How heavy were the chains which bound me, which crushed my soul, and yet how terrible, how heart shattering, was the dreadful clattering clank when the manacles were cut off, when they fell from me, released me, when I was set free. Free. Free from my home, my life, my family; set free from the city in which I had been born. Free even from my name; my name erased, never again to be spoken save maybe in whispers by those who still love me, who will remember what they are forbidden to remember.
The wilderness lies before me; behind the harsh walls, walls I shall never enter again. Those turrets which were in times past my defense—the craftsmen have set upon them awful faces—snarl at me.
If only they had killed me, let me die a man, but now I shall suffer as an animal, be hunted and torn and devoured.
A free man, I leave the walls behind and surrender to the darkness of the forest. Who I was shall never know what I shall be, and here I am between the two, mourning the one and fearing the other.
Onward, then. Into the shadows I go.
Tale Told 