Fear Him (G)
Characters – Dungeonmaster
Prompt – Deathfic #8 Fear
Word Count – 552
Warning – Implied Character Death!!
Summary – To run and hide, that was all he could do.
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Fear Him
Running and hiding; that’s all he did. Running through the shadows, hiding from the suns. That was what the old man was reduced to.
How the mighty fell before their throne! How the proud were humbled! Himself, so wise, so clever, so far-seeing, but how blind to the truths that were there too be seen all the time.
So now he was the hunted where once he had been above all else; where once he had been the one they had looked to for guidance.
He laughed to himself, and laughed at his reflection in the water and his laughter was lost on the wind. Was this the first step to madness? How did this happen? How had he ended up like this, running wild like an animal? Living in fear, living like prey?
But the old man knew that this wasn’t really living, he hadn’t been alive for a very long time. Yet this caricature of life was all he had, the thud of his heart and the rasp of breath and he would not give that up. Often, he wondered why he let himself live like this. But only for a moment as the cold burn of vengeance was always in his mind. Vengeance was what he craved, for his broken family and his lost pupils. Bleak, without hope of fulfilment, he still thought of virtually nothing else.
The opportunity for vengeance had long since gone, along with his power.
The old man knew, when they found him, they would kill him as they had destroyed all else before them.
And when he was found there would be no answers to ease his confusion, he would go to his grave not knowing where he had gone wrong.
They had turned on their friends first; not even the Thief with her Cloak had escaped. One night there had been six; but the next morning there had been only two. The two he had never suspected: The Cavalier and the Magician.
The old man would never know why they had descended to destruction, though the question burned within him every night. He did not know and did not understand. And that pained him more than his failure.
And then each day that passed drew him closer to death.
Animals cowered close to the ground. The trees whispered to the wind; the grass whispered to the water. They are close, they are near. They have come for him. Fear them. Fear “him”… but he did not know which child they meant. Leader and Acolyte; Master and Servant; Brothers in Arms or Rival Friends; he knew nothing of the two save they held the weapons of his destruction.
There had been a time when he had not been afraid of anything. With his son and his daughter, he had stood at the Guardian of the Realm, unafraid against even the most mighty of foes.
How had he fallen so low, when once he had been so proud?
Fear me! The words were no longer from someone he knew; but echoed with the pride and the power and the wrath they were words like flaming arrows out of the darkest shadow, to piece his heart. No rest. No peace, not now.
How foolish he had been to think that he could control them.
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