Fall, 313 AV This was the begining... It was here that it all began... This is a story, the opening chapter of a young girls life back when she still felt the wind on her cheek. Long ago when she still could feel the beating of her heart and the touch of a loved one... This was a time before she had known just what eternity looked like. ***** What was it that drove men to commit such evils? What is it that makes even a kind husband and a loving father sink so low as to commit the most dastardly of crimes? Time... It is the sheer and all consuming reality that ones life shall end, that one day they will cease to exist and all that they have worked for will be for naught. Death... it brings a fear, a panicked feeling of incompleteness to all who think of it. It is the closing chapter in everyones life, and when those pages close the entire story of a man's life is suddenly ended, no matter what he has left behind. This simple fact is true for all who live, for all who breath and feel the beating within their chests. Death is an absolute. It looms before us all, the final obstacle that none can overcome. It is the closing chapter in the story called life, and every day Evalin could feel her own novel nearing its completion. Even no, as she walked upon the wooded planks of the docks, she could feel the beating of her heart, could almost hear the ticking of her clock and feel the cold fingers of the end about her neck. This was her days... this was her nights... Every waking moment she was reminded of just how little time she possessed in this world, and the frustration she felt knew no bounds. "Tell me why," She said to no one in particular, "it is that I, one who has done so little, must face the end so soon? Death should be for those who have seen and done many things, not for one such as myself who has yet to truly live..." With a sigh she paused, turning her gaze upward to the night sky. For a moment she extended her hand upward, examining each pale finger with the eyes of one who had grown used to their fragility, "These hands of mine... They have yet to fulfill my dreams, and yet even now..." Her hand found the neck of her trop, fingers curling tight about the material as her face took on an outraged expression, "Curse the one called fate who gifted me with life but no time to live it! Be damned all you who would give such hopes to one who could never see them through!" Her voice was strong, though her thin frame and sickly complexion would say otherwise. In her words was poured every ounce of her frustration. The futility of her existence was like a thorn within her side, a vexation that would forever plague her until her dying breath, and incidentally that day might come sooner rather than later. With eyes shining with malice, with indisputable hatred for her lot in life, Evalin turned to return to the city, her long dark hair falling in graceful locks behind her shoulder. However, a sound very close caused her to pause. It was a whooshing, a swish of cloth on hard wood form somewhere just outside her line of vision. Folding her ands before her waist, Evalin looked upwards once more, speaking to the strange sound with a solemnness that did not fit her youthful appearance, "So how is it you have come? Has fate decided to end my story now, even sooner than I thought?" She turned to look toward the sound, her eyes hard and her gaze steady, "If this be the end of my tale, then I would ask. What right have you to take from a dying girl her last breath?" |