Water filling his lungs as he flails in desperation to ascend.
Panic sets in as lungs begin to burn.
Is this the end?
He was only doing the right thing,
How did it come to this?

A gasping, fateful breath.
Relief coursed through his body as air rushes into his lungs again.
Then the pain blossomed in his shoulder and abdomen.
And memories of the path to this moment invaded his mind.
Vision clearing, a man stepped from the shadows on the shoreline.
Dread consumed him, and he forgot the pain.
--
Hope sprang into her chest as he breached the surface.
He was alive and relief momentarily spread through her.
How had it come to this?
Why wasna she consulted?
The predator emerged from the shadows on the distant shore.
She had plans. She had dreams. She had given her heart away.
Now they were at the mercy of arrows and water.
Hope waned.
--
Gripping his bow, he measured the distance between them.
Curious, how hope lets people cling to life, he mused.
His cause was just.
They did not know the strife their union would cause.
Love is not a shield.
He raised an arrow at his foe in the water.
She will bear witness.
To his vengeance, complete.
--
As he sank beneath the surface, her hope died with him.
So did the promise of change.
Perhaps her only chance at love, too.
Frozen in grief for that endless second,
And then rage consumed her.
She burned that face into her memory.
She would not mourn.
She will avenge.
Will this violence ever end?

Penned by my hand on the 4th of Glacian, in the year 862 AF.