Casting the Dice - A Short Story by Zakonik

He was sitting on the Stone Throne once more… but he couldn’t rest.
The brazier was burning in the middle of the room. Green flashes of light come out from the fire keeping the attention of Zakonik’s eyes, but behind that look his mind was restless. The abyss has been too close this time: screaming and crying all those souls kept echoing in the air with a feeling of desperation surrounding the air.

The left fist remained closed beneath his face to keep up the monstrous face. In his right hand a dice was rolling constantly: white marble made, all the 6 faces seems to have not only numbers carved inside but also memories. “Keep rolling it until you finally find what you truly seek”. Those words remind to Zakonik the pale visage of Ruby, when smiling she gave it to him as a gift. He felt sorrow all around, and his heart started beating faster. His mind was shacked from such thought – “Such Burden” Zakonik whispered – and suddenly the brazier dragged his attention once more, as in a golden flash the shape of an anvil appeared in the middle of the fire… “Athun!” he said in the empty room, and the echo of that word hit him back only to awake his soul. A deep breath followed the scene and a grim smile appeared on his face.

The Red Priest hammer was lying near Zakonik feet’s. By the time he grabbed the hilt, he realized that his right knee was touching the ground as if for bowing to the brazier in front of him. He immediately stood up, troubled of what just happen when then sound of a thunder come from the far back of the room. Immediately turning, ready into a fighting position, he just realized that there was no one else in the room if not himself. “Athun…” he whispered this time, then he started moving towards the exit.

Outside the cave the swamp was sleeping. Humid air and a dense fog was rising from the ground… such view kept Zakonik attention’s for few minutes. His tribe was sleeping outside in the silent night. The light of fires filtering through the tents were creating a sort of dancing shadows in the mist. The sky above was to far to be spotted if not when occasionally purple lightning appeared through the dark clouds, just to remind that no stars will be shining, even tonight. But no rain was falling that night, which gave the impression of a peaceful atmosphere all around.

Right side of the entrance there was the nest of a Gryphon that immediately started scratching the ground with the talons by seeing Zakonik come out of the cave. “Time to pay an important visit, my friend” he said to the magical beast. The Gryphon looked into the eyes of his master like someone who was expecting such moment and immediately lowered his body to let him take place on the sitting place. Right after he was standing on top of it, a Shaman come out of the darkness and immediately said: “Strange night tonight, my lord. The swamp is very quite like finally resting. We thought you were resting as well, but it seems that you are not.” The many times Zakonik returned to his tribe, the shamans always questioned him about the adventures he has been through, and all the time, during the resting days, they always wondered why their master couldn’t rest at all. Nothing new then was behind the words just spoken, if not for that strange feeling surrounding the entire place. “It is a strange night indeed.”, He replied. “One of these nights in which you should finally rest. But then again, I’m not accustomed to such gift, am I?” Vaguely a smile appeared on his face, but then he noticed that the face of the Shaman become serious, like worried about something. “What troubles your mind, my lord?” asked the shaman by touching his beard, a long white beard. It is said that one of the natural sign to become elder in the tribe is by letting the beard become long and white, in order to cover the upper side of the body. In this way it will be mixed with the white furs that usually cover the shoulders and the chest and creates a sort of animal shape. Then he continued: “Isn’t the path that you chose clear yet, my lord?” Those words troubled Zakonik mind’s, which stood quite for a minute. The only part of his body that was constantly moving was his right hand in which a dice kept rolling. Both theirs looks meet right on that hand when Zakonik turned that up and stopped moving it. “Once again you are right” he said with a voice that seemed far from that place. “I shall pretend to be sleeping then, as the time has arrived for me to cast this Dice”. The shaman looked upon that tiny marble object right on the hand of his master. He didn’t really know what he saw but he had a strange feeling by trying to read the number that was showed in his direction. After few seconds of silence, Zakonik continued: “I don’t know if this is the right path… what I know is that I must be Awake when this dice shall be cast.” Swiftly he closed his fist, and immediately started flying up in the sky while few moments after, he disappeared into the mist.

The following night Zakonik walked once again into the Stone Throne room. The brazier was still burning in the middle and green flashes of light kept coming out form the fire. By walking inside the place a sneaky thought appeared in his mind. “I’m wondering what shall become of the face of Ghalan when I’ll present SunWrath to him.” Strange enough, by moving towards the throne he noticed that all the trophies hung on the walls of the room seemed nodding at such thought. Once he reached the sit he placed the Red Priest hammer on the ground. Then he sat once more on Stone Throne… but once again, he couldn’t rest.