Departure

[Overland 349]

Dawn slowly crept over Peremont, its rays concealed from the view of a lonesome man. Trapped in a dark and mean room he thought of as a cell,  this man’s gaze wandered upon his possessions, all unchanged since the days of Savoyard rule. Not even he had changed that much, his coldness had - quite metaphorically - frozen him in time.

 

 Cheated, lonely, unwilling and craven was he, and so he began to write a letter and gather some things.  All those regrets, all those mistakes.  But one word rushed through his mind:

 

Why?

 

 So the de Bar, the last child of a fallen king, the heir to a legacy far greater than he, jumbled bits and pieces that he thought would be useful into his bag. Compulsion lurked in his mind, driving him head first down a deep, unforgiving rabbit hole.  

 

 But there was nothing else to do. So he let go.

 

 First a letter was written, perhaps too short to be assuring but long enough to give an  indication of what troubled the man’s mind.

 

 After writing the piece he stuffed whatever else would fit in his sack, and then prepared his clothes for journeying.

 

 Everyone would be awake soon.

 

 Second thoughts clawed at him like a rabid animal manically chasing a rodent, but he remained stalwart. So the man departed with the sun’s rays at his back. And as he trotted along the mottled path, he struggled to hold back a thought:

 

 The sun of Ashford will rise someday.

 

  But back in Peremont, a simple letter rested underneath the iconograph of his father:

 

“Dearest relatives,

I am in dire need of a change of scenery, thus I’ve decided to go travel. I will return, but I don’t know when.

That is all.

-Joachim de Bar.”

 

[CheekyNolan 5420]

Moved to the Archive. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.