I Was There

Summary: A man watches as his best friend's heart family is murdered, and what happens with the rest of his life. Set around medieval times.


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I was there with him as the part of him that was human, the part that makes all human themselves, was killed. Watched as he surveyed the slaughter that the enemy had made of his family.
Held him as he grieved, as the part of him that made him my friend died a long and suffering death.

And I still was there, after his families burial, when he turned to me, and asked for the one favor that I could never give him, the one request that I would always turn aside.

When he asked me to kill him.

“I will weep at your funeral, grieve for you, and my bereavement will be as deep as a brother’s, for that is what you are to me; but I will not draw my sword against you and bring the reaper to claim you.”

He said that he had nothing left to live for anymore, and looking then, I could see he was right; his will to live was gone. And many years later I still do not know if what I did was right; I gave him a will to live.

“And what of the enemies that slaughtered, that committed this massacre? Are you willing to let them destroy other families?”

And so I was there to see the fire in his eyes flame up; but this time it was not a living flame, one that feeds off of love and hope, but one that is fueled by hatred, and the despair of others.

And I still was there when we went back to battle, and saw the man that was closer than my own blood become a demon on the battlefield; a demon that the enemy feared.

But in the end he got what he wanted, and I still was there.

Was there when the reaper that had been waiting ever since his heart died came to claim him at last. It was on the battlefield, and by an arrow.

I saw as he fell from his horse, as his face, so set in anger and hatred for the previous years, settled into the peacefulness of one who knows he is going home.

And when the battle was done and I recovered his body, I did as I had told him I would many years before; I grieved, I weeped, but somehow my heart wasn’t as sore as I expected.

For, in truth, I had known those many years ago when he asked me to end his life, that the man I knew was already gone.

And I am still here, though my time is growing short, and soon I will be going home, where maybe I shall again see my old friend.


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