I love you, I love you, I love you..
The words repeated in his mind; a last wish, a plea, a prayer. Stay with me. But it was useless. She was long gone from him. And it was his fault. It was no less than he deserved. He was much less than she deserved.
His body was stiff and shaking, spent too long curled in the snow of the mountain. Teeth chattering, he eventually -somehow- got up, driven by no more than natural instict to survive. He stumbled into the forest, at the base of that looming mountain, tripped and collapsed where the snow quickly faded into cold earth. With a hard thump, the weight of his bone-thin body collided with the earth, and he knew he wasn't getting back up again; not any time soon.
He was forced to lay awkwardly, the armor of bone plates on his body protruding out of him in grotesque monuments of protection, guarding a beast the world would rather be removed from this earth. The discomfort was so distant as his body quaked and shuddered with chill, hypothermia setting in, and barely-contained pain. The welted and angry skin around the ivory plates finally lacked the flow of blood that always seemed to be spilling from around them as they grew more; the blood too slow and frozen in his body after being healed then buried in ice and snow.
The cold was everywhere. It should have been warmer in this place, but he was too far gone. Too far chilled and no visible fat and muscle to insulate any warmth. He was supposed to be searching, hunting. Supposed to be killing a man made of iron, directed to take him or take his life. Or die trying. And he had, he'd searched for him. But he had seen her and everything else fell away.
And then she was gone. Forever. And no longer could his highly-trained mind force her out to the recesses so he could focus. No longer could he forget her, even for a brief moment. Because he'd told her his heart in three simple words. He'd promised, he'd vowed. Silent and unassuming, but there in his words where she couldn't find it. I love you.
And there'd never be another.
The words repeated in his mind; a last wish, a plea, a prayer. Stay with me. But it was useless. She was long gone from him. And it was his fault. It was no less than he deserved. He was much less than she deserved.
His body was stiff and shaking, spent too long curled in the snow of the mountain. Teeth chattering, he eventually -somehow- got up, driven by no more than natural instict to survive. He stumbled into the forest, at the base of that looming mountain, tripped and collapsed where the snow quickly faded into cold earth. With a hard thump, the weight of his bone-thin body collided with the earth, and he knew he wasn't getting back up again; not any time soon.
He was forced to lay awkwardly, the armor of bone plates on his body protruding out of him in grotesque monuments of protection, guarding a beast the world would rather be removed from this earth. The discomfort was so distant as his body quaked and shuddered with chill, hypothermia setting in, and barely-contained pain. The welted and angry skin around the ivory plates finally lacked the flow of blood that always seemed to be spilling from around them as they grew more; the blood too slow and frozen in his body after being healed then buried in ice and snow.
The cold was everywhere. It should have been warmer in this place, but he was too far gone. Too far chilled and no visible fat and muscle to insulate any warmth. He was supposed to be searching, hunting. Supposed to be killing a man made of iron, directed to take him or take his life. Or die trying. And he had, he'd searched for him. But he had seen her and everything else fell away.
And then she was gone. Forever. And no longer could his highly-trained mind force her out to the recesses so he could focus. No longer could he forget her, even for a brief moment. Because he'd told her his heart in three simple words. He'd promised, he'd vowed. Silent and unassuming, but there in his words where she couldn't find it. I love you.
And there'd never be another.
