When The Clouds Burst

When The Clouds Burst

 

 

Despite all the sounds of heavy rainfall and battle outside of the tower, inside was dead silent. Only the occasional drip of water or the sound of my own breathing or footsteps made it to my ears.

Everything was dark, virtually pitch black in truth. There were a few candles here and there but apart from that there was nothing. I could see that the floor was wooden boards, although where those boards stopped dark grey stones sat. The wood had probably just been put in to make the place look nicer, or less imposing have you. Stone can do a lot to scare a man.

Above my head there was another level of wooden planks. Between gaps in the wood I could see more candlelight. It was probably just as dark up there as it was down the bottom though, if not somehow darker.

I crept around on the bottom floor and searched the darkness for Symonds slowly. The entire time I made sure to keep Ropitherin in front of me, to block any surprise attacks that he could launch at me. The white glow of the sword also helped to light my way through the dark room.

A few broken chairs were littered around the place alongside other pieces of wooden trash. There was even a table in the corner, although it had been split down the middle and cracked in half. At one point the watchtower had probably been manned by a few men, at least a dozen downstairs and yet more above. There were only the two of us in there now.

“Where the hell are you?” I have no idea why I spoke to myself like that so much. Especially when it was obvious that Symonds was upstairs.

After deciding that I wasn’t going to find him on the bottom level I moved over towards the stairs. They curved around the outside of the circular tower and climbed up to the next level. There was probably another level or two after that, but whether they were in tact or not I had no idea yet.

I took each step with care, making sure not to slip over. Dust had settled on the stairs and cobwebs hung above me. Although much to my pleasure that meant that I could see Symonds’ footsteps on the stair. Always towards the outer edge of every second stair the dust was disturbed.

The next level although brighter than the first had more dark pockets, pockets which Symonds could be hiding in. I moved to the centre of the room and stood perfectly still, if anything was going to give him away it would be the sound. I was right in thinking that.

There was a short sharp click that came from a shadow to my left, and then the shadow moved. I twirled my sword and took a step towards the darkness. My eyes had finally adjusted to the poor light and I could just make out the shape of a man. Symonds was crouched on the floor, about to pounce.

I spread my feet apart and planted them firm on the ground. Perfectly ready to simply dodge his leap and then deliver a killing blow. But he never came, there was no leap nor was there any kind of full body attack from Symonds.

Instead a lightning fast projectile shot out of the darkness and slammed straight into my chest. It pierced through armour and flesh, sliding perfectly into place between two of my ribs. I gasped out in pain and stumbled backwards a step before falling down to one knee.

Symonds appeared from the darkness with a broad smile across his face and a crossbow in his hand. He lazily kicked my chest and knocked me down. I just barely managed to claw at the floor and drag myself to the wall. There I propped myself up and stared in horror at the bolt protruding from my chest. Any higher and it would have hit my heart.

“Well lucky me!” Symonds shouted. “This bloody thing might not have killed you instantly but you’ll die soon enough. Now I get to watch you bleed out!”

Symonds smiled sadistically and then moved over towards a small table in the corner. From the table he grabbed another bolt and put it in his mouth. He then pulled pack on the crossbows string so that he could rearm the thing.

“Just for good measure I’ll put two in you” he explained after taking the bolt from his mouth. “Always better to be safe than sorry. Am I right or am I right?”

I coughed onto the back of my hand as Symonds took aim with his second bolt. I dared not look at Symonds lest I tremble in fear and give him satisfaction, nor did I wish to look at my hand in case there was blood there.

“Pop” he called out before squeezing the trigger.

I tried to jerk my body to the side and away from the bolt but it was too quick. It slammed into the right side of my stomach just on top of the hip which I could feel it scrape by. I think I screamed that time. I screamed a lot.

Symonds put the crossbow down on the table beside the remaining bolts. Then he grabbed a chair and dragged it over to sit in front of me, not too close, but not too far away either. Crossbows were a cowards weapon.

“C-coward” I coughed painfully. “Couldn’t fight me… properly”

“Danny Danny Danny” Symonds muttered while shaking his head. “We already had this little discussion but you refused to listen to me, didn’t you now?”

