Welcome to Gaia! ::

He was less of a knight and more of an empty husk as he traveled from town to town.

The shadows beneath his eyes appeared to be a permanent addition that villagers always noticed first about this traveling stranger. He tried to drown himself in alcohol, but not even that could satiate the dreams that ran through his head every night. Sometimes they were nightmares of the past, corpses flashing and flames burning bright against the dark smoke, but the worst dreams were the pleasant ones filled with children’s laughter and pretend sword fights. They were reminders of what he used to have, and those were the memories that cut the deepest wounds into his chest.

The traveling saviors was just savior now; he was just another lost wandering hero looking for something to fill the emptiness in his heart.

Just another traveler that passed without finding solace.

It was dark outside, with even the hardest of drinkers having retired for the night where they would regret their life choices once morning came. The candle lights had been extinguished, leaving the town cloaked in darkness.

It was the easiest time for her to move without being seen, her footsteps silent as she entered the tavern, heading towards a certain room.

She stood by his bedside, watching the drunken man toss and turn in his sleep, the darkness under his eyes tugging at her heart.

She had been told that he was her brother in life, and yet try as she might she could not recall anything about him, or anything else for that matter. All she had were stories.

But even if she possessed no memories, she still felt something about this man. A strong emotion that called for her to move the strand of hair from his tired face, pulling the sheets over him to keep him warm against the nights chill.

She sat by the bedside, worry etched into her faded features.

"It's alright Nikola" She whispered to him. "It's alright. I'm right here."

Wren wrestled with herself, unsure weather it would be kinder to let him sleep or to wake him, showing him that she hadn't gone anywhere and he wasn't alone. Would that help to lift those shadows from his face, to stop his constant drinking? Or would seeing her now as she was just throw him further into despair?

What could she do to heal the heavy wounds so etched into his heart?

"I'm here Nikola. It's alright, you aren't alone. I'm right here."

Nightmares were manageable. Nightmares were just exaggerated manifestations of the fears and traumas in his heart, and as long Nikola remembered this he could weather even the worst memories. He knew how to bite through the pain running through his shoulders and he could control the worry growing in his heart with each passing second. The Rider’s laughter was nothing more than background to him now. The fires were a familiar warmth. The bodies were things he could blur out on command.

But happy dreams were like drowning in something that could no longer be his. He was like Tantalus, and no matter how many times he reached for happiness, it always slipped out of his grasp like water falling between the miniscule cracks of his closed fingers. And the more Nikola dreamed, the deeper he fell into the waters, but now no one was there to drag him back to the surface. With each innocent dream of childhood, he drowned and drowned.

Whether it be happy or terrifying, he was a quiet sleeper. Sometimes he knitted his brows and occasionally rolled around in bed, but mostly he just curled into a ball, shrinking into himself until he might disappear.

Voices and screams whisper into his ear until he groggily opens teary eyes. For a moment, it’s like his sister has returned from the dead and he slowly reaches for her face, but then he blinks once and she disappears like an apparition. His hands slip through air and there it is again.

The tears continue to fall as he curls into himself. There it is, his fleeting laughter flying on the winds.