Pathway to Destiny
The crowd screamed and pushed against the line of soldiers with glazed over eyes. The soldiers were keeping a small semi circle of dirt clear in front of a platform that stood about four feet from the ground. On the platform three people surrounded by soldiers sat in chairs. Mark sat in a chair in front, Casandra and Dybin sat in chairs behind and to either side of his. Mark Chasarue sat disinterested watching the spectacle.
A man with black matted hair was brought out in metal chains. He was dirty and malnourished from being in the prison cell for a month. The robe he was wearing was white when he first arrived in his cell but now was a reddish brown.
Larso Denkan looked into the cold gray eyes of the blonde man on the platform. He knew he would find no mercy in them, they were as cold as the steel they resembled. His recent decisions began to flash into his mind, the reason he was here. The chain of events that had led to this.
Things had been bad in Toolay for a long time. There was no work, there was no law, there was no help of any kind. Rumors were spreading of this new world, a land of plenty. People there had lots of space to move freely about, there was plenty of food to eat, and soldiers to protect them from those who mean harm. It was a dream come true to Larso who had to fight for everything his whole life. So he rushed to the most beautiful woman in the village, Mara, whom he had loved since he first met. He asked her to join him in the new world, he promised her she would never have to struggle again. They married quickly and fled together in a boat and arrived with thousands of others to this new promise land.
When they arrived it was not as he had hoped. Too many other migrants had arrived with his same dream, and with them bandits and outlaws looking to fleece the new world. They had no place to live, and no work to go to. Mara became bitter and resentful towards him, at least back in Toolay she had land to farm for food. She was with child when they arrived in the new land, and had given birth to a beautiful baby girl. A baby girl who cried day and night, and would not be comforted. A baby that cried like all the babies cried in the migrant encampment. It cried because it lacked safety and security, warmth and food. The baby never stopped crying.
Larso couldn’t take it anymore. Everyday he went with a hundred others to the square and looked for work, but there was never any. He begged alongside the widowed and orphaned for money or scraps of food. Mara, who was once the most beautiful woman in the village was starting to look more like an old shrew. His heart broke, his spirit broke. He saw the sellers in the square, the baker, butcher, fish merchant, all of them doing well while he starved and lost everything. The resentment and jealousy began to stir deep within him til he decided to strike out.
He took a loaf from the baker, but the baker came after him with a knife. Larso wrestled the knife away and stabbed the baker, killing him. Then he took what money the baker had on him, and the bread he stole, and ran back to Mara. Mara screamed when she saw the blood, he was a monster to her. She fled with the child into the migrant encampment, he never saw her again. Two days later the soldiers arrested him. All he could think of was Mara’s beautiful face, twisted in a scream of horror as she clutched their child close her. He missed them so badly every part of him was filled with sorrow, at least they were not here now to witness this.