Varik - Anatol Mielke - Falling Crescent

Cliath Shadow Lord Ahroun, killed in Ritual Combat November 2001.

The final instants: what flashes before his eyes?

Mom and apple pie...maple trees and swings, little Jenny next door, from whom he stole his first kiss. Who says heroes can't be human? Who says villains can't be heroes?

The claws strike deep. He's on his knees.

He's elsewhere.
The porch. Nebraska in the fall. Grain as far as the eye can see, golden beneath the sun. Dogs...two of them...Right and Left, silly names, names he picked as a child.
He did not carry the burden yet.

Mercy comes in death. There is no other way to die, for those born beneath the Full Moon.

...the full moon...
Still Jenny. Sixteen years old. Love among the cornfields with the rich black earth. The whisper of wind. The whisper of breath.
...the full moon riding above.

There is no moon tonight.

(Was that a gunshot?)
...or perhaps it was just the sound of a breaking bone.

Too much. Too fast. The last thing in his mind...

A family of his own...

It would have been nice.
It would have been sweet.
But things just don't work that way.

His eyes fix on Adrik. Last words?
"You take care of her."

Nothing more.