I left my tomb just as the moon began to crest over the mountains and the shadows of the night began their ritualistic dance among the trees. I packed light for my trip into the forest and brought only my walking stick and cloak to shroud me from any unwanted attention. I moved alongside the shadows as I weaved in and out of the streaks of moonlight through the trees. My pace hastened as I neared the end of my journey for the night. My claws sank deeper into the earth with each bounding lunge I took and my shaded eyes focused on the horizon. The open field slowly illuminating in the distance was beginning to come into focus.
In stride I bowed my head and uttered the phrase which brought the transformation full circle. "Uhk-thor-rike-Ragnus!" With the last sound leaving my tongue two wings dripping in tar erupted violently from my back. With one bounding leap I leapt from the middle of my desired field and took to the night. I had compensated a young child who knew no better then to deal with a demon, to plant torches lining the tree line of the field. Little did he know that as he lit the last torch he would bare witness to the Grey Demon as he left the human boundaries of this earth.
Alone in the sea of blackness I can finally feel a state of peace which escapes me while I walk this earth. Letting my body fall limp to the powerful stroke of my wings I drift with ease through the empty sky. I close my shaded eyes and force myself back to the once horrific vision of seeing my once human body being thrown into a ditch by the enraged townsfolk. A relentless stream of hate filled chants and screams filled the night as the shovels began throwing heaps of earth over my corpse. As the last heap of soil is thrown I am taken with it down to the earth and right through my grave, plummeting just as I had before when I first encountered it. Instead of falling helplessly through the void, this time I was equipped to handle the fall and spread my darkened wings to control myself. As I drifted downward a deep guttural voice rang true in my ears.
"You have returned Ragnus." "Yes, I have." "As is apparent by your outstretched wings" "Who are you, how do you know me!?" I screamed into the abyss. "It was not your time." "Not my time? You speak in riddles! Enough of this!" "Your rage is a futile attempt at expressing emotion. You are only alive because I made it so. Your ascension is as such, because of me." "My ascension? Why did you cast me as such a beast?" "Your death allowed the transformation to take place." "Why me?" "That question is irrelevant." "What do you want from me?" "The time has come for you to realize your birthright." "What do you mean?!" "The answer rests within your new gifts, the abilities that have lain dormant for far too long. They breathe life into your once broken soul." "Kiun?" I mumbled to myself. "Yes, you have a calling. The time is now to realize it." "What will become of me?" "You will become what you were meant to be." "Go Ragnus, your time is now, realize your bloodline, and do not stray from the path. The responsibility has been passed unto you." "I will not waver, I will stand ever vigilant. I will not fail the Bloodline."
With the last word I woke up forcibly from my meditation and had found myself flying just south of the Arctic Inn. I tilted my wings slightly and with new vigor in my soul and body shot through the night back to my field and tomb in Nagnang.
The flight had been long, but allowed me the necessary time to reflect on the words that rang true in my meditation. They played over and over in my mind as clearly as when he had first spoken them. His guidance, although enigmatic had given me the reaffirmed idea of who I am and what my purpose is. His words however mystifying they were, rang with the most pure sensation in my ears. All the questions I found myself asking and wondering about?He pulled away the curtain from my past and showed me truly who I am.
"His voice?" I thought to myself as I tried to figure out his true identity. "Familiar, yet I cannot place it." I mumbled as I drifted through the moonlit sky. His voice in my mind had forced me to realize my real self and history and as I neared my field I vowed to myself to never let him down, or what he stood for. I will not fail my ancestors, or the ones who walked before me. I will carry on as they did?
The boy had done well?the torches remained lit. I tucked my wings against my back and shot towards the earth. The ground shook with such intensity that the village which lay to the east most certainly felt it. The boy whom had followed my instructions woke abruptly from his nap. "You've done well lad. Take this for your work." I said as I threw him a small sac of coins. He grabbed the purse and hurriedly ran home to his mom which was most assuredly scared sick. I chuckled to myself as I thought about the stories this boy would attempt at telling his friends and how futile it was to convince them that he in fact had seen a demon.
The night had been a momentous one and one that I would most surely not forget. As I dropped my cloak from my shoulders I near collapsed from the journey on my straw bed. As my eyelids closed over my grey eyes, a small smirk swept across my face as I mumbled to myself. "I am home?"