not when I tell you that she was the most beautiful soul I ever had the chance to stumble upon.

"Her appearance is not why I say that. In fact, she looked rather average, if not a just bit more pretty than many I have seen. Her true beauty lay in the way she behaved, what she said, and in the way she carried herself. One might have thought her to be a princess solely based on the way she walks.

"It seemed charming at first, and I think it was exactly that which drew me toward her. I used some overused pick-up line, one I had used countless times, and she threw her boot at me. It hit me right in the face, and many of the soldiers in my regiment teased me endlessly for it. That was when I started to see her as annoying, as a pest. That was also when I started to truly fall for her.

"Now, you might say I am crazy to fall for someone who literally gave me toe boot, or to not give up on her once she did so. However, at the time, I truly did not believe I was falling in love, and I only thought she was intriguing and wanted to bother her, since I would always elicit the most interesting responses out of her. I believe, and I quote, that she once called my face the 'wrong end of an ass that did not realize how pointless its efforts to torture a woman with its presence were.'

"However, I could tell my flirting was starting to get to her, so I continued, hoping my perseverance would convince her of my good intentions. It was not until a year and a half later that she was harassed by a group of thugs who wanted to have their way with her. She fought more than half of them off and did so fiercely, but there were too many of them for anyone to handle. She was completely outnumbered. I was only strolling through the area when I heard her shrieks, and I acted on instinct.

"I beat them so terribly, some did not recover entirely from the incident and have scars to prove it. But Durallene was so surprised by the fact I had saved her, especially since she believed I was just chasing another passing fancy. I was so offended at the time that I simply stormed off, aghast that she could think so low of my morals. But she followed me, and apologised, and even gave me a kiss on my cheek as thanks. I was so shocked that I just stood there for an hour or so until Garan found me and hit me in the stomach with a bottle of watered down ale.

"And so after that she started responding to my flirting, teasing me back each time. And each time I could not - and still cannot - forget for the life of me the look on her face when she smiled or laughed at something I had said or done. We spent decades together, going out on dates and planning vacations that we may not get to go on due to the type of work we were in. We even discussed getting married, though we held off because we thought we would have time.

"But then the King got ambitious with more campaigns, and more wars. And thus I had to leave frequently, hoping to the gods each time that I would come back and see my love there, poking fun at me for taking too long to do my job. I was not sure if either of us would return from each battle, and her smile would constantly be on my mind, taunting me and driving me to fight ferociously. Sometimes she would even be by my side, cutting down our foes as swift as the winter gales, using her gift of darkness to strike them down before they knew it.

"It was not until I came back one day after fighting a particularly difficult enemy, one that was as clever as was deadly, that I realized our time together would be cut short so soon. This particular enemy was bitter from their previous losses and appeared to have a vendetta of a sort. Durallene had chosen to stay back and guard the camp with a few others, tending to the injured, though I was confident she could hold her own. My inability to see that something was wrong before it was too late cost me the love of my life.

"After successfully routing the villains, albeit suspiciously fast, we returned to find our camp in disarray. Many of the people who stayed back were lying dead all over, and some were so brutally mauled that they could not be identified. I found Garan and told him to split up to find out who we had lost and who we can save. However, I had a sinking sensation in my gut, as if I had already suspected what I may find. I flew off to try to find Durallene, hoping to the gods that she was safe and simply helping the others identify and rescue the injured.

"I did not have to search far, as she was directly in the center of the camp. Oh, how the image is seared into my mind! It was the most terrible scene I had witnessed. Her limp body lay staked to the ground, slurs and slanders carved into her flesh. It was common knowledge that we were close and that she meant the world to me. A part of me died there, and I felt emptiness and despair unlike any other. But above all, I felt rage. Unrelenting, world ending rage. Those bastards had tricked us, leading us on while they attacked those who stayed back with their true force. No wonder they retreated so rapidly, if their true aim was to distract us and hit us with such an underhanded move.

"I could see that she put up a valiant effort, as dozens of enemy soldiers littered the ground around her until they inevitably overpowered her. As I flew off and followed the scent of the perpetrators, the scene was still fresh in my mind, and it took over my thoughts. I didn't think about what I would do to them once I found them, as I was acting entirely on instinct.

"I found them on the edge of the battlefield, on their way back to their enemy camp. They were carrying their injured and tired after slaughtering my soldiers, who were injured and could not put up much of a fight. Why they took so many troops with them, I did not know, but I also did not care. I was on a warpath, out for blood.

"Swooping in from behind, I ripped a fourth of them to shreds in a whirlwind of claws and blades of air. I bit off parts of some, and tore into others. But after someone - I do not even remember who it was or what they said - taunted me about Durallene's demise, I snapped. I took out the whole lot of them in a burst of power, an ability I did not even know I had at the time. A century's worth of magic full of despair and rage destroyed those closest to me, and the rest of them fell down dead. It was the last thing I saw or remembered before I fell unconscious.

"Garan found me later on, as he was searching for me after he saw what happened to Durallene. He had suspected what I would do and came to help, but once he saw the slaughter I had unleashed he realized what had happened. He took me back to the camp, very nearly dead myself, exhausted from the sheer scale of magic I had unleashed. I had unwittingly almost given my life force to avenge my dear departed Durallene, but had stopped short before I could. Some skilled healers were able to save me, but I was incapacitated and weakened for half a year. It gave me time to mourn, both for Durallene and for those I had brutally murdered out of spite. Ironically, my prowess on the battlefield was recognized by the King himself, and I was promoted, starting as soon as I recovered.

"It was not a necessity to have killed those bastards, and if I controlled myself I could have stopped before I went too far. But I did not, and I will never forgive myself for those sins. For the sin of deserting the woman I loved in her time of need, and for the sin of needlessly murdering those in my rage. That is the burden I must live with, and that is the burden I will carry."