nymeria_dw

When I read the parameters of this challenge I decided that I would try to walk outside of my usual… beaten paths,
so I chose a character that I never dealt with before. It was an… interesting journey.

COMPLETENESS

In the beginning there were two of us. One blood, bonded forever. Complete.

Life was carefree. Play and discoveries and dreams. Work too, but shared in love.

Easy.

Then things changed.

Separation was hard. The severing of ties harder still, as was the new life.

Harsh, demanding. Brutal. Yet still tolerable, because one bond remained, and it was stronger than those we lost.

We grew, we changed, we found new goals – but the link remained. There were still two of us, and it was enough.
Until fate struck.

Anger and hurt and… yes, guilt. Crashing down like an unbearable weight, running like acid over the open wound,
the deep cut of shame.

I'm counting on you to protect him.

Failure and loneliness washing away the plans, the drive to succeed, the carefully nurtured goals.
Living day and night with those terrible visions plaguing the mind.

Only one way to shut them off. Revenge.

Silencing the voice that whispered it would not fill the void, or ease the pain. Listening only to the molten rage
seething inside, flaring like fever.

Then, one day, a notion. A new beginning.

Born out of thievery, true. But why not? That was the way it had been for me as well – both of us when there
was still an us.

It might not fill the void – no blood-bond, no shared history. Yet it would give me purpose and maybe, just maybe,
silence the voices, shut down the images. Erase the guilt.

What I had not anticipated was the effects of having to care for a creature depending on me just as much as I depended
on it. It woke something… long forgotten.

The conquest, the crowning achievement, had become something else. Something more.

Not all at once, of course. It happened so subtly, so stealthily, that when the moment of total commitment came, it took
me by surprise.

One became two once more.

It was exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. Because power meant also responsibility – and that, in turn,
meant difficult choices, and pain and sometimes even fear. Still, despite the setbacks, the gaping void was filled
once again.

Not that it lasted long. Something was wrong.

Was it a fault in the genetic make-up? Or the effect of the harrowing experiences we shared, the dangers, the losses?
It hardly made a difference. In the end I had to take a gut-wrenching path.