Symonds threw his hands up into the air and tilted his head at me. “Crossbows are a cowards weapon? I suppose that is what you’re getting at yes?”

I nodded and blinked. It took a small amount of effort to open my eyelids again.

“Well isn’t that just adorable! Crossbows are a dishonourable cowards weapon!” Symonds exclaimed. “That’s great and all, it really is my friend but… well quite frankly… who cares!”

Symonds rose to his feet and started to throw his arms about the place again. I tried my best not to, but soon enough I was forced to blink again. This time it was even harder to open my eyes again.

“I told you that none of that honour or morality crap wins you battles! It is only when you accept how truly evil you are that you will get anywhere in life” Symonds grinned evilly.

“Your problem is that you just can’t accept that you’re a bad person. Had you simply done that you would have won this battle, and I would be lying in the mud outside.” Symonds sat back down. “Killed by your hand” he added after a moment.

I tried to push myself up off the floor but the pain was too much and I fell back down. My body was simply unable to support its own weight, even my eyes were having trouble staying open.

“You’re just as evil as me Danny” Symonds whispered. Somehow he was close now.

His blue eyes were right in my face, and the rain that came from them was drowning me. I tried to take a breath but there was too much rain and instead I coughed and gurgled.

“The least you could do is accept that fact now that you’re dying… or are you dead already?”

I could hear Symonds but I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t see anything in fact. Everything was just black, with little specks of white floating around the place. At first I thought that the white things looked like skulls screaming at me. They weren’t though.

“I see” Symonds mumbled while sliding the chair back into place. Then all I could hear was the rain.

Slowly the white in my vision started to grow. The tiny specks became splashes of white, and then massive sections of it. All building up until eventually there were black specks floating around instead of white, and then even they disappeared. Everything was white. Everything was bright.

 

 

I was in the gutter. I was soaking in my own s**t and piss after being beaten up. Rowdy men who had failed to find a woman to take their frustration out on had instead attacked me. Sticks fists, it was all the same since it all hurt. The worst part was always afterwards though, the worst part was always now.

They had parties to herald in the New Year in almost every city in the world. I hadn’t attended as a young child since my father was a psychopath but now that I had run away from home I was able to. Although I wasn’t quite sure whether being beaten by father in my own home was any worse than being beaten by strangers here.

I propped myself up on one arm and started to examine the other trash that lay alongside me in the gutter. Banana peels, rotten apples, and other food scraps all mixed with literal s**t and piss. Some of that piss was even my own.

I would only eat from here if I was truly desperate, desperation usually followed a beating though.

“Desperation or death” I murmured to myself. “Take your pick Danny.”

Those were the two ‘d’ words that constantly seemed to toy with my life as if it were some kind of plaything. They were my only real friends.

That would all change soon though as the first sunlight of the new day poured over the hill and onto me. It felt warm homey, except not homey because I hated home.

After a few moments of basking in the sunlight I finally noticed a shadow blocking out part of the sun. It wasn’t actually a shadow though, as it was brighter than the sun that lay behind. The figure was that of a man leading a horse driven cart. The man was looking at me.

I rolled over and onto my stomach and from there I pushed up to sit on my knees. This man would either beat me further or keep walking, if he kept walking I might be able to beg for some food from him. So I put on my saddest looking face and watched the man approach.

His hair and beard were both the colour of rust, a reddy brown colour. While his eyes were the pale green reflection of grass. When I saw him I don’t know why but I found myself unable to beg, especially when he kneeled down beside me.

“Good morning lad” the man said. “You can call me Rowan, do you have a name?”

I nodded very slowly. “Daniel.” I tried to sound as respectable and unchildish as I could, i have no idea why.

“Well Daniel, what say you come with me and I fix you up a bit and give you something to eat” Rowan said quietly. “Does that sound like a good idea to you?”

I nodded fervently and smiled at the red haired man, at Rowan. He returned my smile and was about to rise, I stopped him with a hand though.

“W-w…” I cleared my throat. “Why?”

“Why what, Daniel?” he asked in reply.

