[Softly spoken, evenly felt, sorrowful yet kept woken]
'Again... once more.... three times.... ten times.... twenty... forty... a hundred.... a thousand times.... too many gone I stopped counting after a million....
Each step feels as though a mountain is crushing my mind, my spirit feeling as if there is nought a reason to move... With the rising of the sun I am alive once more, yet with the setting, my life ends.... each death takes more of my sanity, each death takes some of my humanity... The words on the pages now blur, the vastness of this world now as small as a rotten apple...'
A shadowed figure appears, cloaked in a torn cloak, worn armor, bandages seen wrapped in the areas where the armor is seen broken, lines of dried blood from his eyes and many wounds are evident. He is walking from a setting sun, the sun collapsing in on itself.
His voice treads aloud, 'Maybe this time.... I won't see it again... maybe this time I... won't awaken...'
With a soft sad smile, the man brushes his long grayed hair from his eyes before running his hand through his beard, a scar barely visible stretching from his chin to his Adam's apple.
~~~~~~~~~~~
[Even many more years later, at the edge of the Abyss between the end of the Universe and the Start of Another, a Voice rings out.... from the abyss itself]
'Traveller, why art thou here?' *voice from the abyss*
'I wish to ask a favor... none have been able to grant it, but as the abyss, I... have hoped you might' the old man says respectfully. There is a pause, before the voice from the abyss mentions for him to continue.
Hurriedly speaking, the broken man states, 'For many millennia now I have watched, guarded, and walked this plane of existence, even till its end and many of its variations.... it was not asked of me, it was not expected of me... but I still did so. Throughout all of this, never had I been able to have but a momentary pause before the eventual storm... never have I been able to rest... even when struck down I simply Arise again with the next sun.... so I ask you... the oldest and most ancient... please let me have an end to my existence... for all I have ever grown to love has passed and faded unto dust...'
There is a pause once more before the voice sounds from the abyss once more, 'poor child.... ancient far beyond the allowance of your species.... what you ask of me I will not do, for your life has been both remarkable and beautiful.... to see it cease would make reality itself cry is despair. Instead... should you allow it, I shall send you away to a world where, while there will be stresses... there will also be much peace... it will be different than what you know, and it should also help you change and find happiness once more... if you feel content after living life once more there, I will do as you have asked and release you unto the cycle of reincarnation... Once there you will live for one hundred years of happiness. These years will only count if you are happy, not a second more, nor a second less. You will keep your burden till then.'
The old man's face finally changes after over a thousand years of keeping a sorrowful expression into a radiant glowing grin. The old man starts un-buckling his most ancient armor, letting his gear fall to the ground for the first time since he had equipped them... 'Well thank you very much! It isn't exactly what I was expecting, but I look forward to a Jolly good co-operation with you then!'
With the backdrop of a sun going supernova, everything whites out as the abyss sends this great man to a new place, a better place.
The voice of the abyss sounds out once more... 'Goodbye blinding sun... may your next life be more fruitful and peaceful than this one and your previous ones... farewell Solaire of Astora'.....