Harandoom
#2 of A Day in the Life of....
Harandoom
I look out on the light of another day through the eye that has not been my own for many years. For over three decades now I have been a prisoner in my own body, forced to watch in silence as another has walked with my feet, heard with my ears, spoke with my mouth, and killed with my hands.
Every day I try and struggle against my captor and every day I fail. My struggles are the only thing that tells me I am still alive despite the best efforts of the creature that controls my body. It threatens, tortures, and keeps me silent to the world. But it either wont, or as I suspect, can't kill me, the original owner of this body. I believe that were it ever to truly kill me trapped as I am that my body would cease to function, killing us both.
I long for the release from my suffering that death would bring. but each day my imprisonment continues with no end in sight. for a time my confinement was tempered a bit as I was able to watch the child that it sired with my body.
the boy never knew I existed but I grew to love and care for him as my son just the same. when he suffered I suffered. when he was happy I was happy. for a time I thought that I would be able to live as being a prisoner in my own body as long as my son was alive.
Then one day in the boys teenage years I learned that the creature had manipulated his birth to make a more suitable host for itself. I screamed and swore and fought as much as I could against the creature but it was no use. I was too deep in its control to have any effect. But then the creature summoned that fortune teller and received some news it did not like.
I had listened and watched, as I was always forced to do, as the fortune teller did whatever it was that he did to see the future. He told the creature and myself that it, the creature, had sown the seeds for its own destruction twice over. Once in ages past and again while it took its current breath.
This of course upset the creature to no end but before it could kill the seer he said the words that saved his life, "Those seeds, however, have yet to bloom. Should you avoid your fate three things must come to pass. Two are fast approaching and will be hard to avoid. But if the third is stopped you may yet succeed."
"First, the son of the city you sank will meet the one who makes him complete. Second, when the light of one combines the power of four a new age will begin. Third and last, when the two that were lost are found again only then will balance be restored and peace spring eternal."
With that the seer stood and turned to leave. But as he reached the door he turned back and looked straight at the creature but I could tell he was talking to me when he said, "Already the hammer that will break your chains has begun to fall." With that he left though I have no idea what he meant.
Not long after the seer's visit one of the younger wolves who like the way the creature ran things came with news. Everyone in the pack knew how much their leader hated anything that was not considered normal. Having watched every time he killed I knew this well. when the wolf told us that our son was gay I knew his days were numbered and so was not surprised when the creature ord3ered for Shadow to be killed while on a hunt.
A few days later word reached us that not only was Shadow dead but so was his killer. The creature was ecstatic, not only was what it considered a broken child gone but so was any link to it having ordered his death. Seeing as the rest of the pack believed the pair to have been killed by a bear. I on the other hand felt as though my heart had been ripped out.
First I lost my body, then the creature had had the mother of our child killed because she might pose a threat to him. But now it had killed my only son. I swore at that moment that somehow, someway I would find a way to gain my freedom and destroy the creature that had imprisoned me.
For a few months my anger and need for revenge was all that kept me going. Then one day one of the shadow summoning's that the creature sends out from time to time returned with some of the most unexpected news.
In the dark of the night after the rest of the pack had fallen asleep the summoning returned and gave the creature its report. IT told us that Shadow was still alive and living with a pack some distance to the south. While the creatures anger was horrible the joy and hope I felt lifted my heart higher than it had been in years. But that was nothing compared to the summoning next report.
It continued saying that not only was Shadow alive but that he had taken a mate. Some wolf by the name of Seeker. The name meant nothing to either of us until the summoning said he was the last guardian, whatever that was.
While that meant nothing to me at the time it clearly meant something to it. the anger it was feeling before intensified a thousand fold only to be quickly replaced by an equally powerful level of fear. Something I had never felt from the creature before. whoever or whatever this Seeker was he clearly scared the creature holding me prisoner to no ends.
Perhaps it was this news more than anything that drove he creature to new levels of cruelty. This culminated with it telling the rest of the pack that not only was Shadow still alive but that he was even now plotting attack with another pack of wolves. I don't thing that many really believed it, they were just too afraid to contradict it. And so the creature made a speech that would change the fates of everyone in our pack forever.
With the whole pack assembled before us it began speaking, "Today we will set out as one to end a threat to our lives. My former son has joined forces with a violent evil pack who seeks our destruction. They want to destroy all who do not follow them and we are their next targets. Their leader is an old and powerful magic user, but will be no match for me. So we are going to catch them by surprise and take their lands as our own. Take what you need for we leave in one hour and will not be coming back." The crowd dispersed in a hurry to get as much packed as they could in one hour.
At the end of the hour we set out but as we were leaving the creature had one of its lieutenants begin setting fire to the homes of the pack. Everyone watches stunned as their leader destroyed what they had spent their whole lives building. Slowly and with tears in their eyes they began the slow march to war.
While we marched I began to fight as I have never fought before against the creature. For the most part it did no good, though very slowly I began to feel something shift. But only for a moment before the creature had me rebound. those brief instances were enough to keep my hope up so I kept fighting.
Eventually we arrived at the valley where my son was now living. Looking out over it I could see the appeal to living here. Clear running rivers, lush forest, mountains protecting it on all sides. this is definitely a place a wolf could call home.
With a wave the creature sent all the able bodied members of the pack down into the valley to begin the attack on the village. In an unusual show of mercy for it, all of the children and elderly had been allowed to stay back in hiding until called for after the battle is decided.
And so we marched to war, and though I did not know it at the time, we also marched to our freedom.....