It took me a while but eventually I mustered up the courage to speak properly. At the time I was almost afraid that if I asked the question that he would go away, and I didn’t want that.

“Why are you helping me?” I asked eventually.

Rowan shot me a quizzical look and then looked about ready to burst with laughter. “Well why not?”

I looked around at the food scraps and dog and human s**t that lay around and on me. Why was that a funny question? I was some kid lying in a gutter full of s**t and you just happen to decide to help me. I thought it was a good question.

“Just look at me…” I mumbled.

 

“Not everything in life is about how well you can wield a sword lad. Or have you forgotten what I said to you the first time we met?” One of the last things Rowan had said to me before he had died. The answer to that question had been yes. Yes I had forgotten, but I promise you that I will remember exactly what you said to me.

 

“Why does it matter what you look like?” Rowan asked. “What people do and how they appear to others is not who they truly are, Daniel. What makes a person who they are is what is on the inside.” Rowan placed a large hand upon my skinny childish chest.

“In here is who you are, and you can call me dumb or an idiot if you want, Daniel. But when I look in here…” he tapped on my chest, just over where my heart was. “When I look in here I see a good person.”

 

 

I was back in the room with Symonds. He now stood far away from me, or maybe it just looked far. He was staring at the large window at the rain. I think I must have coughed or something because he turned towards me and smiled. Then I think he said something but I have no idea what.

My consciousness was already fading away again and taking me somewhere completely new.

 

 

I was in a field. The field looked a lot like those which covered all of Silvermouth. Although Silvermouth and Briarwood were similar they were not the same place, and I was in the latter. Although I knew I had Katherine and she was in fact very close. It was raining.

In my hands was a dead rabbit, and I could feel the tears starting to build in the corner of my eyes at the sight of it. I had told Katherine that I would catch it, but upon doing so I had accidentally crushed the small furry creature. Such a poor innocent animal, and I had murdered it.

It had brown fur and big long brown ears, the animal felt extremely soft in between my fingers. Its little eyelids were now shut and the rise and fall of its chest had stopped soon after I had caught it. No longer even breathing the thing was dead for sure.

The first of my tears fell directly onto the small rabbit and I brushed away the liquid. At the same time stroking the fur of the animal I had just killed. I wanted to throw it away and just run, run away so that it wouldn’t hurt anymore. But I deserved to hurt, to be in pain for what I had done, so instead I knelt with the animal in my hands and cried.

 There was a gentle hand on my shoulder and I twisted my head to look up at Katherine’s face. Her usually sparkling green eyes looked sad, I knew that I had made them like that. It only went to make me feel even worse about everything. Although there was a weak smile on her lips which did help a little to cheer me up.

“I killed it” I half sobbed. “It died because of me and it’s all my fault.”

I pressed my head against her stomach and she cradled my head, softly stroking my hair. All the while I carefully held the rabbit in one hand and stroked it with the other. If only I had been that gentle to begin with, then I wouldn’t have murdered the poor thing.

“It isn’t all your fault Danny” Katherine whispered softly. “Sometimes these things just happen.”

I wanted to reply, to say that it was my fault… heck I even tried to. But all that ended on coming out was a high pitch sob that couldn’t make it past the massive lump in my throat. I wanted so desperately to be good, it just couldn’t happen.

I gulped hard and tried to rid myself of the lump so that I could speak properly to her. I’ll admit that it wasn’t the best, but I still managed.

“What’s wrong with me?”

“Absolutely nothing is wrong with you, Danny.” she slowly tilted my chin with one hand to look up at her face as she spoke.

“Then why am I such a bad person?” I cried out. It wasn’t loud, but it was still a cry.

She gave me a stern look and shook her head, cascades of brown hair lapped over my face softly. Had the circumstances been different her smell and the look she had given me would have made me smile.

“You are anything but a bad person” she said bluntly, she started to speak more softly after that though. “You are a good person, I know that and you should too. It’s like you said your father used to tell you, it’s about what’s in here.”

She tapped on my chest just over my heart as Rowan had done all those years a go when I was but a kid lying in a dirty gutter.

