The morning dew glistened as the moon. From a deep slumber he arose. His eyes still
hurt from going from the darkness to the light. The small pain shot through his eyes
like little daggers. The rough red hair of his was slightly matted and damp. The gray
brown clothes of his were tattered to almost indistinguishablity.

On the previous night his life had nearly been taken by bandits on the road. His beloved
wife, Adele, who was no more than 17 years old had been killed. Her hair had been
golden as the wheat of the field. They had all their belongings with them as they went to
the market to sell all their grain. She had been the prize of all the men around the area, but
only he had won her.

As he fled his last glimpse of her was one of utter and pure horror. Her hair had been dyed
crimson in her own blood, and now as her dead body lay in the road a man began to rape
her.

Burning tears slowly ran down his cheeks as he remembered that Adele had been 4 months
pregnant with their first child. So much gone in so little time.

As he tried to recover his dignity he spotted something shimmering in the grass. He wiped
the tears away that blocked his vision, and saw GOLD! Something of value to him!
Slowly he crawled over to the object, and gasped in amazement. A blade of exquisite
quality. It looked like the blade itself was Spanish Steel lightly dusted with a coat of silver
to make it sparkle. The handle was ivory polished to supreme whiteness and inlaid with
gold. A gargoyle head adorned the head of the handle. The nose was plated in gold, and
the face was of ivory. His eyes moved up to the eyes of the beast. Two emeralds stared
back at him.

They eyes were mesmerizing. Almost hypnotic. The man tried to pull himself away from
those evil eyes, but he kept on looking back. They almost drilled into his head, it read his
thoughts, and added its own.

"Plunge it in deep, make the pain go away, trade it for different pain, trade it for better
pain." the blade was whispering into his subconscious.

He had a blank stare on his face, and his pupils were no longer visible. One could hear
him mutter to himself. He had been driven into a trance, and he was now no longer to
escape, never. His mind forever belonged to the blade.

"Drive it into yourself, feel the pain, feel the warm blood, enjoy it, know it is yours, know
you will no longer feel the pain of life." These words echoed in his head.

The blade slowly lifted and pointed to his heart. Holding the blade at full arms length he
drove it in. His body lurched forward. For a moment he could see again. What had he
done to himself? He knew for only a second, and then it all went black.

Days later a minstrel was walking through the meadow and saw the man prostrate upon the
ground. Rushing over to him, he found the body lifeless. He turned the dead man over
and saw a beautiful blade. He turned it over and over again in his hand, and then he saw
the emerald eyes...

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