“War must be, while we defend our lives against a destroyer who would devour all; but I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend.”
xxxxx― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers
xxxxxOnce upon a time, there was a boy who went with his parents to tend a sick people in a suffering land. Warlords killed the boy's parents and made the boy fight in petty wars. The boy smelled the burning. The boy saw the rivers of blood. The boy heard the wailing and torment. The boy was touched by starvation. The boy tasted desperation every day. He was one of the pale boys in a dark land and ages of hate were remembered upon him.
xxxxxThe boy dreamed of a monster, three heads speaking, devouring, and destroying. It spoke of parents who healed and nurtured their boy. It devoured all the horror and hate, more terrible than anything the monkey kin could devise. Oh, how it destroyed. Sweeping down from the skies with a bladed tail and three voracious heads, all upon the dark continent trembled and fell. Streaking from the blinding sun, the great shadow it cast making all creatures great and small try to run from ancient wrath.
xxxxxWhen the boy could endure no more, he dreamed on final time as the sun appeared on the eastern horizon. The great and terrible beast claimed him and made him so very strong. Petty warlords who tortured and spread evil to the helpless became food for the terrible, three-headed dragon. Their weapons and their fire were as gentle showers or wind's soft kiss. All of the boy's pain was unleashed by the dragon and vengeance upon the spiteful and petty mammals.
xxxxxWhen the great beast released the boy, he lay by a sacred swamp and saw eyes full of pride and love. His dragon had brought him home to a venerable clutch, where he could find the healing and memory that he needed to survive. Bit by bit, the clutch rebuilt the boy and eased the pain that the years have piled upon him. They showed him that what the men that made him do, and did to him, so many horrible things served something cosmically worse. They led him to remember, bit by bit, the nature of the Dissolver. They pointed him at the earthly expression of the Dissolver and the great three-headed dragon lashed out with tail and teeth until the boy was called a man, a true son of the clutch.
xxxxxThe young man was then shown the Ahadi and he found that so many suffered and so many simply needed help. In memory of his parents, healers and helpers to the dark continent, Todd decided to lend his skills and ferocity to those who needed it. In his travels, he met an Ajaba who felt compelled to go to the United States, the land of Todd's birth. She offered to take Todd home. There he could become a healer like his parents. There, he could bask in the light of the Sun and find peace.
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