Return to the Forge

[dainul]

With a final step, Reith looses sight of Kendra and steps out onto the half-built fort. It's larger than he recalled, the guards had made a good go at turning his earthen ditch into a real deathtrap, and a low palisade of... he peers closer, yes demon bones rings the top of the mound.

"Hey, there you are." A guard spots Reith and heads over, "Where have you been?"

Reith doesn't answer, but instead turns and heads back toward the Bastion. To fight so far, endure so much only to be cast back into the shadow-world...

Inside the forge, he drops his shield and strips his armour even as it begins to lose the extra strength Kar had granted it. He practically flings the much-repaired chain into a corner, and slumps down on his bed roll beside the still-warm forge. Without thinking, he glances over at the empty cat-shaped space in the room, where Kendra would sleep, curled up as close to the forge's warmth as she could get without climbing into it. It would be quiet here for a while. Ultimately, he hoped, a very long while.

"Don't you dare forget me... Don't you damned dare."

Laying back, his mind is filled with thoughts of the living, and the Mother. What had he done so wrong as to be here rather than in her arms again? The thought refuses to leave him and lingers in his dreams as he drifts into a troubled sleep.