Roy

A Bird call across the southern jungle. His ears do not hear. Leaves rustle in a pattern suggesting a slither. The young man hears. His nose does not pick up the tell tale stink. He relaxes slightly. There are more leaves in this unkempt shaggy beard and hair then there are on top of the log. Of coarse he lays under the log. He checks the mud to see if it is fresh and fragrant enough to cover his smell. He settles into slumber.


Eventually their faces find him. They always find him. Some times all eight. Some times just one or two. They were men at arms who followed their lieges to defend Serpent?s Hold when the hurried alarm crossed the land. After more and more Ophidian?s arrived the defends were trapped in the two gate houses and bridge joining the isles. It was decided the scatter and each to find their way back to Lord British?s realm as best they could. Not all the ?great men? held their oaths. The 8 men wear left by different lieges. But my ancestors would completely turn from me if I did not try and aid them. My training in The Virtues would leave me no other options. We slipped to the jungle on the west isle knowing it to be less occupied and us to a be lesser force. We hoped to find a fisher?s boat and attempt the sail to the temple isles. We never did find a boat. And spent the rest of the invasion dodging patrols. One by one the Eight died.

I could not save them. I had lead them to disaster. I had failed. Maybe I did not follow The Virtues well enough. Maybe I had offended my ancestors. It would explain the deaths of those close to me . Maybe my actions were farthing the Guardian with my know it? Each sleep their deaths would play out again. The Forms would not still the rage. Clarity was only moments of more jagged rage, grief, bitterness and the suspicion that I had betrayed either myself, my charges or both. Time was a loop only occasionally interrupted with the thought and strong suspicion that the Siege was over and the Snake men banished.

The feet shuffle. The breeze stays in Goober?s face has he slinks along the forest floor.