Another Year

It was that time of year again, where the towns were alive with celebration and song to commemorate those lost to the skies. Costumes and candy were found in abundance. A happy time for most, with lights and goodwill being spread throughout the night. However, in a cave by the shore along the Silver Peninsula there was an exception to the usual fanfare. Bennedikte was getting ready to start his... "celebration" for the holiday.

He did the same thing every year, even without knowing how long it had been since he was given his second chance at life. There wasn't much at all that he knew for sure, memories few and far between from before the shipwreck. What the Robber could remember was vivid. They played in his dreams and nightmares, taunting him as he desperately tried piecing together what he could. Bennie remembered the ship, his crew that had become his family. He remembered his cabin on board and the supplies he used to treat everyone. He remembered his captain... and that he was what occupied his mind more frequently than anything else.

Bennie would leave his cave and walk a mile or so along the shore, being careful that the most important place in his world wasn't as easy to find as his home. Those who still hunted Robbers afflicted with the blight could get to him, that was always a potential threat. One thing he would never allow is for his captain's grave to be defiled. It was a small grave, unmarked save for the symbols of Helgin and Hyth within a heart. No body lies buried at its feet- one was never found for the man that meant so much to Bennie. It haunts him, really- not knowing what happened that day. The former sweeper had so many vivid flashes of memory surrounding his death. The cannonfire, the panic, the flying debris... the rope that caught around his neck as the ship was knocked into. He could see it all so clearly. He could see his crew mates scrambling for cover. Their screams for help played over and over in his head. He made sure to remember it for every moment of the holiday.

What Bennie couldn't remember was what happened to his captain. His dear Gio.... he must have been so alone as he was lost to the attack, to the wretched carnage done to their ship. No more nights looking up at the stars from the crow's nest. No more treating his wounds from every stupid, reckless mistake. Being dead wasn't the real reason Bennie's heart wasn't beating- it had been ripped away when he lost Gio. How could he take part in any festivities without his love beside him?

A noise startled him out of his thoughts, the rustling of the grass and some nearby bushes. It could have been his imagination.... at least until he heard a voice he knew all too well. The voice that once made reality better than any dream imaginable- and that same cocky tone that he hated to admit he loved. "Damn, a kiss so good you spend the last thirteen years mourning it? Even I wouldn't have given myself that much credit, sugar."