a lone figure slowly makes his way across the deserted, wind-blasted plane
Silent and garbed for battle
Dry gales whip around his body and stir small cyclones in the dust
gentle breezes slowly glide over the sand and wrap around him
sighing softly
his wooden armor makes a hollow creaking and groaning with each step
like a distant echo, retelling past glories and battles
Harder than any stone, his armor has changed much from whence he first put it on
the softer layers of wood have long-since been lost
all that remains is the heart: the hardest and strongest portion
smooth and hard and terrible
like driftwood
So many battles
So many struggles
He cannot remember the last time he had removed his armor
if, indeed, he ever had
Perhaps, he ponders, he can not remove it
no more than he could remove his own bones
the eerie contortions in the grain of the wood, every cut and mark
all form a catalogue of one life
his life
Legionairres of the Broken Shore
those tragic guardians
who wear their souls on the outside