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Not a chapter - New fiction

Not a chapter, but to fill space, here's something I found in my character voices file a while back, and I kinda liked.

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I was raised by the warrior Sunrise Truthblade.

He named me- and just writing this down causes me almost physical pain- he named me... He named me Custard. That was his first mistake. I might have had a proper name, a real name, but whatever it was, there's nobody left alive who remembers... It hurts too much to think about that, about what I lost when that bastard took me from my parents, when he broke me from my egg.

I was raised by the warrior Sunrise Truthblade.

It sounds like the name of a valiant paladin, doesn't it. Sunrise Truthblade, hero of truth and light, the epitome of all things good. Sunrise Truthblade, the bringer of the dawn, the very bearer of the blade of truth. But no, he gave himself that name, and for a damn good reason.

Oh sure, in public he played the paladin. Brightness and love, the valiant warrior of justice, saver of damsels, slayer of dragons. Sunrise Truthblade, The Worm Tamer, they called him. Look, what's what on the horizon, why it's Sunrise Truthblade and his loyal mount Custard, what could be a more heroic sight!

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Bastard. I'm getting angry just thinking about it.

Yes, he played the paladin, but behind the bright facade, when it was just us, away from the noise and light of the battlefield camps, when it was just us high up, above everything. When we perched on the very edges of the world, he would let his guard down and show his true face.

Maybe I was the only one to ever see that side of him. Oh, there were clues, The Worm Tamer I said they called him, well, you don't get a name like that without an element of fear. The younger ones, the children who'd snuck into the army in the guise of men, the offspring of the merchants and whores, the animals newly born, they all knew. But it's a strange thing, fear, it changes as you age, and those I saw shy away from him as youngsters, those who cowered from his touch and avoided his gaze, those were the ones who always came back later. It was always them who repeated his bright words most loudly, always those who admonished most harshly the fear shown by others, always those who strove the hardest for the first place, the first kill...

Sunrise Truthlade.

Bastard.

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So this is my epitaph huh, Sunrise Truthblade, eaten by his own dragon.

Hahaha, serves me right I suppose! Good luck to him!

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