The Hard Road by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

The next Avenger

Waking up, I am in a strange room. I feel really good for someone that was torn apart by the wolves. This must be the final life. Looking at the door, Ziva must be on the other side of that door.

I can’t help myself. I get up and run through that door. All I see is an empty kitchen. There is the table of my nightmares. No one else is here. On that table is a collection of books and maps. Among what is there is a journal that has every aspect of where every resource is.

One thing that throws me. The journal mentions a door under the bed. This has me curious so I move the bed. There was nothing that I could see other than an odd knot hole in a board.

I find the stairs to the cellar workshop. I see a weapons board. A costume and on the bench is a letter.

After I read it, I knew that what I feared would happened, has happened. I still will be denied my beloved. This is another life. Haven’t I suffered enough? A woman appears before me. She tells me of my powers. Then she hits me. Your father gave you some solid advice on staying in the background. You got mated and then let both you and your mate get caught up in the fame. You lost everything that you cared about.

“You did the same thing your father did so we gods felt that you need the same correction he got. The previous avenger was your father. He learned and finally stayed in that background. You are again twenty. With in this week, you will develop the same powers he got. The same temptations he had. He learned that you help but never talk. Always wear that costume. Help but fade away. If you learn like he did, it will be somewhere around twenty years from now, you will set up this cabin for your replacement.”

With that, she disappears.

I follow what she said. I have the memorized. I lie about finding the gold under a broken floor board. I help. I also rescue and avenge, never saying a word. Never seeking fame. I have one goal and only one goal in mind. I wait out the years. Twenty two years and I am worn out. I know that my time is close. The woman comes to me and tells me to get the cabin in order. The next avenger has been chosen.

“You have done well. It is time. Ziva and the others are waiting for you to wake up. Tonight you will have the sweetest dreams. No more of those nightmares.” She smiles and disappears.

I clean up the cabin. Put my journal and maps on the table. Putting the work shop in order, exactly as I found it. The last thing I need to do was putting the letter on the desk. Being so tired but I did not want to be inside, I sat on the rock. That rock that we all are destined to pick up and read the message. I sat there and fell asleep. I dreamed that sweet dream of our one night together. It was morning. I woke up to find Ziva lying next to me and smiling. “Good morning Ray.”

I cried and she hugged me until I finished. We got up and she made me breakfast. I knew this was not a dream because I was sitting at an empty table with Ziva cooking and one by one all my friends come in and sit at the table. As each came in, they patted my shoulder and welcomed me.

My father Arron and my birth mother, my goblin parents and Tartan. When we finished breakfast, we went out on the front lawn. There were all the fallen and all those who were, like me in that life, the dead.

Ziva came out with both hers and my back packs. She gave me a long welcomed hug. She then says, “Time to take a walk.”