death

I stared up at the sky and the pale light of morning that was threatening to chase away the dark. The battle had been fought hard, and I was at the other side of it, broken but victorious. Even now I could feel my life force leaving me, painting these lands beneath my body with my blood.  Pain lanced through my body, and even breathing was difficult, made more so by the poison slowly seeping into my blood. These would be my last breaths, and at that moment I could only wish for more time.

"Just take another step. Sometimes, that's all you can do, my sunshine. Is to just keep stepping."

Syllea lay in bed looking at the ceiling. She had left the Pony not too long ago to get some rest, but she was having trouble sleeping that night. Every time she closed her eyes her parents and the dreadful night she lost them crept into her mind. Syllea decided to get up and see if Demlemoth was in the larger house. He was not, and Syllea began to panic.

When winter spread to the Bree-lands once more, the window which Diane stared out was shuttered closed. She was hidden from the world, and the world hidden from her. The only warmth came from weak candlelight, or a hearth too far from the bed.

Wrong. This was wrong. Why was she drinking something she enjoyed? It wasn't fair. 

Not fair to drink when they could no longer taste beverages which they enjoyed. 

The day had started off very pleasantly. Despite the grotesque cold of the early morning and the sunrise still to make an appearance, Rick made his way out his house with a spring in his steps. Frost made the grass and stone walls glisten. The candle light gushing out the windows of the house behind him illuminated his path till he reached the beck crossing. 

The bright light of the afternoon sun burned Lissi's eyes as she cracked them open. Her head...oh, how it throbbed! She rolled to her side with a groan, closing her eyes tightly until the shadow of her own body provided a shelter for her eyes. There was a feeling of something sticky reaching from her right temple, down her chin and neck. She lifted her hand to her head gingerly, feeling along the trail slowly.