We were walking down a quiet path in a prairie, with Chopper leading the way. Our pace, complementing our surroundings, had slowed down considerably. This was unnatural for him, but I didn't mind. Although we'd been walking in silence since this morning, only now in this utter quietude did I realize how silent we'd been for so long. The path seemed endless, with him walking in front of me. It wasn't the first time, I was left with all the time in the world to gaze at his broad back. I was seeing him as a wholly different person now. Even the snake tattoos that ran across his arms presented a completely different picture to me. Chopper usually wore half sleeved shirts, I'd noticed his clothes having ripped sleeves, even in winter. He simply preferred it that way, perhaps to display those tattoos so proudly. He had a snake swirling round each of his muscular arms all the way up to his neck where it opened its mouth as if to swallow him whole. Still, the tattoos weren't imposing and at

I had a feeling that our stay with Jean V. was overdue. For one, he wasn't a very zealous host, and living with him, we were no better than vagrants. And while, I wouldn't have had a problem with such a lifestyle, I knew we were imposing on Jean V., he must have wanted to go back to his solitude. He took us around town more than a few times and there was barely any place in Montreuil that we hadn't seen. To my surprise, Jean V. had once held an important position in the city, him being the mayor. He had developed the city to one of the best industrial cities in all of Mercae during his time. Whatever led him to retire to such solitary life now, he didn't say. But I assumed that things like that came with old age. Jean V. was an interesting man. He had a huge love for booze and rarely ate. He smoked two cigars at once and rarely took off his wide brimmed cowboy hat. He had a keen interest in God and in fact, he had been better in terms of his apparel, he might have been able to becom

"Once there was an immortal queen, the strongest on all of land. She had seized everything there was, the air, the water, the spirits and the people. But she was kind and loved by her people. The land was prosperous and there was no plague anywhere. Her people sang her praises, revered her, worshipped her and to them, there was nothing greater, and for good reason, for she had a heart of gold. Yet, the queen was bullied by the fate her family. Her house of seven, they were kind to her beyond what she could have asked for. But unlike her, they possessed no greater strength or wisdom.""The queen who had an eternity to live hated her solitude and wished that if only her house of seven, her family could live forever with her, she would preside over her land as a goddess. Riddled in her misery, she searched for an answer which came to her in the form of a sage. The sage was clad in white, with a long beard trailing behind him. He gave the queen the cure of her miserable dilemma. If the qu

"It's the end of the world", whispered Grim, as I stared outside the window, at a crimson sky that had only been getting redder every coming day. There was no explanation, no scientist, no wizard could explain what was going on. Nothing had changed, the wind was a little drier now but I didn't think much of it. I looked at Grim who rarely spoke to me, it was odd to find him not seeking a corner to sleep in.He wore a grin, like the end of the world wasn't any of his business at all. I gave him a blank stare without saying anything. I would have spoken, had we not been interrupted by Deli. She shot a stray newspaper my way and walked away. She looked particularly disgruntled for some reason. "Sorcerer killed: Five martyred in a fiery execution", read a headline.The sorcerer? I thought to myself, before reading on."...who had disguised as a woman during the assassination, as reported by eyewitnesses..."I suppressed a laugh, before tossing the newspaper aside. There was nothing to sa

The clearing was way too vast than what we had began with. The wind that swept through, whistled through the distant trees, stroking our bloodied bodies silently and calmly."You know Seraph", we had been talking here and there for a while, it was the only thing we could do for now, "All of us have had...to fight Lady at one point or another...except June, I suppose. What I'm saying is...Lady's roughed all of us up. So when I saw how you busted her up...well, I know it's 'cause she didn't fight back. I kept thinking why...she let you have your way. It made me so angry but then I suppose...you really are special."I listened in silence to her sad monologue. She went on, lost among the stars as we gazed at them."You are the last one of us. Ever since you came here...it's like you've been peeling our wounds one by one...horrible pain! Yet, you remained the most innocent one of us. It wasn't even fair, how is it that the most unfair...", she lost her words for a moment, "Hypocrites...all