The Crusader's Story

...... "Jenya", I say with mild trepidation,.....

Not a day goes by that I don't think of her;

..... "I think I love you" ......

of her long auburn hair; the way it glowed with the last rays of waning sunlight, of her large brown eyes smiling at me.

..... she giggles, revealing small dimples in her cheeks. "You're so silly....."

Why was I such a fool for her? She held my heart in her hand, and she never knew.

..... "No, I - I mean it, Jenya. There is something important I want to ask..." I knew I was stammering......

I know in my heart there can be no other; no other woman ever attracted me as strongly as my beloved Jenya; and none other ever shall.

... Jenya had her back turned on the edge of the forest, and had my heart not been racing with anticipation and my vision not blurred by her beauty....

I can never forgive myself for my slow reaction time. Every waking moment I am haunted by her face, the face of an angel, the face of my beloved.....

.... The branches parted, revealing an almost human creature; the humanoid was wearing full armor and carrying a blade; the look in it's eyes, seen dimly through it's helm, was of death....

What was that monster? Why did it attack us? Damnit, why couldn't I have been faster, why did I leave my weapons at home!

... The inhuman swordsman bore a jet-black sword, and while meeting my gaze ran Jenny through with his poisonous blade, with an almost casual swordstroke; she never even screamed, only looked at me with pure horror.....

To this day I still feel as though my heart died that black day, along with my beloved.....

.... With a rage born of passion, I lept upon the swordsman with nothing more than my beltknife. A strange twist of fate granted me a favor; the swordsman's blade was caught in Jenya's ribs while she fell. The swordsman was caught off balance by this, and I quickly dispatched him with my feeble knife. I would have killed him with my bare hands if had too...

..... the dying swordsman began whispering a prayer, I caught little except for one name; Fhod

Why does this memory continue to haunt me, a year from the tragedy? Why must I continue to live that horrible moment again and again, feeling the pain of her death as though it were I impaled with the black blade?

I was the one who investigated the murders at the Temple. While searching through the blood-soaked floor for survivors, I found a young woman, probably the same age as my Jenya, gasping her last breaths of life in the corner, leaning on an altar. As I cradeled her in my arms in her last moments in the waning sunlight, she told me everything. I did not tell my superiors the full truth of her statments. One thing she whispered to me was a name; the name of the bieng who sent the killers - Fhod, the same name muttered by the inhuman swordsman in the woods so long ago.....

Up until the attack, I believed the myth of the Phoenix to be an old superstition. I never saw this bird myself. But like everyone else in the region, my parents had often spoke of the Phoenix's blessings while I was a child. They told me that the Phoenix had the power over life and death; of rebirth, the truth of Balance.

So, what if they were right?

Suppose the Legend of the Phoenix is real, and has the power over death. If I were to find it's Egg, and better still, rescue it from whoever is after it, it might grant me a favor..... the favor of my beloved Jenya..... and if I can find and slay this "Fhod", I'll at least have my revenge......