Fated for War - Book 1 - Destroying Fate

Oneroi

The ruins were back. Ruins of marble pillars and Grecian temples, ivory statues and charred buildings. Grass scorched by either fire or the glowing, torturous sun above. Dry, cracked grounds drew various lines across the terrain, barren of life or water and so hot mirages began to appear in my line of sight.

My skin burned and my blood seemed boil as my dried lips parted for thirst, I raised a hand to shield my sight, searching for something, for anything...

For him.

He would come, I know he would, he always did. Every dream ended with him, with his eyes, with his voice, his touch, his anger.

I could only sit and suffer on this hill or desolation until he arrived, either to put me out of my misery or add to it.

He would be here, so I resorted to looking around, seeing the full scale of the devastation if the area I found myself in for the nth time.

Where had this place once been? What could this place have been? The marble structures, or what was left of them, stood high, towering over the ground below in a testament to what was sure to have been greatness. The hill stood high above ground level, not a hill the more I took in the scenery, but more of a mountain, the view of the land below cut off by either mist, fog, or clouds too thick to see through.

The scent of ash and burning metal filled my nose as I stared at the only beauty left of whatever had once been. As the mist cloud moved like white waves through air.

"εσύ!"

His voice. It was terrible, shaking me to my core and I could swear that my bones rattled as well. I turned quickly, spinning on my heals despite my hesitation to face him directly.

He was as terrible as his voice. From far away he seemed as tall and impressive as the marble columns, but as he stormed towards my quivering figure, each step causing the earth to quake below my feet, his figure grew seemingly smaller, or maybe I grew taller.

Whichever it was, it didn't dampen the frightening atmosphere radiating from his very being, or the fear I felt towards him.

But for some reason, with his battle-scarred figure and daunting steps, with his armored, bulky stance and impending march, fear was not my only emotion.

Like a magnet, like a moth to a flame, even though it could be burned to death, I stood there, unmoving, not lifting a foot yet drawn to him in such a way that though I would not move closer and meet him halfway, but neither would I run away.

And then he reached me, chest heaving with a rage I had never seen on another man. But this...being, before me, wasn't just a man, he was more. The very personification of something frightening, foreshadowing of destruction and blood. Death, or the pain and agony of what preceded death, that was in human form before me, staring me in the eyes with red ones of his own, the red of glowing fire hidden beneath coals and simmering, not fully ablaze, but not extinguished either.

And he grabbed me, both hands lunging out and grasping at my shoulders, fingers painfully digging into my skin and his hot breath hit my face in heaves.

"When!"

He growled, animalistically. I flinched, my eyes still wide open and baring into his until I saw it.

Fear.

He was not only making me fearful, but he was afraid as well.

His lower lip trembled with the mix of his emotions and he leaned forward and looked at me face to face. I jolted when he began to shake me, trying to pry an answer out of me that I didn't know to a question I didn't understand.

"When!"

His voice roared, ringing as thunder in my ears and echoing past me throughout the barren mountain we were on.

Then my eyes snapped open, I shot forward from the comfort of the pillows surrounding me and stared out wide-eyed into the darkness surrounding me and struggled to catch my breath. My shoulders ached, and the phantom feeling on his grasp still lingered against my skin as his voice continued to haunt me way past the borders of my dreams.

When?