A Self-Study Within A Broken Mind

I have been told about my birth many times, and though the tales vary person to person, each upholds the basic theme of an unending conflict between two empires. From my first breath of dry, hot air, I was allied to one side, while wrapped in cloth of the other’s banner. I don’t believe that was when my story began, but to my family, and my affiliation, that day was the moment of great victory and pride. My first cry was drowned out by a cheer over the endless armies of red. Though they both carried that crimson banner, it was the emblems upon them that differed two proud empires. Ours was the golden scorpion, and theirs, the black wasp. We were the two factions that have been at war spanning uncounted millennia, always finding new ways to hurt each other instead of reaching a peace. It wasn’t until me that the cracked earth stopped running red with blood, but more on that later. “Amidst the glorious battle,” my dad bellowed to men gathered around us. “I felt the pain of my child arriv...

“YOU ARE ARTORY!” A voice boomed in the enormous open space of stone. “AND YOU ARE OUR CHOSEN!” I felt the stones shiver all around me. The ground I stood upon was not so. Beneath my feet was the back of a stone turtle. “Oh, sorry,” I said and jumped off to the equally shaking stone ground of the walled off space. “This is starting a bit confusing.” “Just go with it,” said a voice off to my side. “It’s better if you just lean into it.” It was a girl my age, but ever stranger than me. “TAKE UPON A WEAPON!” Boomed the voice in the space. Six columns rose up from the giant floor. “AND YOU SHALL BE OUR CHAMPION!” “Are you kidding?” I asked. “They’re like two miles apart. It’ll take me half a day to check all six of them before making a choice. Can I get a horse or something?” “That’s after you choose a weapon,” the girl said with a sly little smile. “Get to it. Didn’t you say you wanted to go and fight monsters?” I looked to her. She was a few inches shorter than my five-ten, with mid-len...