[@PlatinumSkink]

No, no particular reason other than it was prophecies. Kind of like the Sophocles tragedies, it's just kind of inevitable despite what they try to avoid it. In this case, he recognizes his need to do it and he has the sword that can eliminate an ancient evil like the primary antagonist. Though, I did rush this quite a bit and didn't get nearly what I wanted to have into it. Oh well, it happens. I'm glad you seemed to otherwise enjoy it! As always, thanks for the review. 



[@mdk]

Lol. I love you. Is that too strong? Whatever. Yes, this was rushed. Very rushed. Written in 2-3 hours rushed. I have a thing called 'The Wolf and the Raven' somewhere in my documents that's a weird combination of poetry and a Def Poetry Jam kind of style that begins a bard telling the tale of a tragic romance between a shapeshifting wolf named Faelan and a shapeshifting raven named Mara who also happens to be the last living heir of the kingdom that was overthrown. The land was named Aurora ('dawn' of a new era pretty much) and the old land was called Rouwen (it means sorrow, so you know we're in for some tragedy here). It was meant to be he is this 'Geralt of Rivia' style character who was exiled from his shapeshifting clan and ended up meeting this woman. They fell in love but the politics and cruelties of war keep him from wanting to be involved until one day he has to take a choice to defend some people he knows from dying and ends up having to cut his lover down. Yeah, I must have been in some sort of depressed mood to come up with that lol. And, when she died she was to have a sort of revelation moment. He buries her, a winter rose forms and the winter snow begins to finally lift. Ended up changing it for this particular story, but I didn't have enough time to order my thoughts and such. My dog had recently been diagnosed with kidney failure and then passed away very recently so I just didn't get to writing until rather late. Not to make excuses, but that's that. So yeah, this story here morphed from where it began. I wanted to spring the prophecy a bit earlier as well as that was my own major complaint. I had planned to be closer to what originally inspired this and have several short thematically connecting stories of his adventures with Triss until the tragic climax as was anticipated. I was hoping to rip everyone's hearts out the moment he cut her down... Is that cruel of me? I guess I have some GRR Martin in me, after all. Alas, it wasn't meant to be for this entry but I'm glad it seems you and others have enjoyed it for what I was able to put into it. I reaaallllyy wish I could have either done it as I planned, or had been able to include their budding romance before this trial to give it an extra punch i the gut. Thank you for the review, a lot of your thoughts aligned with my own as it so happens!