The Grey Rider (Prologue/pt.1)

He stood atop the peak of infinite despair as it had come to be known in ancient times. He was pale in face and mane save the red of fire upon his cheeks from the driven snow of the mountain winter. Alone he traveled most often as though a symbiotic manifestation of the earth as a being; he represented all that nature wanted him to, intended him to, needed him to; he was charged to protect her as a feeble and dying mothers only offspring. He vowed to stay true to this mission exponentially and under any distress.

For the last century or so he had been a lonely specter, looming as an apparition of the forgotten forest where no man had dared to walk for near an eon at least. He long since fled the thought and legends of man and was known now as a whisper of a story with no profound accuracy to attest his traits or character to keep his memory alive.

There was a time in which he was recognized as a Lord of all that lived. A time where his infamy was only superseded by his immortal powers of the Gods. A time where most creatures within the free lands had dared to even utter one of his names or aliases without a stutter in respect for his benevolence and power. Now he was a shadow of his former self, afraid to appear from a lack of confidence he himself had derived, simply from the loss of her. She was the one. The chosen one as he had presumed and no matter how hard he tried through training and defending; he still could not protect her from the darkness, from the unholy wraiths that deemed her a threat.

She was Juallia, a peasant child turned savior of the free, he built her up to his council, the kings, the queens and all the peoples known to such a pedestal that when she perished she gnarled the majority of his soul with her. This left the world hopeless and when the fall of man came his wisdom was proven to be flawed and useless. His own name and legend scarred he would retreat from all memory and become the phantasm he so desired, as he was unfortunately unable to die the forgotten forest seemed the perfect place to be in fact forgotten.

This was until his survey of life below called for his resurgence once again. Darkness came from the north and the peoples of world required his service and aid. They needed a leader to end the misery, a being of the Gods to eradicate the evil and extinguish the fires of doom and strife. He was their only hope in gaining freedom from eradication. His course was now set, his blade was sharpened, his wits regained, and with the arrival of his long lost friend and companion, the noble, winged steed Odinus; he was ready now to ride again.

*** Part One of "The Grey Rider" Series