The End is the Begining

Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them. ~George Eliot~

His eyes were closed tightly, so tight that instead of seeing nothing, he saw flecks of light. The pain his eyes felt pleaded with him to open them, but he refused. He would endure this pain for as long as he needed to because he dare not open them to see what was going on before him. He could still hear his mother screaming and crying, his father cursing and spitting venom, he didn't want to see why they were doing it. The fragrance of the bushes he was hid in filled his nose, the buckberries were ripe and sweetened, a betrayal of nature as they were deadly for consumption. He laid in these buckberry bushes that grew on the wooded outskirts of his village Aelburn, out of sight of the other villagers, who had gathered in the village square, ready to perform the hideous act about to take place. 

A hand clasped his shoulder, making his heart leap into his throat. "Talon, I know you don't want to see this but you need to," a voice whispered in his ear. He slowly opened his eyes, shifting to his side to look upon his older brother, Darrick, whose gaze was fixed intently on the commotion in the village. "For our future."

Talon slowly nodded and gathered the strength to look upon the village. The square was filled with everyone who lived in Aelburn, in the center two large poles had been placed, with bundles of wood gathered all around their bases. The villagers surrounded these poles, all shouting and jeering at two people both bound laying on the cobblestone ground. His parents laid there, mostly because they were being held down by men in guard uniforms. The village priest standing in between the two poles, was speaking to the crowd, his body motions reflecting the fury and intensity his words held. Talon, didn't pay much attention to what he was saying, only catching the phrase "heritcs" and "devils". 

His brother's hand gripped tighter on his shoulder, and act to comfort, but which one it was meant to was lost on Talon. As they dragged his parents to the two poles, he looked back upon Darrick, his long black hair fell about everywhere, his face drawn into a blank emotionless stare, only his eyes showed his emotion, filled with tears, but behind the watery sadness, there was a deep rage.

"I said watch this Talon. Let this be burned into your memory so that you cannot ever forget what they did." He whispered.

A meek little "Okay" was all he could muster, his little voice threatening to break into sobbing, as he looked back to see the horror to come. 

As the priest motioned to the stakes, several villagers grabbed his parents, and began dragging them toward the wooden poles. "We've done nothing to harm any of you, why are you doing this!" his mother cried out, only to be hit across the face by one of the men, apparently hard enough to knock her unconscious. They began tying her limp body up to the stake, while he father continued to struggle, it now taking six men to wrestle him towards his stake. 

"One day, all the torment and anguish you all have done this night will be repaid upon you and your blood!" he yelled 

"Do not fear my children, this evil one holds no power over you, chosen of Fheren. He and his s**t of a wife will be punished in accordance of the holy law, and his b******s of offspring were chased into the Wilds, where they will surely meet their ends at the jaws of a hungered beast!" The priest shrilled, seeing the fear in his followers from the curse being venomously flung towards them. 

As they strung his father up, the men who tied his mother, had now backed away and the head priestess of the village temple took a torch from another priestess, and strode towards the wood pile holding Talon's mother. As she leaned down to ignite the wood, his mother had came back to her senses. 

He heard mother begin screaming again, this time not out of despair or panic but out of pain, as it took only seconds for the fuel laced bundle of wood to produce tall lashing flames against her body. His father stopped struggling and yelled her name, as the crowd began to cheer and celebrate. 

Talon couldn't help it, he started crying softly, the pain he felt in his chest was the worst thing he could ever imagine in his short time alive. Still aware that someone could be looking for them though, his tears were silent, the only sobs he let out were muffled in his sleeve. His free hand gripped the hilt of his father's sword, the sword that when the villagers first attacked his home, his father instructed Darrick and him to take with them. 

The priest, cackling, took the torch from the head priestess, and strutted towards his fathers wood pile. "My sons will survive the Wilds, and when they will take your head, and leave your fat body to the crows!" he screamed. 

"Oh I have faith my god, Fheren, shall ensure that they will only return from the bowels of one of the great beasts that reside in the Wilds. He would not allow evil things like them to live in his pure light." The priest responded, as he tossed the torch on the woodpile, and then began laughing loudly. 

His fathers screams of pain mixed with his mothers, and soon the slight breeze shifted, carrying the smell of their burning flesh towards him and his brother. As he began heaving, the vomit mixing with his tears on the buckberry bushes, he caught a glimpse of his brother's lips moving, but no words could he hear. As he felt the world growing darker, Darrick gripped him, sensing that Talon was near fainting, and began helping him away from the bushes and deeper into the Wilds. 

"I'm sorry I made you watch that Tal" he spoke softly, "But I needed you to see it so you had the will to do what we have to." 

"Kill the villagers?" Talon squeaked, still feeling his strength draining, and now everything was either black or shades of grey.

"Yes, kill the villagers, but also destroy the church and the god it worships." Darrick responded, his voice shaking with rage.

    .   .   .

Author's Note

There we go Chapter is finished. Ignore grammar mistakes please as this is only a rough draft. Not a "traditional" opening as this version of the main character (Talon) is younger in this and it is more of a memory/nightmare from when he was younger, but it gives a major driving point for what he is in the story going forward. Not actually said in it, but Talon is 8 and Darrick is 13 in this chapter, if that matters to you at all.