Recounting My Encounters -By- Doran F.

the autobiography of an immortal.

   On the rare occasion that a dragon is born, everyone in the land shall know it. The thousands of volcanoes on the black moon erupt. Causing what is normally obscure against the nights sky, to glow like fire. It is known that any human born on such a night is granted immortality. My name is Doran. I was born on such a night. I am an immortal.
   I was born to a small family who lived in a valley near the town of Eastvill. I had a thoughtful father, who taught me about the wild and how to live there. A loving mother who read me stories and tucked me in at night. My older brother and i often spent days playing in the fields, chasing wild rabbits and things. I even had a little sister born two summers behind me. I remember her, wandering through the meadow picking flowers and singing to herself.
   At the age of nineteen, my brother and i went to town to sell meat from our latest hunt. While he was arguing over prices with the butcher, i headed across town to the bookshop. I loved books and wanted to perhaps be a traveling scholar someday. But the real reason i was there was Elena, the girl behind the counter. I'd see visit her as often as i could. We were fast friends, and faster lovers. She took me to meet her father one evening. We were going to ask his blessing to be wed, And he was delighted to meet the boy who made his daughter so happy. Though when he learned of me being immortal, he tried talking us out of it. He thought, to cut our ties then, would spare us much greater heartache later.
   By the time i was twenty-five, i had already stopped aging. It was then i first left home to start my travels. I went back to visit home time and again. My family was always eager to see me and here tales of far off lands. I even visited Elena at the bookshop. She eventually married another man from town and had a few children.
   As time passed, i seen home less and less often. Each time noticing how everyone grew and aged. Each of them passing away as i could not. My little sister died at the age of eighty-three. I was there during her last week, regretful that i missed my brothers final days. After her funeral, i said goodbye to the children and grandchildren of my siblings. I decided i would not return home again.
   Over the next milinia, i traveled to nearly every kingdom and city in the world. Occasionaly i settled with a wife and had children of my own. Then after a time i would move on and find a new place. I had been married seven times, had seven daughters and four sons. I never stayed long enough to watch them go.
   Each time i left a family behind, i went first to Shadows Walk. A harbor town of the southeast continent, on the edge of the dark kingdom. It was a place for outcasts. Pirates, criminals, and other kinds of unwannted. I knew a pretty little lady named Maeva who worked a brothel there. After a few hundred years i realised she was immortal too, but not like me. She was a succubus, and i was one of her favorite customers. She drained immeasurable amounts of life from me. A thing she couldn't do with most men. It would kill anyone who didn't have eternal life.
   There were a large handful of immortals found throughout Shadows Walk. In fact there were many hidden allover the world. They never revealed themselves as such, but we all knew eachothers secret. Having seen eachother so many times , over so many hundreds of years. One, in particular, befriended me. He too was born on the same night as a dragon, and thus cursed with eternal youth. He was five-thousand years my senior and first born to a noble family. He was sent away from home at a young age. His family wouldn't have an heir who would live forever. We took our travels together for a time. Untill he disapeared one night from Shadows Walk. He was last seen stumbling off, drunk, into the dead marsh. It was believed, either a witch or vampire of the dark kingdom, lured him to join their ranks. I had not seen him since.
   Sometime later, at the base of Sky City's cliffs, i was exploring an old excavation site. Three men were working as escorts for me, and they had found something they thought was of interest. When they tried to move it, a trap door opened beneath us, and the four of us fell through. It was quiet at first in the darkness we fell into. Then, with a loud roar, a dragon's flames filled the large cavern burning all of my men. The dragon quickly grabbed them and swallowed them whole. They were still alive, screaming from the pain of their searing flesh. The dragon missed me with his flame, and i took shelter behind a boulder. He could sense I was there. He told me i needn't fear him, that we were brothers of the Eather, born at the exact same moment. He would always be able to sense if i was close by. Handale, my brother the dragon.
   After meeting Handale, i was reminded of my childhood home. It was then that i returned. When i found my families old home, it looked very different. As well it should, i hadn't been there in thousands of years. My families one little cottage, was now a whole little village. My relatives were the governing family. In charge of the wellfare of this town. It took them quite some time to believe i was their immortal ancester they were told stories about as children. Eventualy they welcomed me home as their blood. I soon went to visit the neighbooring town of Eastvill.
   In eastvill i went too see if i could find Elena's old bookshop. It had been replaced by a grand library. Inside, behind the counter, sat a darling young woman. Spitting image of Elena, this was a descendent of hers for sure. I took to courting the young woman and had her as a bride. I felt closer to her than any other woman i had. A strong love I thought never to find. This one I would not abandon like the others. Alas, i was not even givin the chance to. Instead of old age, she was taken by sickness. Still young and beautiful, we laid her to rest.
   At this i knew i couldn't bare anymore of eternity. I had lost so many in my time. I never want to lose another. Many times I've been injured and knocked unconscius and all sorts. Needing to be nursed back to health. I may have been givin eternal youth, but no ever said i couldn't be killed. Even dragons can be killed.
    I'll go to the edge of the world tonight, and with this dagger, I'll bring an end to forever.