Steve took a deep breath, letting out slowly, before inhaling again and beginning the story.
"Once upon a time." Every good fairy tale began with that, of course, and he wasn't going to buck hundreds of years of tradition. "Once upon a time, there lived a boy. He was frail and weak, and not what anyone would expect for a warrior. But, according to others, he had a hero's heart. He abhorred prejudice, and stood up for everyone to have the same freedoms and liberties. He hated bullies, and would fight them even when they were twice his size.
"There was a war raging between the kingdom the young man lived in, and the neighboring kingdom. The Red Skull was a wizard, horribly transfigured while performing his dark magics, who believed that man couldn't be trusted with his own freedom, and needed to be ruled with an iron fist. A colleague of his, a fellow wizard, had fled from the Red Skull and journeyed to the neighboring kingdom, intent to help them fight against the tyrant. He possessed the same magic as Red Skull, but knew it wasn't the magic that made someone evil, but what was already in his heart.
"So the wizard searched the land for someone already brave and true, and discovered the boy. Many scoffed at his choice, but the kind wizard was wise, and soon the boy proved himself without even realizing it.
"During his training before the wizard bestowed his magical gift, the young man met another unlikely warrior. A princess, with chocolate brown hair and piercing, intelligent eyes; a lady who was charming, and a crack shot with a weapon, and had no qualms about standing up for herself in the face of less intelligent men, who thought she had no place in their world of fighting. The princess even seemed fond of the young man, though he was never sure if it was true affection, or how one watches a bumbling puppy and can't help but think how adorable they are, even as they accidentally ruin something valuable."
Okay, he was getting a little off-track, here. "Once the young man was imbued with the wizard's magic, he was as strong as ten men, and exactly how anyone would picture a warrior. But now that his body matched his heart, he found the warrior princess seemed distant with him; she believed he'd become just like all the other warriors she had known.
"But over time, even though they saw each other little because of the battles they both were fighting, the hero showed her that he was still the same man inside, and steadily, they grew closer." He had to stop and take a deep, fortifying breath, because no matter how he masked it, the next chapter in this 'story' was the real crux of his problems.
"Finally, the day arrived when the warrior faced the Red Skull himself. Already he had lost his brother-in-arms during battle, and even if he lost his own life, so long as he defeated Red Skull and protected everyone he cared about, the hero was content with his destiny. His one regret was that he would never find out how things might have progressed with the warrior princess, after the war was over.
"What the young hero didn't realize, was that the kind wizard had been far more powerful than he'd realized. Despite what should have surely killed him, the hero fell into a deep sleep, for almost a hundred years. And when he awoke, he learned that many things had changed. He was adaptable, though; the changes in society and technology didn't really bother him. What tore at the hero's heart was that... every single person he'd cared about, that he had considered friend and brother and sister - they had all passed away, beyond his reach forever.
"Except-" his voice broke, and Steve closed his eyes against the tears forming. "Except for the warrior princess. She had survived it all, and become queen. She had married, and had a family, her children now older than the hero himself. But when the hero finally saw her again, to him she had changed just as quickly as he had with magic. Her spirit was the same, and though she still spoke the same, her body had aged and become frail. And with the advanced years, her mind was failing, too. She would forget things, sometimes even whole conversations that had just been spoken with her.
"To the hero, she was still the woman he loved, and during the good times, he would forget, for minutes at a time, that anything had changed. But then he would remember, and his heart broke all over again at the reminder of all that he had lost."
Storytime
"Once upon a time." Every good fairy tale began with that, of course, and he wasn't going to buck hundreds of years of tradition. "Once upon a time, there lived a boy. He was frail and weak, and not what anyone would expect for a warrior. But, according to others, he had a hero's heart. He abhorred prejudice, and stood up for everyone to have the same freedoms and liberties. He hated bullies, and would fight them even when they were twice his size.
"There was a war raging between the kingdom the young man lived in, and the neighboring kingdom. The Red Skull was a wizard, horribly transfigured while performing his dark magics, who believed that man couldn't be trusted with his own freedom, and needed to be ruled with an iron fist. A colleague of his, a fellow wizard, had fled from the Red Skull and journeyed to the neighboring kingdom, intent to help them fight against the tyrant. He possessed the same magic as Red Skull, but knew it wasn't the magic that made someone evil, but what was already in his heart.
"So the wizard searched the land for someone already brave and true, and discovered the boy. Many scoffed at his choice, but the kind wizard was wise, and soon the boy proved himself without even realizing it.
"During his training before the wizard bestowed his magical gift, the young man met another unlikely warrior. A princess, with chocolate brown hair and piercing, intelligent eyes; a lady who was charming, and a crack shot with a weapon, and had no qualms about standing up for herself in the face of less intelligent men, who thought she had no place in their world of fighting. The princess even seemed fond of the young man, though he was never sure if it was true affection, or how one watches a bumbling puppy and can't help but think how adorable they are, even as they accidentally ruin something valuable."
Okay, he was getting a little off-track, here. "Once the young man was imbued with the wizard's magic, he was as strong as ten men, and exactly how anyone would picture a warrior. But now that his body matched his heart, he found the warrior princess seemed distant with him; she believed he'd become just like all the other warriors she had known.
"But over time, even though they saw each other little because of the battles they both were fighting, the hero showed her that he was still the same man inside, and steadily, they grew closer." He had to stop and take a deep, fortifying breath, because no matter how he masked it, the next chapter in this 'story' was the real crux of his problems.
"Finally, the day arrived when the warrior faced the Red Skull himself. Already he had lost his brother-in-arms during battle, and even if he lost his own life, so long as he defeated Red Skull and protected everyone he cared about, the hero was content with his destiny. His one regret was that he would never find out how things might have progressed with the warrior princess, after the war was over.
"What the young hero didn't realize, was that the kind wizard had been far more powerful than he'd realized. Despite what should have surely killed him, the hero fell into a deep sleep, for almost a hundred years. And when he awoke, he learned that many things had changed. He was adaptable, though; the changes in society and technology didn't really bother him. What tore at the hero's heart was that... every single person he'd cared about, that he had considered friend and brother and sister - they had all passed away, beyond his reach forever.
"Except-" his voice broke, and Steve closed his eyes against the tears forming. "Except for the warrior princess. She had survived it all, and become queen. She had married, and had a family, her children now older than the hero himself. But when the hero finally saw her again, to him she had changed just as quickly as he had with magic. Her spirit was the same, and though she still spoke the same, her body had aged and become frail. And with the advanced years, her mind was failing, too. She would forget things, sometimes even whole conversations that had just been spoken with her.
"To the hero, she was still the woman he loved, and during the good times, he would forget, for minutes at a time, that anything had changed. But then he would remember, and his heart broke all over again at the reminder of all that he had lost."