The storm was the worst that I have ever seen. Lighting cracked from the sky every second, and the rain mixed with hail, bruising our arms and heads. My brother, Karl, had wrapped his body around me as we huddled beneath a tree, but it did little to protect from the storm. The Gods have finally decided to destroy us! I knew that was unreasonable, but I could come up with no other explanation.
I screamed as Karl was ripped from me. I was open to the elements. Every piece of hail felt like a needle in my back. When I opened my eyes to find my brother, the rain washed into them, blinding me. A hand grabbed my arm, and I started sobbing. Karl was back. He started pulling me, guiding me through the storm. He held me against his side. How he could see, I didn’t know.
The rain stopped, though I could hear it nearby. I felt like I could take a breath without drowning. I tried to open my eyes to see where we were, but it hurt. I’m sure my eyes were bloodshot, and they were still tearing up. My brother lowered me onto the ground and placed another body beside me.
I wanted to react. I knew I should react. But I was too tired to. My eyes were drooping. Everything was going burry….
* * * * *
My eyes felt like they were glued shut when I awoke. My first sensation was that I was dry. My next was the cold, hard floor beneath my body. And then a light on the other side of my eyelids. I slowly opened them, scared to find out where I was. A fire burned in front, beyond it, I saw darkness. But it was suddenly light, and then the rolling thunder pounded in my ears. I’m in a cave, I thought. I shifted my hands beneath me and started to lift myself up. Pain racked my back and my arms. I gave a cry as I collapsed back to the floor.
A shift of fabric on the stone floor, an arm grabbing my shoulders, a voice saying softly, “Careful now, your body has been through a lot in the last day.” My body stiffened, sending shooting pain down my back. That’s not Karl’s voice! Who is that!? I tried to move quickly, to flip over and surprise the person behind me. I maybe got half way before my body gave out and I fell to the ground again.
“You idiot,” I heard the voice hiss as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and helped me into a sitting position. I quickly looked up at him. A middle-aged face looked back at me. If I had to guess, he was maybe 50 years old. But the most striking thing was his mismatched eyes. One was green, the other was purple. The two-eyed destroyer! I wanted to run, but if this really was him, I knew I shouldn’t do anything reckless until I located Karl.
“My brother,” I croaked out, my throat raw from screaming and lack of water. The destroyer pointed over to the other side of the fire. There, the limp body of my brother faced the fire. I shoved the man off of me and started to crawl over to him. "What did you do to him?!” I demanded as I crawled.
He simply stood up and walked around in front of me. “Stay still, you are more hurt than you think. Your brother is fine, he’s just asleep like you were.” But I needed to see for myself. I maneuvered my way around his legs and reached for my brother. I clamped my hand around his wrist and felt for a pulse. It was there. I started crying then. The destroyer gently picked me up and put me right next to my brother, then he walked towards the back of the cave and knelt down by the packs back there.
“You two took quite a beating out there,” he said as he rooted around for something. “I’m glad I heard your brother’s cries when I did.” I hadn’t even heard Karl yelling for help, how did he hear it. By now, the destroyer had found what he wanted and stood up. Clutched in his hands as a skin flask, holding some sort of liquid. In the other, there was a hunk of dried meat. He offered both to me when he made it back to the fire. I didn’t really want to take them but knew I needed them.
Silence fell in the cave, only broken by the crackling of the fire, and the sounds of me eating. The destroyer had settled down against the wall, just staring into the flame. I got up the courage to speak, “Are you the destroyer?”
He turned and looked at me. I feared for a second that he would be angry, but he only started to chuckle. “So that’s what they are calling me now eh? Yes, kid, I’m the ‘destroyer’. Prophesied to kill the king. Though I prefer to be called Sam.” He smiled at me, “Why do you want to know?”
Well, I wasn’t expecting that question. I swallowed, “Because I want to know why. Why destroy the kingdom? What did we do to make you so angry?”
The destro- Sam turned to look back at the fire. “You ask a complicated question boy. Let me ask you one: are you fated to be here?”
I blinked, “What?”
Sam looked at me, “Every action, every decision that led you up to being caught out in that storm, and found by me, was it fate? Or was it coincidence? Are your actions from free will, or the illusion of free will because the gods already know what decision you are going to make?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. I had never really thought about it.
“Those are the types of thought that keep me up at night,” Sam continued. He looked back at the fire, “If the prophecy had never been spoken, would I still destroy the kingdom? Or was it being spoken necessary for me to have enough hate against the king to dethrone him?”
I looked down. “What happened?” I asked.
“The king ordered his troops to destroy my village after he got word about my eyes. My family was all killed, my friends burned alive.” I felt horror rise in my chest. They never told us this! Sam still stared into the fire, “Would I still kill him? I think only the gods will ever know.”
Neither of us spoke as I finished the meat and took a last sip of the water before slowly standing and going to sit by him. I grunted in pain as I slid down. Sam reached up and took my weight on his arm, helping me get to the ground. “You, my friend, will have some impressive bruising on your back,” he joked to me.
I looked up at him. “I’m sorry, Sam. About your family, about what we have put you through. And mostly I’m sorry about hating you before I even met you.”
Sam didn’t look over at me, but I still heard him whisper “Thank you.” We sat in silence for a half hour, listening to the storm outside and the fire crackling in front of us. Without really realizing it, my head started to droop and my eyes got heavy. I actually fell against Sam when I fell asleep for a few seconds. Sam laughed at that. “I think you need to get some more sleep,” he murmured after I jolted awake.
I nodded numbly, almost too tired to respond. I laid down facing the fire. Sam walked around and propped my head up with a cloak. “Will you be here when I wake up?” I whisper, already disappearing into the realm of dream.
Sam brushed the hair out of my face. “No, little one. It is time for me to depart. Be safe, and take care of yourself and Karl.” My last sight was Sam shouldering a pack and walking out into the storm that raged outside.
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