Dan opened his eyes, where was he?

He looked around, but all he could see was a blanket of thick fog, even the ground looked like it had been made of it.  The feeling was honestly oppressive.  Standing up and brushing the dust off of his clothing he collected his khopesh from the spot on the floor where it had fallen.

Was this his?

He looked at the blade as it shined in the cold light of the fog.

He couldn't remember.

In fact he had trouble remembering anything, other than his name.

“Daaaan~” called out a voice in the fog.  It called to him in a mournful yet playful manner.  He turned towards the sound. “Daaaannnn~”

He took a step in the direction, his brain was screaming danger, but his body seemed to have a will of its own, and soon he was not just walking in that direction but running.

That voice was familiar, so familiar he had to go.

After some time of following the voice blindly he came to a breach in the fog, there in the center of the fog was a woman sitting with her back turned to him.  He had seen her before, he knew he had, she had long black hair that fell down her back in a cascade.  Her skin was a dark tan, and as dan crept around the side he was able to make out the color of her eyes.

Green.

Green like emeralds, no these eyes would put those simple stones to shame.

And from those eyes were tears.  She was sitting there, her eyes blood shot as she cried for who knows how long.  Her entire body was shaking and racked with her sobs as she clutched something to her chest in her closed hands.

“Dan!”  she wailed mournfully, but she was not looking at him, but at a tomb stone.

Here lays Daniel Rhodri

The kindest man to grace this earth

My sun and moon

My eternity

1996-2077

She flung herself up against the tombstone and sobbed.  

“This is her fate, should she stay with you.”  A voice whispered in his ear. “She will fall into eternal misery and it is entirely your fault.”  Dan wanted to look away, but found he could not.

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He reached out a hand only to find it passing through her.

“Dan, I cherish every moment we have spent together, all of them.”  she sobbed.  “But I cant, I cant go on, the pain without you is to much.”  she said with a sad smile.

“What are you doing?” Dan asked, a worried feeling in his chest.

“Do you know the story of the goddess Yira?” she asked in a soft whisper, leaning her head against the cold stone of the tomb. “Would you like to?” she asked, pausing as if waiting for an answer

“She wandered the world with another of her kind, a male they were in love you see but she was of a low birth and his stature was higher.” she still had her eyes closed and her forehead pressed up against the stone.  “They had run away from their land, as loving one so low as her would bring shame to his father.”

“They traveled far together, growing all the more close together, and then they found an area to call home.  Many years they passed living in those woods; happy and content.” She sighed. “But it was not to last, as the years passed the male’s discontent grew. He was a nobleman, but he was forced to live here in secret away from his people.”

“His heart grew dark, and the love that resided in it slowly died. Till one day he left her, and headed back to his people.” Dan saw a tear trace its way out of her puffy red eyes and down her cheek.  “She could not return home, she had shamed herself, and now was stuck in the world all alone, and so she lost all faith in the world, turning from it and viewing its inhabitants as vile creatures that only did things for their own pleasure and then leaving them when they provided no more pleasure.”

“And she stayed this way, despising the world until she met a passing Knight Errant.  He sat upon his steed, braving the world, wandering it as she had in time passed.  And he was lonely as she was.”  Taking a deep breath she continued.  “On a whim she traveled with him, it was folly, as she found life to be beautiful in his presence, and slowly over time she stopped viewing the world with hatred and started to see what a beautiful place it was. But it was not meant to be, human lives are fleeting, and in a short time he died of old age, and she was once again left alone in the world.”  she pulled in a shaky breath. “Do you know how the story ends Dan? She was unable to bear the loss of her love, so she simply faded away.  Gone, vanished.  I am like Yira Dan, while I was imprisoned I hated and despised the world, and everyone in it.  And then you released me, I was free, I loved, and was loved, it was heaven, perfect, but now you are gone, and I can’t, I can't follow you anymore, you have left me.”

She lifted her head and looked off into the distance. “So I will be like Yira.”  she said, and she placed an object on the ground by the tombstone. “I will also fade.”  as she said this her form started to grow less distinct.  “I love you Dan, I will always, forever and ever.” she whispered with a sad smile before vanishing entirely.

Dan fell to his knees and sat there, tears running down his face, gritting his teeth he dragged himself forward, even as shadowy hands grabbed onto him.  He pulled himself to his grave stone, and picked up the object she had placed there.

It was a ring.

“It was all your fault.” the voice whispered in his ear.  “She was sad because of you.”  the shadowy hands crawled all over him and pulled him back, he almost let them.

Opening his eyes he planted the blade of the khopesh into the soil of the ground and used it as an anchor.

“Why do you fight?”

“It is my fault that she is sad, but it is also her own, and it was a choice she made.”  he growled as he fought the pull of the shadows. “I must respect her wishes even if they lead to her own pain.”  

A shadowy figure formed in front of him. “So you will let her die due to your respect for her?”  the shadow woman looked him up and down. “Interesting, you are truly interesting Daniel Rhodri, in all my time I have never met anyone with your reaction, I have seen people shrug it off without a care, or people fall into despair but you still fight.”  she looked up at the sky. “Unfortunately that looks like all the time we have.” the shadow sighed in discontent, before leaning over and planting a kiss on his lips.

She pulled away, a strand of saliva connecting them for a second. “It is too bad, you will have to come back to play again some other time, Hahahahahahahahahahahaha”  she laughed.  A bright light shone, and Dan was forced to close his eyes, when he opened them he found himself in a familiar place, and the jumbled mess that was his mind cleared up.

“Dan!”  shouted a voice, and Amani threw herself onto him showering him in love and kisses. Abyzou was not far behind, wrapping the two of them up in a tight knot with her snake lower body.

Anubis looked at the three of them and smiled with a wolfish grin. “Bastet, it would seem you choose your companions well,”  he sighed, before handing her the necklace.

“I choose my friends carefully,” she purred.

“Am I considered one of them?” he asked.

“No.”

“So mean!”  he barked out, before laughing. “Now begone, I have things to do!”  he said, shooing them all away.