Stephen Zimmer - Crown of Vengeance

Antonio slowly shook his head. “No, it’s not… all my life, I wanted to get away to somewhere else, and here I am. This is what we’ve gotten into… And it’s really no better than before.”

Erika quietly regarded him for a moment. He was speaking more openly than she had heard him ever since they had met. The fatigue had likely worn away his inhibitions, and his dark eyes glistened with considerable sadness.

“A lot of what happened in our world, we only heard about… reports, and accounts,” Erika stated slowly, after a moment. “Now, we are eyewitnesses too, and we share a burden with a lot of people here, and a lot of people back in our own world. I’ve never had a feeling like this, and I know we have scars that will remain forever. I know that only comes from having gone through something like this.”

“Couldn’t have said it better, Erika,” Antonio returned ruefully, nodding slowly, before repeating his words. “Couldn’t have said it better… What good is life anyway?” He abruptly turned his head away from her, and the oppressive silence returned.

“So what are you gonna do about it?” Erika sharply asked him, a spark of fire flaring within her. Something empty and resigned in his voice had touched a bare nerve within her.

She raised her head to look over at Antonio, and her gaze narrowed. Reaching out, she firmly prodded his chin back around so that his head was facing hers. She let her hand linger to force his attention in her direction. Her eyes commanded his to hold to her gaze.

“So what are you gonna do about it?” she challenged him again.

Antonio tried to avert his eyes from hers, but he soon was feeling the firmness of her grip increasing on his chin, and clearly sensed her inviolate will in that moment. He became fidgety at the boldness of the sudden question, and the strength displayed by the young woman.

“Look at me, and you answer me, Antonio,” Erika told him a little more forcibly.

With reluctance, he conceded the struggle as he brought his eyes up to meet hers.

“What are you gonna do about it?” she repeated again, for the third time, impatience imbuing her voice with an even sharper edge.

For a few moments, it seemed like the answer to her question would never leave Antonio’s lips. It was as if he was stunned, and it was all that he could do just to look into her fiery eyes.

“I cannot sit around and complain… or feel sorry for myself,” he began, in hesitant tones. He took a deep, sighing breath, before forcing more words out. They had an unmistakably resigned quality to them. “I don’t like the situation, but wishing it away isn’t going to make it go away. I have to deal with it. I know that. You and the others have my support… I hope that you know that. I’m just so tired right now. But I’m not going to give up.”

Erika nodded, and let a soothing grin cross her face, to replace the stern visage of seconds before. She spoke with a sense of reassurance and gentleness. “We do know that, Antonio. Just keep the fight in you. We cannot surrender within ourselves, or give up in any way. We all are going to need you. Each and every one of us.”

“I’ll give you my best,” Antonio replied, appearing to muster a little more resolve within himself. He gave her a slight smile in return. “We’ll get through it.”

“We will,” Erika replied, confidently. “One way or another… we will.”

“Hey there, you two… I’ve been looking for you,” interjected another familiar voice, echoing with sympathy.

Looking around, Erika saw Derek walking towards them. He was wearing only trousers, his upper body bared. His chiseled body glistened with sweat from the arduous work that he had been doing, sweat running down the contours of his well-defined musculature.

He wiped his brow as the corners of his mouth turned up into a gentle grin, though his eyes reflected no joy. A hollow, faraway look rested deeper within his gaze.

“Hey Derek,” Antonio said, looking momentarily boosted to see another member from their group of exiles.

Derek strode up to them, placing his hands upon his hips while working to catch his breath in deep gulps. His chest heaved and recessed as he took in substantial breaths of air, obviously fatigued. He wiped his brow again with the back of his hand. More sweat began to muster immediately in the wake of his effort.

“I’ve been on the other side of the village, and I brought some news with me,” he announced to the other two.

“What is it?” Erika inquired.

“Deganawida had some kind of emergency meeting with some elders of this village. It seems that they decided that even the area around the village isn’t safe to stay within,” Derek related to the two of them. “We are probably going to be evacuating the area pretty soon, to go deeper into the forest. Word has been sent to the other villages of the Onan, and other tribes of the Five Realms, to prepare them for the kind of assaults that hit this village last night… It was evidently the first time that kind of attack has ever happened.”

“So we are going to be on the move again,” Erika remarked, a little regretfully.

Derek nodded grimly, clearly sharing her frustration. “It sure looks that way, but what can we do? With flying creatures like those used in that attack, no village is safe. Well, I’m going back. I just wanted you to know what had happened, so at least you have some idea about what’s coming. If you see Janus, let him know about it. I’ve already located Kent, Logan, and Mershad, though I’m not sure whether Logan even heard what I was saying to him.”

Erika nodded. “We’ll tell Janus, I promise.”

“Hang in there,” he said, giving them a brief smile, though Erika could not fail to miss the half-hearted nature of it.

After wiping his forehead clear again, he gave them a thumbs-up gesture as well, though his eyes betrayed the real truth. Erika knew that he was a very tough man, and also knew that his stoic demeanor was not just his own way of handling the tragedy, but was also intended for their own benefit. Casting a presence of strength, even if just a semblance of it, was a lifeline that they could all hold onto within the storm of misery. It was a foundation when everything else seemed so unstable.

“Hang in there, both of you… It sounds crazy, but I know that it will get better. I know that it will,” Derek then added.

“It will, Derek,” Erika replied more firmly, giving him a warm smile in return, wanting him to feel a little of the confidence that he wanted to instill in the others.

He returned the grin, though it was laced with sadness. Derek then turned and set off with heavy steps to resume his efforts within the sea of tragedy.

It had taken no small effort to force himself to walk into the village on that unforgiving morning. He was not about to let the good people of the village and his friends work through the rubble alone. Heavy hearted, seeing the world shrouded in the coldest gray, Janus had forced his legs to take each step up the hillside and past the outer palisade, taking him into the interior of the destroyed village.

Though he had expected horrific sights to meet his eyes, the lack of surprise in finding them did not diminish the thunderous ache in his heart as his eyes swept across the inner grounds of the Onan village.

All of the calamities in view were more than burdensome to his already fragile psyche. One of them, though, had been nearly enough to shove him over the edge and into an internal abyss.

Though unbeknownst to Janus, it was the very same sight that had compelled Logan to sit down, broken and angry, amid the ruins of the village. It was the scene of the child sobbing into the fur of her dead dog, as she rocked back and forth on the ground, cradling the crushed body.