Dusk had fallen over the land, the sky far above, and stars had begun to dot the heavens. Out on the horizon the last of the sun was sinking behind the mountain range, the final rays bathing them in a beautiful hue of gold, orange and red with a line of dark violet separating the light and the dark.
He sat on the hill and stared out towards the mountains, feeling the soft breeze dance around him and brush over the fields. It was beautiful and peaceful; and yet something felt wrong.
He raised his hand to look at it only to find the fingers warping and distorting, he was not awake yet. Still he was trapped in the maze the fiend had created but he could not hear her or feel, perhaps he was closer to waking.
His hand dropped and he looked back towards the mountains only to find that the sun had turned into a blazing inferno that washed over the mountains and down towards the fields below to burn them, the flames rushed towards him.
The man pushed to his feet and stared ahead at the ocean of flames that came towards him. He wasn't going to run. He would not give into the fear the nightmare was trying to create. Standing firm he inhaled deeply and moving inwards he sought the shield he had created for himself, the words that always brought him comfort in the darkest of days and loneliest of times. The song he had been taught so long ago. The song he knew so well.
He couldn't find the words.
"Don't bother." The voice spoke to him as shadows crept around him and the lake of fire before him spiraled upwards to form a body of a woman that now towered above him. "I took it away from you."
"What...?" A cold chill ran down his spine. It was impossible. How could she manage to do that?
"Do you think it will help you? It will not bring them back." The voice softly murmured and the land around him shifted and he found himself stood on top of a mountain he knew well and before him three stone piles he had raised years ago. He knew where he was.
"Think you meant anything to them? You were just a means to an end. Someone had to bury them and you were stubborn enough to follow." The voice spoke, the shadow of the woman replacing his own. "You bring nothing but misery." The voice added.
He shook his head trying to brush off her words and yet he felt weak under them.
"Everything, everyone, you touch and come near are infected by your poison. You may have built your walls but I can see the cracks and I can get through them. I will break you."
Raising his head to look at the graves he instead found himself looking at a familiar cottage near Trestlebridge and through the window a pair of silhouettes stood and he could feel the merriment and warmth within until the lights shut and the pair was engulfed by the shadows.
"You shouldn't have come near them. Now they are gone." The voice whispered. He looked away and his chest grew tighter. When he looked up again the man stood within a dark lid room and in front of him the shadow of a man watching over a woman that laid on the bed. His heart dropped at the sight.
"Should have kept away from her. Even after she woke you only did more harm. Everything you touch turns to ash." The voice whispered again.
"Stop it..." He begged under his breath.
Backing away he turned, eager to run and get away. However as he turned he saw a dark field of grey ash and stone where his kinsmen were fighting against a foul army that he remembered well.
He stood dead in his tracks as he saw himself ahead, injured and crawling towards a small blade that sat nearby. "No... Don't take it." He whispered to himself despite knowing nothing would change.
The memory grasped the blade and he rose, rushing into two men that were striking at his companion, his brother. He watched as he cut the men down and watched as thanks were given afterwards.
"This is where it started, wasn't it?" The voice questioned, the softly spoken words dancing around his ears as a silhouette of the woman walked past him "Was it worth it in the end? His life for theirs?"
He had no answer.
Suddenly he felt something cold in his hand. He looked down to see the cursed blade in his grasp. Terror struck him and his skin turned pale as he dropped it, the echo of the steel striking the floor ringing in his ears. His gaze snapped upwards only to see the ghostly pale face of a young girl with brilliant red locks, staring up at him in fear.
"Rîlhel..." He only now noticed he was knelt down before the girl and the blade had found his blooded hand again. The blade was thrown aside, as far as he could muster but no matter how far he threw it the blade came back and he could feel its taint within him again.
He stared at the girl in front of him and watched her lips move but there were no words"Rîlhel..." He repeated and his chest tightened painfully, his arms reached out to grasp the young girl but found nothing but the empty air as the small girl's body turned into fine dust, drifting off into the darkness that surrounded him again.
The man collapsed forward barely able to hold himself up by his own arms, he felt the tears well up and his being grow smaller as she slipped his grasp.
"Stop it..." He whispered weakly through a cracked voice, his eyes shut tightly and his body slowly lowering down against the floor underneath him.
"She never even knew the truth of whose blood ran through her, did she?" The voice continued and he could feel the presence of its owner circle around him. "The blade wasn't even the start of your curse. It has followed you for long. You bring nothing but death and misery to those you meet. Your name is better fitting now, Rhaug."
He winched under the mention of his name, jaw clenching and eyes shutting tighter as he felt more of him break away.
"Do you even remember your true name? The one that was stripped from you? It's why you cling to the other name, isn't it? The small resemblance that it holds. It's pathetic."
His head rose slowly and his being grew cold as he stared at the withered old cottage that now sat before him. The very same cottage that nearly became his home.
"No... Not here. I beg you, not here. Do not..." He hissed quietly through his teeth but he was unable to speak any further as the faint sound of a infant's cry sounded from within.
"No... No, please.."
There was no choice given.
Stood before the door he involuntarily pushed it open and the cry within grew louder. His body trembled and the tears that fell felt like ice. "Stop.." He weakly begged again but it was of no use.
It did not matter where he looked the image followed him, even if he tried to close his eyes he could still see the crimson on the sheet and the figure of a woman lying on the bed, the cold arms cradling the crying newborn.
"If only you had listened to that gut feeling." The voice murmured and he could hear the fiend's foul amusement drip from every word spoken "If only you had come a little sooner. It couldn't have been more than a few hours. If only you had arrived a day earlier. If only you had followed your instinct. Maybe, just maybe, she could have lived. Another broken promise, isn't it?"
He stepped forward slowly as he had done then, every step felt as if he had led in his boots. As he stood by the side of the bed he reached over for the blanket that poorly laid across the child and its cold, pale mother. He wrapped the infant up and brought the chilled babe to his chest, cradling it gently as he sank down to his knees.
His head tilted against the child's and its continuing scream masking his own weeping as the last of his strength faltered.
He had lost.
"You should have taken my offer when it was given, Rhaug." The voice murmured triumphantly, the last words that the fiend was going to leave him with making themselves known as he began to stir from the long nightmare.
"She will not come back to you. You are alone."
He stared up at the darkened sky above and drew in a deep, cool breath. Was he finally awake? His hand rose from the frosty ground to hover over his face and to his relief the hand kept its shape; He was awake again.
The last of the fiend's words sat strong in him still but he mustered what strength he could to ignore it. Maybe she would not come to him but he would find her, he had to. He had been a fool not to realize what he had right in front of him. It was a mistake he would not allow himself to repeat.
