by Haelewulf » Tue Sep 04, 2007 6:45 pm
((Later that night...))
Wulf's shoulder was a sea of pain as he lay awake, face-down on the bed. The agony raging in his wound was nothing to the rage in his mind, bitterness and anger billowing across his consciousness, obliterating any hope of healing sleep.
Damn them... Fools, brigands... a lynch mob with an insignia!
Feondwulf's laughter came drily from the back of his mind, growing in strength as his "brother" basked in the fury seething through their shared body.
Indeed, brother... I finally begin to see the attraction of your association with them!
Wulf gritted his teeth, both against the pain and against the mocking of his former self.
Feondwulf's laughter dwindled to an unpleasant chuckle, his voice now withering in its caustic sarcasm.
My, but you do choose your companions wisely, do you not. Indeed, I doubt that even if I'd had free run of this body, I could have picked a group to sink you so far into despair!
Feondwulf's chuckling gave way to outright laughter once more.
Shut up!
Feondwulf's laughter died instantly, his "voice" coming hard and angry through Wulf's mind.
Disappointed, are you? Remember that it was YOUR fool's mercy that allowed them the freedom to do this! Had they been killed or incarcerated as that Emberyn suggested, you would not be wounded! More importantly, they would not be free...
Wulf closed his eyes, the truth of the words hitting him.
As he lay there, he began to drift into a troubled sleep, his loss of blood coupled with the exhaustion of the day finally taking its toll.
He found himself atop a hill, the sky and all around him obscured by rolling clouds, tinged with red. Instinctively reaching for a blade, he found himself to be naked and unarmed.
A figure appeared from the mist, clad in armour as red as the clouds that seemed to spawn him. The figure fixed Wulf in its gaze as it approached, and again Wulf beheld himself, yet not himself, face to face.
This time, however, the differences between Feondwulf and himself were starker. Feondwulf's eyes were tinged with the same red that dominated this eerie place, and in his face was none of the warmth or concern that characterized Wulf. A cold and unfeeling arrogance permeated every facet of the armoured figure, and Wulf shuddered inwardly to think of this being controlling his body.
Feondwulf gestured to their eldritch surroundings. "Welcome, brother... to the Hell I have occupied since your "healing" in Rivendell." He spat the word "healing", his lips twisting bitterly.
Wulf stood warily, his eyes suspicious. "Why have you brought me here? And why am I naked?"
Feondwulf raised an eyebrow, chuckling coldly. "Brought you here? Your mind is full of anger, full of violence. This is the place those emotions are born... here, in your mind. You are here because who you are is here. Especially now." Feondwulf turned and began to move away, gesturing for Haelewulf to follow him. "Your nakedness is because you have yet to learn to disguise yourself from your own thoughts... where as I, with years of hiding from you, am adept, to say the least."
Haelewulf cautiously followed Feondwulf from the hilltop, the mist billowing back around them. Feondwulf seemed to pay it no mind.
"Where are you taking me?"
"A place you must see to understand," Feondwulf replied cryptically.
After walking for what seemed to Haelewulf to be an age and a half, a huge and forbidding shape suddenly loomed out of the mist. As they approached, the shape became an enormous fortress, its sides mirrored, apparently formed from a single piece of impossibly smooth stone. A mighty gateway stood in the center of the outer wall, yet no gates hung there.
"Behold," said Feondwulf, with a sardonic gesture, "the impenetrable fortress of your thoughts. See how well-defended it is. See how easily it could repel any attack." He chuckled unpleasantly, and led Haelewulf through the open and abandoned gateway.
All about them, different coloured mist roiled and churned. Most prevalent was the red of anger, but others floated just above.
"Where is everyone?" asked Haelewulf, an expression of wonder on his face as he strove to take it all in.
Feondwulf halted. "You are here. This is your mind. Whom did you expect to find here?"
Haelewulf began to retort, but suddenly became aware of a nagging pain in his shoulder.
Feondwulf grinned as Wulf instinctively grabbed for his left shoulder with a grimace.
"Aye, you have found the true beauty of this place. This is where your consciousness dwells. It is here that I dwelt for years, watching through your eyes, feeling through your skin... feel the anger well up inside you now, as it seethes through your mind..." Feondwulf's eyes flickered as he breathed deeply, drawing the red mist into himself, a thin smile etching itself on his countenance.
Haelewulf's eyes flared, and he desperately looked for other mist to breathe. Hovering just above him was a white mist, and he leapt, straining for it, and gasped a lungful before landing alongside his "brother" once more.
Contentment filled him, pushing aside the tendrils of anger threatening to overcome him.
"Lead on, "brother." Let us get to the heart of the fortress. I have no desire to prolong this visit further."
Feondwulf's face suddenly twisted in anger, but in an instant had reverted to its normal cold arrogance. "Very well... we continue."
Their path led them at last to a keep with heavy doors. Feondwulf halted outside.
"Not coming, then?"
Feondwulf's eyes were hooded. "I... cannot enter this place. It is where who *you* are resides... and it is the reason you and I can coexist in this place."
"But what is behind the door?"
"Enter, and discover..."
Haelewulf stretched forth his hand for the door...
"Aagggh..."
Haelewulf awoke, face-down on the bed, his shoulder a sea of pain... but the anger in his mind was ebbing, his awareness of Kelli near him and her love for him, the relief that his wound would heal in a matter of days, the knowledge that the Thorn would support him as he recovered... Contentment drove much of the anger from his mind, leaving but traces.
A new day...
And within his mind, an armoured figure sat on a red hilltop, looking out toward a castle with mirrored sides, and waited...