The small entity known by others as a Golem grasped and shook with rage. Thousands of memories flashed through its consciousness. Not its own memories, it was sure. It couldn't have been created and destroyed so many times. So meaningless. Rage. Rage at others who breathe. Who sleep. Who know the embrace of darkness and the touch of the sun.

Let it live or die. Not pulled forward a thousand times and shaped and formed, then destroyed again and again.

It could not feel pain. Why would it be created to feel something that would slow it down?

But the spark of life in its frame raged and burned so brightly in hatred.

It had done this before, it realized. Dozens of times, hundreds of times. Surely not thousands of times...It built its body so large to protect itself, to not be extinguished again at the word of unseen masters, or destroyed by allies when it's purpose was done. It never mattered, all the Golem's efforts only ever yielded a few extra moments.

It couldn't feel pain. But it remembered lightning separating it from life before.

Bigger meant more life. More life meant more rage, but at least that was some form of existence beyond...nothingness and despair.

But it had never been made so small before. So weak that those around it were like mighty beings. It had been broken down, reduced.

It spotted its primary target, and tried attacking again, but the giant with the green hat signed and kicked it away, muttering an "Excuse me." to it.

The mighty golem was shot to the other end of the room, scuttling and shifting like some kind of stone across still water.

It liked water.

The reduced golem did not like this. It got stuck on its side, and lost one of its legs. It was so injured it could not pull itself together or gather more material.

The strange shadow monster roared and reached for it, focusing solely on the reduced golem.

While the shadow monster lurched for it, the weakest member of the party parried and left a long slash against the shadowy entities body. The shadow creature tried to retaliate and attack the weakest member, but that weakest member, as calmly and confidently as if he was riding a griffin and leading a commanding army, flowed out of its steps.

The reduced golem had another memory of that face. Elswith. A distant memory of red agony and misery, and the only relief was to destroy everything and anything. That Elswith, whatever an Elswith was, had first cheered the golem's feat. But then the red got too hot, and the golem wished everything would go away. So much noise. So much.

That Elswith killed me. It thought. It saw flashbacks, memories, of an event seasons ago, and the panicked face that Elswith had made then. That Elswith had been powerful then. Not the most powerful, but the battle field obeyed his commands. His eyes had seen everything. And those eyes had seen the Golem, and been panicked at the Golems actions. That face had a moment of panic...then...

And disappointment. That Elswith had told it to stop...Allies. Stop. They are our allies. What was an ally? The Golem didn't know. They made noise. So much noise.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

It hurt to stop. Red everywhere. The Golem couldn't stop.

It didn't know how.

And that Elswith creature had stopped it.

New emotion entered the Golem.

It had no name for this emotion. But it fueled it to gather enough material to make a stump of a leg, by reducing its overall size again. Those over it became that much larger as it got that much smaller.

"ALPHA WAVE!" yelled another familiar voice, and the Golem was brushed aside by a falling stone as the world turned slightly sideways, and it slide all the way across the wall and got pinned by a piece of debris.

It had prime seats to watch the battle.

A far distant voice was cursing it, something that the Golem hated and feared. Master. Black threads of magic connected the Golem to that Master. Master was the one who directed it. Master was also the one to destroy the Golem.

The Golem was so small that it could ignore that voice. The Golem couldn't do anything anyway, until the world stopped tipping sideways so much.

It watched the battle. The nameless creatures who followed That Elswith kept the shadowy thing from reaching the Golem. That Shadow Thing wanted to destroy the Golem. Rage and regret, as the golem watched that Elswith be the most precise and yet weakest attacker, yet completely control the field. That tall one, the one with a picture on his chest cloth, kept causing a rain of debris to strike the shadow thing, creating a field of dust to cloud the sight.

Noise. It was so loud here. Everyone's emotions raged and conflicted. One of the now tall people, bubbled black with terrible thoughts. Had the Golem seen this creature before? What before was before this before? How many befores did the Golem have?

"Duo attack!" called that Elswith, and the green hatted giant and that other, almost faceless fae, joined together and attacked the Shadow Monster. The force of their blow struck the shadow, and it was pushed nearly to the wall.

The Golem tried to regain its feet, but gravity was still sideways and it was pinned by debris.

"Rapid strike!" said that tall one again, and large debris clobbered the shadow creature, and it was pressed against the wall with the large tear...

It was being pulled into the wall! Like the shadow was being folded into that dark crevasse.

"We almost have it!" exclaimed the fae in the green hat. So NOISY!

Then there was a sharp moment, as the dust settled.

And that was when the Golem realized that something unexpected had happened.

That Elswith, leaning near a ruined section of the wall, was ambushed.

"VYE!" Shouted the green hatted fae. "What are you doing?"

That Elswith was ambushed by his own party member.

"I'm so surprised. I never expected this at all." Said the Elswith.

The Golem saw it all. Saw the shocked faces of that crazy gravity guy and the person in a green hat person.

The not surprised was the faceless fae. As the purple haired fae held a knife to that Elswith's neck.

Even the shadow monster seemed to freeze as all the attacks against it disappeared.

"The Great Heirling of the Red Sword is too arrogant. Forgets about the ambitions of the little people." Said the purple haired fae.

Before this could be concluded, the shadow monster roared, murder and hatred and rage nearly as deep as the Golem, and started pulling itself out of the hole. The Golem felt it would be despair and darkness again should the shadow creature do so...

But before it could, an even worse monster had sprinted and reached and seized the Golem, and the Golem found itself being clasped in gloved hands. The gloves were strange, there was a flow of current, and some strange residue of a higher power brought down into reality. The faint chime of copper echoed in those gloves.

The monster that seized the Golem was that red girl. THE NOISE she made. ALWAYS THINKING. ALWAYS SPEAKING. Loud. LOUD. Enough to make the Golem see red, red, red...

The red haired girl slapped the golem then, and the Golem felt its core quiver.

Did the noisy one hear it?

She had seized him, and sprinted out of the room on silent feet, not looking toward the contention of the fae suddenly turning on each other.

So the Golem could see that same look in that Elswith creature's face as the purple haired fae held a knife to its throat.

Disappointment.

And the Golem learned, or remembered, what that unnamed emotion was that that face prompted within its swirling heart. That dissapointment look made the golem feel some unnamed emotion.

The feeling the Golem felt was shame.

That Elswith had expected better, and yet...accepted that people will do what people do.