the sacrifice

it's not about the pain.
it's not about the price.
it's about the sacrifice people are willing to accept
to get what they want. to get what they need.
understanding they're willing to do more than bleed.
because understanding is the first step to earning respect.
and a world with more respect
brings us one step closer to a world of acceptance.

~🏆~

She was beginning to realise how far down in her memory she'd buried her teenage years

The bush rustled as the wraith inhaled, and began to wither, the berries turning from a cherry-red to mouldy black. Their plump and juicy shape sagging and oozing. The wraith moved on to yet another bush. There were plenty in this exposed part of the mountains.

The scene unfolding before me was nothing like what I expected a wraith encounter to be like. It was... peaceful.

The fires of my rage, my desire for revenge, were all but extinguished. Instead, I felt the cold creeping up inside my body, taking every inch of me. My breath was slow and shallow and I could no longer feel my heart beating in my neck.

I wondered if it was beating at all. What drove me no longer did, but now I had no reason to go on.

I could no longer feel my legs, my hands gripping my sword, or anything else for that matter. I just felt the ice. Ice in my veins, ice in my heart. I caught one final glimpse of the wraith, draining the life from another patch of berries, before my hand slipped from the hilt and I felt the snow envelop me. What followed was a haze.

I could feel myself moving, snow rushing over my shoulders, down my back and into the crevices of my boots. I was being dragged. My eyelids were heavy and frozen shut, but I could see light flickering beyond them.

I can't take it anymore

Then, darkness.

I was no longer being dragged through snow, I was on a much rougher surface. I tore my eyes open and cast a look around. I found myself in yet another cave, now propped up against the wall, just as my companion had been. The navigator crouch over me, grinning. He reached beneath his shredded fur cloak — it was slung over his shoulders haphazardly, its proper form destroyed by large gashes all across it — and pulled out a handful of berries. He pushed them towards me. I took them without a thought, without even a thank you.

"I thought you were dead" I croaked, after scoffing down the sweet berries.

Elias my navigator

"I thought you were dead" The navigator replied, nodding to the tracks that lay outside the cave; the marks of my body that he'd dragged through the glistening snow.

I smiled with victory as I glanced at man in front of me

"I slew the monster".

"What?" He said not believing to the words I just said

"The beast was just there, looking at a bush. It didn't even notice me sneak up. I took your sword and cut it in half. The stories are true, you know?

One swing was all it took."

True as the legend says but then again guilt always find a way to interfere,

When would I stop feeling it? This all-consuming guilt. Sadness overcame me, the mourning feelings I should have had for my Father, instead of the unbridled anger. The anger that had cost too many too much. The navigator could see the look on my face, the look of regret, sorrow and devastation, not the joy and retribution he'd been seeking.

I didn't feel anything I thought I'd feel.

The triumph of slaying the Wraith?

Or

The Sweet Taste of Revenge?

No

I just felt more pain.

Pain for another life lost for no reason.

And no this not the end, in fact we're just getting started

Note: under major editing as of now.
Don't have lot of inspiration rn but have a vision for the ending

🏃‍♀️💨