[ WP ] You are the one , the true hero chosen by the ancients ! However , the Ancients forgot one small details when they chose you ...

I could tell there was something unusual about the traveler the minute I saw him. Maybe it was the way the villagers on the street moved out of his way without seeming to see him. Or maybe it was the way the dappled shadows cast by the early morning sun never seemed to touch his face. Or maybe it was simply that his scrimshaw armor looked totally out of place among the burlap and coarse wool of my fellow villagers. Whatever it was, his being here probably meant change and trouble - and he walked straight into my father's shop. 
 
 Though he chatted casually about the weather, his entire body radiated purpose. So I was n't surprised when, after a few minutes of checking the shop to see we were alone, he barred the door. Nor was I afraid - judging from what he carried, the shop had nothing this man would find worth stealing. 
 
 `` I wanted to speak to you alone for a moment, if you do n't mind'' he said, his voice sounding like that of an exotic king. He seemed to balance his tone somewhere between casual diplomacy and imperial decree. 
 
 `` I do n't mind'' I said, but remembering my father's many admonishments for idleness, I added `` As long as you are going to buy something.'' 
 
 The man smiled, and without looking at it, laid a heavy purse on the counter. I saw then the true sign of wealth: he appeared to instantly forget about the purse as soon as the clink of the coins had faded. I tried to imagine my father being so casual with coins, and failed. What could this man possibly want here? Or with me? 
 
 `` I wanted to talk to you about that incident with your father last week-'' 
 
 I found myself interrupting his rich, silken voice despite myself - `` He just had too much to drink, and too many bad memories. I'm sure once he's sobered up and served his short sentence...'' my impromptu defense trailed off. I *wasn't* sure what would happen then. 
 
 The man's face took on a sympathetic cast. `` A lot of men get drunk and violent, it's true. Not many get drunken cut-throats to help them try to murder their own son.'' 
 
 The silence hung there, as did the dust motes swirling in the morning rays coming through the window. 
 
 After some minutes: `` I heard you fought off all three of them, though it took was not quick.'' This time the man's voice was nearly a whisper, as if he were afraid breaking the silence with anything louder would wound us both. Maybe it would. 
 
 `` Yea. Not much else I could have done except die, though, so it's hardly a feat.'' 
 
 He chuckled at this; from his martial stance I suspected he had seen a lot more than fights with drunken fathers in his time. `` You could have died, yes. You could also have killed. The law here allows that, in self-defense, does it not?'' 
 
 The thought of killing my father for trying to kill me was shocking; it was a possibility I had n't considered. Drunken, violent idiot that he was, he was my *father. * And he was n't always this bad; he'd just never forgiven the world for what happened to my mother. I shook my head to slough off these thoughts of the past, only to see the man nodding, leaning closer over the counter. Apparently shock at the thought of killing was exactly what he was looking for. 
 
 `` You must have been tired, then, when the Orques came later that night.'' 
 
 There was another silence, though this time if the dust motes hung uncomfortably waiting for it to break again, I did n't notice. All I could see was blood, the large muscular forms of the Orques, the people I had known being drug into the night screaming - or worse, limp and no longer screaming. 
 
 `` I could n't... I tried. But I could n't stop them. There were just so many...'' 
 
 `` But you did stop *some* of them.'' His voice came from the shop, which felt a hundred leagues and a hundred years away. `` You even saved your father, despite him trying to kill you earlier. I heard you battled until dawn, even when most had retreated to the fort. They say you somehow killed an Orque king. They also say you were still looking for villagers until nightfall the next day.'' 
 
 I tried to match his words with my memory of that night. I did n't remember `` battling,'' only a desperate struggle to survive and get others to safety. I remember only being one of many running at the Orque king, terrifying in his pauldrons of human heads, his battleaxe scything through us like wheat. And what he called searching I remember as a desperate clawing hope that not everyone taken was gone from my life forever. The two versions of the night's events - his words and my memories - did n't seem to match. But I could n't find the strength to dispute them, beyond a slight head shake. 
 
 He reached across the counter to put his hand on my shoulder, and the shadows finally seemed to touch his skin. It was as if I could see in his shaded eyes the same memories - the desperate struggles and chaotic battles he too had fought. 
 
 `` I have just one more question'' the power and majesty had returned to his voice again, and the shadows had retreated once more. `` Is it true you were born under the eclipse, as the great star Azmereld fell?'' 
 
 `` So my mother told me'' I said, flatly - *those* memories I *would* keep at bay. `` Before the snow wraith claimed her.'' 
 
 If a sorrowful sympathy crossed his face at this, it was replaced so suddenly with relief that I could n't catch it. 
 
 `` It is true, then! All the signs of the ancients!'' he said, falling to his knees in thanks. His hands were raised towards the shop roof, and the scrollwork on his armored arms glinted and glimmered in the dull indoor light of the shop. `` The star signs, the bravery, the compassion - everything we had hoped for, everything we need. Everything the ancients had promised us!'' 
 
 He looked across the counter again, and the enthusiasm on his exotic face - so much lighter and rounder than those of myself and the other villagers - fell just a notch upon seeing my own dour countenance. 
 
 `` I think you have the wrong shop.'' I tried to keep the bitterness out of my voice; to banish the sorrow. But it was clear it was n't the response he hoped for. But he was not so easily deterred. 
 
 `` No! It is true - everything you have told me is a match for our ancient prophecy. An evil far worse than the Orques is stirring in the world, and our ancestors bent the strings of fate to bring us a hero in our time of need. That hero is you.'' 
 
 `` I don't-'' but he continued, heedless of my interruption: 
 
 `` No, no, it's all right. The best heroes are those that do not feel qualified; that reject the idea that they are special. In time, you will come to see that you are - or maybe, you'll just lead so naturally it wo n't occur to you that others could not do what you do. But however it is to be, I am sure that it is you. I am here to serve you, and you are here to serve our people - for we will surely be lost without you. Only the chosen one can overcome what we face - and I can see in your heart you would not - could not - let us suffer that fate.'' 
 
 So he had n't seen, then. Still, his speech was moving, and the need in his eyes was the same need I'd seen in the husband of every wife drug off by the Orques the week before. He was right, I could n't turn down someone in such need. But he had to know. 
 
 `` Very well - if you truly believe I can help you, I will try'' I said, as I rolled the cart that held my body around the side of the counter. I could see shock register on his face, and then watched it fall in despair, as I lifted the shopkeeper's robes to reveal my legs. They had been made useless when the tip of an arrow had worked its way into my spine during the search. But that was less shocking than the blackness creeping up my thigh, all the way into my torso, that was the sign of the poison known only to Orque kings. It was incurable, painful, and took at least seven days to kill. It had already been four. 
 
 `` But... you'll have to tell this new Darkness to hurry. I have n't got long left.'' 
 
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 If you want to read more of my writing, you can find it at /r/thefeshywords
