A story about the song Cloudy (Cloudy) from the album Catchy (Catchy).
Summary: The heroes saved the kingdom from an evil overlord, but not without cost. One of them reflects on the loss of a friend.
Cloudy sighed as she made her way up the mountain. She was about halfway, but the view of the kingdom was already beautiful.
‘The kingdom we saved.’
Just a few days before, they had returned from their epic battle against the evil overlord, a battle they had won. They had been heralded back home as heroes. Everyone in the land she overlooked was safe thanks to them.
Turning her eyes away from the landscape, she glanced up at the sky before continuing. It looked like it would rain at any moment.
She was glad. She wasn’t in the mood for sunshine anyway, and perhaps no one else would be visiting his grave on a bad day like this.
They had been heralded back home as heroes, but a shadow hung over the celebrations. They had lost their comrade, Zeph. While the people celebrated their freedom, they also mourned the loss of one of their heroes.
The princess had cried her eyes out. Of course she did, she loved him. The whole country felt sympathy for the poor girl.
For her part, Cloudy had kept up a strong face. The people relied on heroes like her, after all. She had to be dependable. Especially with Zeph gone.
After climbing the path for a while, she reached the ledge where Zeph’s grave was located. She looked at it from the distance for a moment, grateful that no one else was present.
She thought back to when another of her comrades, Hywell the Archer, had approached her. He had asked her how she was doing. She had responded the same way she always did – that she was fine. Hywell had let out a sad chuckle at that.
As she approached Zeph’s grave, the words Hywell had spoken to her resonated in her mind.
“You know, the loss of a friend can hurt just as much as the loss of a lover… if not more so.”
She found herself sitting down next to Zeph’s grave, almost as if she was sitting next to him. She looked out over the landscape. He had been buried here because he always loved this view – the view of the land he fought to protect. They had sat here together sometimes. Not even talking, just… sharing a comfortable silence.
Softly, it started to rain. But it didn’t bother her. Rather, she appreciated it.
She found herself leaning her head against the gravestone, finally giving in to her feelings. She shivered as the tears in her eyes begun to mix with the rain falling on her face
‘Why did you have to die?’
Their mage, Eloria, had been casting a spell, but the overlord had let out a devastating attack towards her. Both Cloudy and Zeph had rushed forward in an effort to protect her. She had always been stronger than Zeph, but he was faster… so he got to Eloria first. And took the attack for her.
Eloria had finished casting her spell, which greatly damaged the overlord. Cloudy had then rushed forward, slashing into their enemy over and over, unable to control her anger, until she was finally able to deal the final blow, finishing him.
‘I wish you had been stronger than me… I wish I had been faster than you. Then it would have been me instead of you.’
The rain got worse, and a thunderstorm broke out. She found her sadness giving way to anger.
‘Was any of this even really worth it? We saved all these people… was it really worth the loss of your own life? Zeph?’
With each thunderstrike, she felt her heart pounding louder.
‘If it had been my choice, would I have accepted it, for you to sacrifice your life for the entire kingdom? Or would I have rather sacrificed everyone else for you?’
She hugged her knees closer, shivering as the rain beat down on her.
‘That’s nonsense, it wasn’t my choice to make. I know that.’ She bit back at herself.
One last ear-deafening thunderstrike sent tremors through the ground. And then the thunderstorm broke. The rain slowed back down to a trickle.
‘I know… He wanted to fight… he wanted to protect this land. And isn’t that what we shared?’
She sat there in the trickling rain, the pounding of her heart slowly calming down.
’And besides… if we hadn’t fought together… would we have become the friends we ended up being? That’s right… It’s precisely because we fought together, back to back, that he became my friend. My precious friend.’
She lifted up her head from the grave, as the rain finally stopped. The sky started to clear up, and one ray of sunlight broke through.
‘I’m glad… I got to meet you. I’m glad you were fighting at my side.’
Cloudy stood up, taking a deep breath as she felt the warmth of the sun on her face. She wiped away her tears and raised her head. She looked at the grave one more time and gave a sad smile, before turning around and walking forward.
‘Goodbye, Zeph. And don’t worry about me, my friend. I will be okay.’
