A mothers prayer

There is a story. A story past down though generations, past down from mother to daughter, from father to son. A story of where we came from. A story of a mother praying to the father to find her son.

North Germany, The Glemhjem waterway, the passage to the Vale von Dalvanberg. A young mother pushes though the crowed of soldiers, as they disembark a troop transport. Fresh faces, though their expressions were like they were getting ready to go though hell. Not to far from the truth. Where they are going, only ferrymen return. The mother knows this, the mother knew this when they came for her son.

Fresh faces, fresh bodies for the meatgrinder von Dalvanberg. The sound of thunder echoing across the bay. Though the sky was clear, a dark depressing fog rippled through the air. The stench of decay mixing with the smell of gun powder. As the mother ran through ash littered streets. MIA the letter said. MIA. Missing, not dead. They always said that. The letters her sister received said the same, the letter the neighbours had the exact same. MIA not dead, though they all knew that was a lie. They took her son and sent him to die. But the mother knew. The mother knew he was still alive. Somewhere out there. through the fog and mist, through the hail of bullets and the black blood stained tunnels, the mother knew he still lived.

So the mother ran, across seas and oceans, through frozen tundra and burning deserts, through the bureaucracy of the worthless military command. To here, to the passage of the vale. The front lines between the devil and his demons. Hell. Where the ferrymen wait to guide those young souls to the underworld. Hell. Where she ran head long into, without hesitation. A rifle in her hands. A sword on her hip and a prayer in her heart. *Father, keep my son safe, and guide him home to me*.

Though she never get the chance to look for him. She was never allowed to even try, but not by the soldiers, nor a barrel of a gun. It would seem the universe had other plans, as the world shook and everything became nothing. Die nihil. They would later call it. The day of nothingness. A day when everything became nothing. can you imagine pure nothingness. No up or down, no black nor white. Pure nothingness, and everything felt it.

Many died, many more becoming insane. Though she never did, her mind still focused on finding her son. Though when the world returned, she found herself in a place so much different from the one she was in moment ago. At least she thought it was moments. Her mind hurting as she began thinking about what had just happened. 'NO.' she thought 'NO I need to focus on finding my son.'

Though how was she suppose to do that now. The world around her, no longer the port she was in before. Now a beautiful lushes field stretched out before her. The stench of before, replaced with the gentle sweet aroma of wild flowers at the height of summer. The sun hanging in the sky surrounded by fluffy clouds as a tranquil breeze flutters through her long brown hair. Beautiful. Though she totally ignored this wonderous place, as she thought of how she was to get back. To get back to finding her son.

So she began to walk. Walking through the happily dancing blades of grass. Her path unknown. Though her goal still the same, her prayer still burning in her mind. *Father please help me find my son. Father please guide my son home to me.* So she walked. Through this featureless landscape. The sun seeming to not move across the sky, no matter how long she walked. The meadow still featureless, save for the occasional rock. That she didn't notice until she was next to it. 'But no, wait. there wasn't a tree there before.' she thought. As she spied a tree to the left of her. She rubbed her eyes with her hands as she thought to her self that the sun must be getting to her. Going crazy imagining tree can just appear out of nowhere. She must be going crazy. As she breathed a tiered sigh, opening her eyes. To see the field gone. Replaced by a forest of conifers.

Her eyes wide, she danced around. The forest that had just appeared seeming to alter with every turn. She ran. Ran as fast as she could though the ocean of trees. Only for it to change around her. where once was a forest became a desert in the blink of an eye. Only to shift and contort into a mountain pass. The weather changing with the world but never making any sense. One moment it is burning hot whilst the world is a frozen tundra, the next it a jungle whilst it feels like a calm summers day in central Germany. The world made no sense, and soon she fell to her knees. Her leg making contact with the hard muddy ground, a shot of pain rippling though her legs, telling her that this is no dream as she stared out in to the white misty landscape, that she knew would change the moment she closed her eyes.

There was no where to go. no reason to get up and run. no way of getting to her son. She was stuck. Stuck in this ever changing limbo. Herself and her son forever lost in the vale von Dalvanberg.

Though hell was no place for the hopeful.

As she closed her eyes and started to pray. '*Dear father, dear father. Dear merciful father. Please place your faith in me. Though mist and flame I've looked, and searched, though no further, I can go. Dear father, dear father. Dear my mother and father. Please help save my son for me. He was taking, unwilling, un-wanting to fight in the devils armies, please save my son, and sacrifice me. Dear father, dear father. Dear the nights father. I can go no further. The world is wrong and I am trapped. The devil haven made the world insane. Dear father, dear father. I am sorry. For all that my people have done to the mother. She gave us a beautiful world and we burned it, but please take out your wrath out on me. My son is innocent to the ways of humanity. He did not want to go. Dear fath...'*

She stopped suddenly, when a hand was placed upon her shoulder. It was light and gentle, but firm and unmoving as she turned towards it. She blinked once, twice. At the sight of a black void of a hand, that seem to float just above her shoulder. Turning around she gazed in to the eyes of the father. His body like his hand a void of darkness, in the shape of a man. His face featureless, though she knew that he was looking at her, with a gentle smile.

"Rest now child. You've done well. Now it my turn to help search." He said in a deep reverberating voice, that seem to vibrate the very ground beneath her. Walking away his body began to grow. Quickly towering above her as his form began to contort, until finally. He became a dark serpent like dragon that seemed to stretch the length of the horizon. In her awe she neglected to notice the world hadn't changed and the mist the had been all encompassing was no more. The land she knelt in, a lushes field, with all sorts of plants growing in it. A grove of trees growing not to far from her and the smell of salty sea water floating on the breeze, telling all that where near that the sea wasn't to far away.

Then suddenly in a flash of darkness the dragon disappeared. Leaving behind an enormous wall of rock and earth that stretched as far as the eye can see. It's rocks covered in runes whilst it texture was like that of a serpents scales. The mother was astonished as she gazed upon the endless wall of rock, nearly not noticing as figures began to appear from holes in the wall.

At first she thought that it was the father, returned to his human form, but then she started to notice the figures features. Like his short brown hair, golden/brown skin and his happy child like smile. Her son. "Oh father, it my son!" she burst into tears, as she ran for him. Their bodies colliding as a ecstatic smile pulled on both their faces.

> *'Dear father, dear father. Dear loving father. We thank you for leading us home. Dear father, dear father. Dear the night father thank you for leading me home.'* The pray of a mothers son.
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