'Where did it all go wrong?'

A common question really, but one with deep meanings and sometimes even deeper answers. In my case though, there's nothing deep about it, I believe it's just tragic.

The ever so sad story of Kael Morgrave, that's me by the way!

Floating in a almost numbing darkness that almost makes me forget this goddamn pain. The pain coming from every fiber of my muscles, all my nerves and blood vessels literally detaching from my bones. The scraping sensation of my flesh peeling from my skull, and yet the weird part is that somehow I still feel my bones?

'Where did it all go wrong?'

My answer to that?

From the very fucking start!

Blackfern's Hollow, a godsforsaken village in the middle of nowhere. The closest thing to that could be called civilization is a small barony a week away. Swamps and bogs surround the place, a eerie atmosphere always makes itself known throughout the settlement.

Ever got those kinds of depressing days, where you could swear somebody had died or at least suffered immeasurable sorrow?

Well depict that every day of the week, for every month and every year, and there you have it! The only reason this cursed place still exists, is that in a cruel twist of fate, some herbs around this place conduct mana really well.

Mana; the ever present energy that makes the world go round, a really bendy energy if I could say so myself. It exists in it's basic pure form and then spreads itself in tinier particles called elemental spheres, which mages and the likes then use to cast spells and whatnot.

I'm not really a scholar so I can't explain that well, unfortunately for me, as it had always been a sort of dream of mine to go around shouting 'fireball' and blasting things apart.

Sigh...

Enough self-wallowing!

Moreso, this bloody hellhole was founded by an old hag, one that goes by Lyra Blackfern, some sage that wondered the continents and decided to settle here. Still can't wrap my head around how demented one has to be to wake up and say:

"Hey look at this awful place, perfect spot for a village!"

But hey! Who am I to judge?

I'm just a decaying corpse at this point, not really prone to judgements I guess...

She also decided to raise a small but elite school for the magically talented, in account for the magical herbs. Six or seven teachers make sure to properly guide the students in the path of the arcane, it is not a world renowed facility for sure, but nothing to scoff at.

And in this cozy place, is where I was born and proceeded, against my will, to call home.

I was born around midyear, not really sure, around these parts we don't keep track of such business, but in my case things went on a more sour note. Apparently my unlucky ass was born under a green moon, or as the locals call it 'The Death Moon', a bad omen if there ever was one.

A sickly frail child, a cursed bad omen... What could go wrong?

It seems that everything!

But you ask, surely things couldn't be even more somber?

Yes they bloody can!

I am, or was I don't know, the only child to the Margrave family, a family of gravekeepers!

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How perfect...

How fitting...

So when I grew from a sickly baby to a sickly child, I was avoided like the plague, mostly.

There had to be some sunshine in this fog i call life, and those sunshines came as two children. Roy and Lissana, two brave souls that dared to come near 'it'.

Roy approached because he wanted to prove something or he was hazed to do it, he never really told me, and we got along swimmingly. The brat just started hazing me outta nowhere, so naturaly as two young and refined lads, we got into a scuffle! Punches, kicks and hair-pulling, everything was game. We even got a nice little audience at the time from what i remember, we went at it for some good 10 minutes untill a girl got in between us and decided enough was enough.

In comes Lissana, a angel on earth, world doesn't deserve her I always said. A smile warmer than the first rays of spring after the long winter, with the personality to match it. She pulled both of our ears and proceeded to deliver a sermon for what seemed like an ethernity.

After that things went as they usually go, we became close friends and shared some wholesome momments together.

Until tragedy decided to rear it's ugly head again...

Mom and Dad snuffed it and I became an orphan.

As at the time of their passing, I didn't have the age to keep up family the family trade, they sent some other poor bloke to take the shovel. I was taken in by Roy's family, which I had gotten close to at the time, thus I became a butcher assistant. No complaints here though beats living in a graveyard.

More years pass and Roy, Lissana and me got into that weird fase that hairs started popping up where they shouldn't and our attributes start to grow. Due to our closeness we got caught up in a dreadfull love triangle, things got all sorts of weird until a winner would be decided.

And guess what?

It was not me!

But no hard feelings! Really none at all! believe me I'm trustworthy!

Yeah I am sore loser! So What?! See the woman you had feelings for get touchy with someone else, every single day, and to top it off i lived with the guy! But I couldn't just break things off with the two, they were the ONLY two people who seemed to put up with me, that closed a lot of avenues so I just decided to suck it up and smile.

And now comes the good part, the start of my fall from disgrace.

A common day like all others where i looked at the depressing scenery on the window and started my routines. Put on some clothes, wash my face, eat with the guy screwing Lissana... All the good stuff!

I put on my worn off boots, grabbed my cutlass and went around the village looking for anyone that wanted for their chicken or their geese to be butchered.

Soon enough i found a family wanting their eldest rooster to be turned into nicely cut meat.

I went in to get my hands dirty, grabbed the loud thing by the neck and snapping it. It made a clear pop sound that i really enjoy somehow. I defeathered it and cut it's belly open, digging my fingers through the warm innards, pulling each part out with care and throwing it in buckets, stained with so much blood it would make you dizzy.

Strange thing though, I always find this part to be comforting...

Weird I know! But I can't help it!

Always found that weird, me and death, we have a thing going on. I feel at peace amidst death, when people died I often found myself wondering what the big deal was, they just died, that's it nothing complicated about it. It only got weirder, as even when my parents passed I couldn't bring myself to mourn, cry or even feel sad, after all, they just died.

Made one hell of a show though, I knew not feeling sad was a big nono, so I put up an act.

I finished filleting the rooster in nice and neat chunks of meat, delivering it to the nice folk, who seemed fidgety by my mere presence.

Sheesh... It's not like I'm going to bite you guys!

I roamed around doing this same dance, again and again till twilight. I cleaned my hands and started walking, going to a place filled with sweet memories, I was going to a small hill near the border of the swamps. The place Lissana and Roy would be waiting for me.

Masochistic of me?

Maybe, but they're my friends...

That small hill is where we spent most of our childhood in our usual shenanigans.

There I saw, the bittersweet scene of the two of them holding hands and gazing in the distance where the moon was about to shine.

"Hey lovebirds got space for another?"

Lissana looked over and said in between smiles:

"Always Kael, you know that! Anyways, how was your work?"

"Bloody."

She looked at me with a deadpan face until Roy just burst out lauging.

"Hahaha"

Wiping a non existent tear off his face he countinued.

"Still the same after all these years, and you still got a bad sense of humor."

"Well atleast I got some sense if any at all."

That little response got me a punch in the shoulders.

Amidst our usual banter, I felt something wrong, something foul. The hairs in the back of my neck stood up, sweat drenched every inch of my body and my eyes turned bloodshot.

A pale sickly green, shined all over us, and in a move that I would forever curse through the remainder of my existance, I looked up.

Directly at the fucking moon!

And the momment I did so...

What I saw would forever be etched deep in my soul if there is anything left of it.

Death, carnage, mountains upon mountains of bodies and atop of it that cursed moon!

My body turned feeverish, I started trembling, my eyes rolled upwards and I passed out.