Chereads / Ardes: Kingdom of Ghorm / Chapter 6 - Chapter 5: Darvik

Chapter 6 - Chapter 5: Darvik

The Warhapri is finally dead, it is laying in the mud, it's head caved in and the skull cracked open, severe burns covering the left side of its wolf like face with blood pouring out of its face, continuing to bleed even after dying.

Anton is standing above the creature, victorious and extremely exhausted from the fight, it has taken a great deal for him to defeat the Warhapri and yet he cannot stay calm; Darvik needs my help he thought to himself, the single possibility that Darvik might be in trouble or even dead would make him uneasy, "I need to go help him" Said Anton.

"Finally, the blurriness in my eyes is gone, although I'm sure I have a few broken bones" - Said Anton. He begins to move towards the camp location where Darvik was left alone to fend of dozens of Hapri, although not in the best condition Anton is trying to get there as quickly as possible even if it means fighting through unbearable pain.

On his way towards Darvik the destruction caused by the Warhapri is clear, the trees have been snapped, burned and destroyed. The terrain has been reshaped by the devastating power of the Warhapri's fire spell and any from of wildlife is no where to be seen-- it was as if a hurricane had ravaged the burning forest leaving none but destruction in its wake.

As Anton draws closer to Darvik's position the sounds of battle nor struggle is heard, the trees blocking the view of the campsite grow more distant each step making it easier to see the campsite. When Anton gets to the edge of the forest which surrounds the campsite he lays his eyes towards piles of dismembered, slashed and pierced bodies stacked on top of each other, among them bodies stood Darvik, clenching his damaged and bloodied spear looking down unaware of the world around him.

Anton comes closer towards Darvik, putting his hand on his shoulder but before he can even utter a single word Darvik snaps, moving his arm to grab Anton's wrist pulling him down and with the same swift motion he lunges his damaged spear toward the back of Anton's neck. "DARVIK!" Shouted Anton in a desperate attempt to stop his friend, thankfully something inside Darvik's head snaps him out from a hypnotic state, but not fast enough as the spear penetrates deep enough to draw blood.

Darvik, now aware of his own actions quickly releases Anton from his grasp and moves back a few steps-- Anton turns back to see Darvik averting his eyes away from Anton, is he ashamed of what he has almost done? No that isn't how Darvik would react, he has always been like this, always getting caught up in a fight; forgetting everything else exists around him and only seeing the enemy before him, he hasn't changed one bit since I met him 13 years ago.

Darvik was an orphan boy who had lost his parents due to the raging war between Mystrol and Hurgel, he lived on the border between the two territories and was caught in a bombing attack by the nation of Hurgel. When the caretaker brought him to the orphanage he had a dead look in his red eyes, and who wouldn't, he witnessed thousands of people getting killed as well as his family-- his eyes were barely covered by his long black hair, and his skin extremely pale. After he was brought to the orphanage he spent weeks in isolation, not wanting to leave his room, it wasn't until about 3 months before he began to leave his room and wander the orphanage as well as the outside-- even so, other orphans wouldn't approach him and I was one of them.

I remember thinking about how he had an aura of isolation around him, as if he was a lone wolf who had lost his pack, and we, we were just another pack of wolves that abandoned him in his time of need, when he needed support from others the most.

After about 2 years Darvik began exhibiting violent behaviours towards other kids, he constantly got into fights, brutally and mercilessly beating other kids, he was only a 7 year old boy but he fought like a ferocious beast. After a while some of the caretakers even thought about kicking him out, saying he is too violent to keep around other kids, and if they had their way, he would have been long gone-- but the head of the orphanage by the name of Shino Kake did not want to abandon Darvik, she went against the wishes of the other caretakers by keeping Darvik.

At the time I didn't understand why Ms Kake wanted to keep Darvik, what was the purpose of letting him stay. One day my curiosity got the better of me so I decided to ask Ms Kake myself, I wanted to know the answer behind her actions, what she told me took me by surprise.

"Have you ever experienced loneliness so strong-- that all you think about is death"

I had always been smarter than the rest of the kids my age, more mature and logical, had she said something like that to others they probably wouldn't understand, but I understood clearly, Darvik was not violent by nature nor was it his choice to be, we pushed him towards that choice by continuously pushing him further and further away, we let him get engulfed by his feelings of fear, loneliness, sadness-- and it all led him to hate his existence. The only way he could cope was by forcing his existence on others.