Cerberus Whisperingblade the Frist Hood

“I have never forgotten your cries, I have only allowed them to feed my purpose in life.” - Cerberus Whisperingblade

Dear River,

 

                The days have started to hint at the idea of spring while the nights still bare the cloak of winter. The chill has been fighting to stay around the Estate, and for the most part, I don’t seem to mind. I still have a problem in the nights, the bed is too cold, and no matter what the time of year it happens to be. I miss my wife deeply, her warmth, her smell, and her face. I still see her face when I close my eyes at night which had led me not to sleep as much. I read late into the night trying to forget my past or her passing. The nights are lonely here, but it is nothing I can’t handle.

                There are so many books around me that understand my sorrow and give me some kind of solace reading them. I guess that is the whole point of books, isn’t it? The power of the written word shows us squirrels can reach through time to share in our sorrow and joy. The pages let us know we are not alone within our Realm or time, many understand our feelings and sometimes, better than we do ourselves.

                I was in search of one of these books the other night with a candle in the library to watch a few Hoods come from a hidden door. I have known of this door which leads into the Shadow Library of the Hoods, or it goes by another name the Tomb of Cerberus. In this library from what I understand, for I’m not allowed into it because I am not a Hood, holds all the spell books and text the Hoods had gathered in their hunts. They keep the spell books so they can understand their enemy and I longed to get into the Library but if I did it would mean my head.

                And I wonder in that deep night why it was called the Tomb of Cerberus, so, I try to find what history I could all the Hoods which wasn’t much. I found a small text called Cerberus Whisperingblade the Frist Hood. The book was written by Cerberus himself laying out why he created in the Hoods and what was the point of his quest. A quest to remove magic from the Realm and one the Whispering Hoods had taken up as their cause now. He warned to my shock about the Arcane Ants coming to the Realm far before most knew about those monsters. He said magic would bring evil to us all.

                Cerberus started the Hoods during the Dark Tide, the age in which magic ran wild in the Realm, after the horrible murder of his whole family. A Spellcrafter, unnamed in the book, cast a spell wrapping him in stone as he watched his family go mad from another spell. They killed each other while Cerberus watched in horror until a few Knights came to his home free him. After he was free from the spell, he went Emperor Aslan Oakseed the 4^th to form the Hoods. The Emperor allowed Cerberus to bring forth the Whispering Hoods again and they started to hunt down Spellcrafters.

                It is not said in the book if Cerberus found the Spellcrafter who murdered his family which has left me believing he did not find them. But it is stated in the book he did not stop hunting the murder down until his own death. After he died, which was added to the book by another paw, he was entombed under the library where the Emperors during the Dark Tide kept their spell books. The Shadow, my brother, had gained a new named after he was placed there.

                It was a hard read.

                It was a sad read, but I followed Cerberus writing to another book he wrote, Maxims and Meditations of Strength. It was a philosophical work written personally by him. He seems to never plan on anyone else to read the writing and yet, someone, unknown, had transcribed it to another book. The core of the philosophy is stated to be, “You face this world alone.” At first, this statement seems cold and hard, but the more you read what Cerberus trying to say the more you can understand what he means.

                From what I understand Cerberus believed every moral and immoral action you carry out you must face the result of those actions alone. Yes, your actions can and does wash over others, but it is you who must carry the weight of those actions. He believed when you stand in front of the AllFather alone, you are the only one who can answer for your life.

                This moves Cerberus to his next core maxim which is, “You cannot always control the outside world, but you can control how you reacted to that world.” He believed greatly in his book that the power of the mind over one’s body was the most important goal in life. He didn’t advocate, not to feel any emotions but learn how to control when to react to said emotions. He had to learn how to understand when to allow his emotions to be felt for what his cause was in the Realm. Like the Hoods now, he had to face many great horrors to free the Realm of magic. The only way he could handle these horrors was to learn how to control his emotions, but he never spoke of shutting his emotions down. He believes greatly there was a point to the emotions anyone felt and argued you should release the emotions you felt, “but choose wisely when to let those storms out.” In the middle of a fight would not be a good time to break down in tears or dream about a lover, those feelings are best freed alone in a bed.

                I’m not sure how much I agree with Cerberus words, but I shall try them for a while. I wonder if they will help me deal with the death of my loved wife. I write to you, brother with a heavy heart tonight and I hope the next letter will be more joyfully.

 

Your brother,

Brain Redtales

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