When it was easier

Galan's bones ached his muscles tired. He fondly remembered when a nights sleep would leave him rested not sore. That was a long time ago. Opening and closing his right hand he tries to crack and shake out the touch of arthritis that has really began to bother him. Stretching and standing he can't help but close his eyes and shakes his head trying to keep the exhaustion from retaking him now that he is awake. It was never easy, but it was easier Galan remembered when he first made his Paladin covenants. The Isle didn't even exist then. No one from those days was left. He had watched his companions die and some, even worse, lose their faith.

Then there was Logar and the Isle. Galan was already aging when he heard of Logar Mogath. He served in the Human Empire's army from the far north and he was as hard on friend and enemy. With the collopse of the Human Empire soon came the Isle and with it hope. Suddenly though the empire crumbled around them people found hope and began to flee to the Islands in droves. Galan was among them. An island that flew above the sea and housed the largest temple in teh world-- a temple dedicated to every good god and force in existence. Galan had to see it, he had to be a part of it and do all in his power to make it prosper. He did just that joined the ranks of the Genevan army as a Paladin of the Isle of the Winds.

That was a good time the world was full of hope and ambition. Everyone was optimistic challenges arose but with Logar and then Raquil to lead them enemy after enemy fled. Soon they stopped presenting themselves as targets the shadow ran from the bastin of light and truth. The Isle was not only a station of military power to fight demons from the unseen world, though Galan did plenty of that, it had won the hearts of all the people Galan ever met. The battle for good and evil in the hearts of mankind shifted to good.

Galan felt like a stong asset to the Isle as fresh younger Paladins were traveling from all over the world to help just as he had. Back then he was just as fast as they were, just as strong as they were but had seen more then they all had put together. His experience had led him to several commands. Time was kind but not untouching to him. Wrinkles or worry came to his face and grey hairs of stress started to pepper his head. He passed his grand master test at an age that most Paladins didn't live to.

He had felt guilty sometimes for outliving his companions. What made him different. Why had the gods smiled on him with longer life than his equally righteous brothers? Had he been short in his commitment in some way? It was hardest to face when it was men he commanded that died instead of him. He still remembered the first time someone in his stewardship fell. THough he didn't care to think about it.

Though he had done much in the years of his youth it seemed fate had the most for when his body could no longer keep up with it. It seemed to start when the council assigned him and his command to fortify Jong. They had survived Darkness falls, they had survived Pelinor fields but Khan and his army of demons destroyed everything. Since then Galan had seen and experienced more in the past 2 years then in the rest of his life combined. Why now? Why when my body can't keep up?

Then the hardest. Harder than saving Khan, harder than facing down the Lotus, harder than escaping Ravenloft, he now was a member of the Order of the Protectorate. It seemed almost by accident but with in him was implanted the unholy artifact that Thorn had used to assalt the Isle - the Codex. This didn't just make him a target for the Dark Ones minons and Lanfur's mind games but worse because it was evil it denied him enterance to the Isle of the Winds to rest and a seeming nonstop urge to do dark deeds and betray what he knew his conscience would have him do. And now with his identity comprimised Lanfur knows he had to find a sucessor. Atrayu and Raquil seemed to both want it and that ment his death. At least then he could rest and his aching joints and heavy heart could move on.

But if if there was some way to serve further, he would do it. If his life or death forwarded teh cause of the light and helped justice spread in the world he would give or keep it with out question. He hoped that despite it getting nothing but harder that could have the honor to sacrfice and hurt even more. He hoped it was harder so he could fight the fights the need fighting. The Shadow would not conquer the shadow and nothing, not age nor temptation nor weariness would stop Galan, Savior of Osiris, from serving the Light. He looked at his window and as his left knee ached he smiled welcoming the light of a new day.