Desert

Author: Seth


"Having to choose between your friend and your duty, your soul and your life is at the same time the hardest and yet the easiest choice you will ever make." 

No one wants to be seen as a monster. No one wants to be the one cursed by broken families as they cry over the bodies of the loved ones. Sadly, life has never been anywhere near ideal, and rarely does anyone ever get what they want.

The air whistled briefly before the sound of shattering glass bounced despondently off the walls of the small, if well furnished room. Hare made no move to clean up the shards of the mug he had just dropped, despite the fact that the beer it held some fall ago was now sinking irreversibly into his favourite white rug.

"… You want to what?" He asked his old friend disbelievingly.

Rai's expression didn't change a whit.

"You heard me the first time." The young panthryan's eyes flicked nervously back to the door he'd just closed before moving over and sitting down in a chair opposite his fellow soldier without invitation. "And I didn't say anything about wanting. I've made up my mind." He leaned his arms on the small table that took up the majority of the room's centre.

"Why?" Hare asked his shoulders sagged as he leaned back in his chair. "Why are you doing this, why now?"

Rai let loose a long sigh and ran a hand through his messy, silver hair.

"You know damn well why I'm doing this." The golden-eyed panthryan pushed himself back into his chair, his posture a reflection of Hare's. "I can't take it anymore. I've run out of explanations, I've run out of excuses." He chuckled cynically. "'Extenuating circumstances' just doesn't cut it anymore. I can't keep bullshitting myself like this Hare, I can't."

"Then what are you talking to me for?" Hare hid his expression under the pretence of bending down to pick up the pieces of shattered glass from his cement floor. "If you've already made up your mind why are you still here?"

Rai rubbed his face and smiled darkly.

"You already know that too." Hare froze before slowly rising up and putting the broken pieces of his mug on the table in front of him with a slight clinking sound. "You made that promise just the same as I did. You're making the same justifications I am."

"Tiger-" Hare began warningly.

"She was right, after all, wasn't she?" Rai asked rhetorically, lowering his hand and looking his companion full in the face. "Heh, what was our promise worth when we'd broken it before we even made it?"

"Don't do this to me Tiger." The clanless boy buried his face in his hands. "You say you can't stay, but how can you leave? How can you leave when that means… when that means we were wrong?!" The blue-eyed brunette looked pleadingly at his fellow Royal Guard. "What have we been fighting for, Tiger?"

Rai's eyes saddened as he sighed again.

"I don't know Hare, I don't know." He placed his hands on the table and pushed himself back to his feet. "All I know is that I've hit rock bottom, and I'm stuck there as long as I stay here." He held out his hand to Hare. "And I know I'm not alone."

Hare stared at that hand as if he'd never seen one before transferring his gaze to Rai. "Nowhere to go but up, huh?" He shook his head before pasting a cocky grin and grasping the proffered hand, pulling himself to his feet. "Queen be damned but you're right, I made that promise too." His grin turned comradely. "You'd never make it without me anyways; your pansy soul'd snuff out the moment it left my awesome presence."

No one wants to be seen as monster, but the world's made of shades of grey and sometimes the line between hero and villain blurs until there's no distinction between the two, and you have to make a choice. You have to choose whether you'll be the slaughterer beloved by the people, or the traitor who turned their back on the masses in order to save their lives. You have to choose between what's right and what's easy, and often the difference is not always clear because both will cost you more than you can ever pay.

Sometimes the only difference is choice.