Ariel's Locket

The Legend

The Crimea, 1294

Light mysteriously broke from the eastern horizon. The dark silhouette of a man on horseback stood in bold relief. In one hand he held a saber, in the other a rose. He held both objects aloft, his arms stiff while his battle cry filled the air, the sound stark and terrifying.

The lone man remained on top of the hill but a moment and then, as if the delicate flower burned his hands, he threw the rose to the dry desert sands. When he turned his horse and rode away, the rose was trampled beneath the hooves of his stallion.

A breeze lifted the petals of the flower from the stem one at a time, leaving only the thorns behind. Clouds rolled in, thunder demanding its place next to the sheets of lightning that suddenly controlled the dawn.