“In here I know that you have a good heart.” She whispered, drawing my face closer to hers. Then we both started to look at the dead rabbit in my hands.

“But sometimes even good people can do bad things, Danny. Even the best of us can make wrong choices, but as long as you stay good in your heart, than you are still a good person.” She smiled softly and kissed my cheek.

I wiped the last of my tears away on my shoulder and set the dead rabbit down on the floor. I could feel her smile as I dug a hole and buried the rabbit, she always smiled for me.  Every week when I came back to just sit there and cry… she would just be there and smile for me.

 

 

‘You’re just as evil as me Danny’

“No!” I screamed and tore myself from the pain and up onto my feet.

Symonds stared at me with his mouth wide open. I returned his stare and pointed Ropitherin at his chest. I was going to bury my sword there. I could feel the lava burning all through my body, it hurt a hundred times more than the bolts in my chest. It hurt more than any bolt ever could.

“I’ll admit I’m a little surprised that you’re not dead yet” Symonds said nonchalantly. “But that problem can easily be rectified.” Symonds drew his sword and pointed it towards me.

“I… I’m not a bad person!” I roared. “I’m nothing like… nothing like you.”

Symonds laughed loudly and swung his sword through the air in a cross. “Still defiant of your true nature to the end I see.”

“I might do bad things sometimes…” I mumbled. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m a bad person, after all, even the best of us can make the wrong choices.”

Symonds shrugged and started to move towards me, and although he was moving quickly he seemed to take an eternity to reach me. Each leap was slower and smaller than a tiny child’s step.

I brushed I lock of hair away from my eyes and smiled. “A good man can defeat even the greatest of warriors…” I said it under my breath as Symonds charged, not sure whether I truly believed it or not.

“And in here” I added with my hand over my heart. “In here I know.”

I wasn’t speaking to Symonds, nor was a speaking to myself. I’m not sure I who I was speaking to or if I was speaking to anyone at all. I just needed to say it.

“I might not know if I’m a good person or not anymore. But I’m gonna try my best to be one, because I know that’s what I should do, and because I know that’s what will make me feel whole again.”

Symonds seemed to return to a realistic speed as he drew near. He exploded towards me screaming and thrust his sword wildly at my chest. Still smiling I slipped just around the side of his sword and with a spin swept my Ropitherin through the back of his neck.

His momentum caused him to topple over and he smashed down into the wooden floorboards. After years of wear and aging it was just too much for the floors and the wood ruptured. Splinters flew everywhere as Symonds smashed through the floor and down to the next level.

There was a series of bangs and slamming noises as broken pieces of the floor followed by Symonds’ body fell down to the next level. Following the sounds through the darkness I slowly made my way down the staircase and to the bottom floor. Although many of the candles had not survived up top a few still burnt on down here.

In this dim light created by the candles I could see Symonds corpse lying in the centre of the room. He was surrounded by broken pieces of wood and a thick layer of sawdust floated about the room. It was finally over, he was finally dead. It was time to go home.

 

 

Outside it was no longer raining, and dawn was about to break over the world. I could feel in my heart that it wasn’t raining in my world either. Martyn sprinted towards steps and towards me, a broad smile was stapled across his chest. I wanted very much to give the Manhunter a hug then, but I simply couldn’t.

The lava I my body had faded and I could once again feel the two bolts in my chest. I fell down to one knee at first, and then when my body couldn’t handle even that I fell forwards and tumbled down the stone staircase.

I heard Martyn cry out as I fell. His cry was followed by that of everyone else, I think I even heard Godfrey scream. The fall itself wasn’t so bad, I mean what were a few bruises when you had two bolts in your chest. Not much if you hadn’t realised.

My fall came to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the staircase when Martyn caught me. His large hands lifted me up and dragged me over to lean against one side of the tower.

“It’s gonna be alright Danny!” Martyn said, I think he might have been screaming. “I’ll carry you out of here and then you can get patched up by someone okay? Okay!”

Martyn bent down and rapped an arm around me. I tried to push the arm away but I hadn’t the strength, I had already lost too much blood anyway.

