“Am I dying?”
Those words. The three simple, but painful words spoken chipped away at the facade he was holding up.
Never was he one to lie. It was not in his nature to do such. To tell others things they wished to hear or untruths of this world. But in this instance he could not bring himself to tell her the truth. To answer her question in full honesty.
He knelt down and picked up the small child in his arms. Her red hair cascading down his arm. It contrasting the deep red that had set in to her clothing and staining the ground below.
He had been to late. Only a second more could have changed this fate. The Orc had stopped him combating swords. He saw it, the black arrow pierce through the air and the scream…The scream would be the haunting sound till the end of his days.
Here he cradled her body against his own. His face not betraying the storm of rage and grief swirling inside him. “No,” he spoke up hearing his own voice deepen as he held back tears. “You’re only sleeping,” he brushed hair from her paling face. He began humming a soft song, a lullaby of old. Until she fell quiet and still in his arms.
A tear slid down his cheek as he closed his eyes drawing in his breath feeling the pain within his chest of the innocent life taken. Though he knew her not an emptiness lie within him now as though a part of him had been taken from her that day. “Díhen- nin,” new tears formed in his eyes as he lowered his head. “Im could ú- save cin.” In the distance swords clashed and the sounds of battle rang out. “Lothron cín faer torech at sídh.”