“No, Martyn.”

The Manhunter stopped immediately at the sound of my voice. Then he removed his arm and looked up so that I could see his face. His blue eyes were a sea of worry, he really did care about me.

“Just sit with me.” I coughed. “Just sit here by my side.”

The Manhunter looked like he was ready to argue. His face was set in stone and he looked angry. But after a moment of looking into my eyes his expression softened and silently he took a seat by my side.

There was a broad rainbow stretching across the sky in the distance. It had every single colour in it, reds, greens, blues, yellows, purples… every single colour was there.

“Pretty” I mumbled under my breath to Martyn. “Isn’t it?”

He nodded and smiled, but I could see the tear that rolled down his cheek and onto the ground.

“I guess you can take me in now” I joked in an attempt to make him feel better.

Martyn laughed at the joke but I think he only laughed to be nice. I doubt that he had found it funny. He was always good like that, laughing when things weren’t funny and all that. Like a true friend would.

 “You know, Danny” Martyn said slowly. “I wasn’t going to take you in after this anyway…”

When he said that… well then it was my turn to shed a tear, it was only just the one though. Only that one.

“You’ve been a true friend Martyn, you know that?” I turned to face the Manhunter and shot him a serious look. “But there’s just one last favour I have to ask of you.”

Martyn returned my glance and nodded deeply. “Anything. Just name it.”

I sighed and relaxed against the stone of the watchtower. I felt whole then, I really did.

“Would you be able to watch the sun rise with me?” I asked tentatively.

“Of course I would” Martyn mumbled back. “Of course…”

Everyone else stayed a fair distance away while the two of us watched the sunrise. For that, I was glad; I really did like my privacy or in this case our privacy when we watched the sunrise.

“Here we go!” I said, my voice full of barely contained glee.

The sun started off below the horizon, as it always did. At first there was only a dim yellow glow that crested over the edge of the world. But slowly that glow began to grow in intensity, becoming brighter and brighter, and slowly deepening in colour. Very slowly that yellow started to become an orange, and than as it deepened even further it became a red colour.

But not the crimson red colour of blood, for this red was far softer and more peaceful than that. This red was the red of a cherry blossom, or the red of a ribbon tied to a present. This was the red of sunlight.

Now this red colour, slowly it spread throughout the sky. Black sky turned to red, and then red to orange as the dark colour spreads out. With the entire sky an orange colour it almost looked like the sky… no, the entire world was on fire. Even the earth below mirrored the fiery orange of the sky.

Then the sun itself began to rise up, the first rays of sunlight pierced through the clouds of the previous nights storm. That was when everyone started to gather around me, and I think that was when I started to go home.

Elle and the caravan stood on my left all of them looked sad. The farmers stood on my right, they all wore beaming smiles and told me to give Rowan their regards, they were crying too though. Then there was the two soldiers who may have well been twins, they stood alongside Nicolas and Godfrey. Beside them was Samuel and Marcus, and in front of those two stood Martyn, he was the only who was really smiling at me, I think.

Slowly the rays of sunlight that pierced through the clouds started to grow, and as they did the clouds started to diminish. I could see three transparent figures standing in front of me then.

On the left of the trio was a young man. He had curly brown hair and a smile that never seemed to fade away from his face. I could see a cherry blossom in his hair and a bow was strung across his back.

Then on the right of the trio was an older man. His hair was red and his beard great and bushy. Whenever I looked at him the sound of horses and smell of horses flooded my senses.

Then there was the figure in the middle. A young woman, originally my age but now a few years younger. She was beautiful beyond all description. Long brown hair flowed around her green green eyes, perfection as it were.

“Danny!?” now I could hear Martyn screaming, and calling out to me.

I turned to face the Manhunter and saw that tears were pouring down his face. But just over his shoulder I could also see the sun breaking through the last of the cloud cover. The clouds had burst and I could feel the sun shining on my face.

I smiled at Martyn who weakly returned my smile, beside him stood Piers, Rowan and, Katherine.

“Don’t worry, Martyn.” I murmured softly. “Everything is going to be alright, everything is just as it should be.”