As all good things must do

My body fell limp as the creature's venom tore through my system. Flooding every single cell of my body with it's necrotic poison. The only benefit that I could find was that the lizard had fallen as well. My blade stuffed so far down it's throat I had no hope of retrieving it without surgery. The downside was the outstanding weight that had crushed me beneath. The fangs that had sunk deep into my shoulder and arm. I would die. I would die with an over grown iguana making every nerve in my body burn. I would die. Alone, just as I had before. I'd sink into another endless darkness. Endless sleep. Endless night. I would die. Only a few days after finding my new life.

My body fell still for several minutes. I was unable to move in any meaningful way. The only thing I could feel moving was my slowly weakening heart. The thumps in my chest grew more and more strained as the seconds passed by. The pounding that thundered in my ears slowly fell silent. My heart stopped as the venom worked its way through me. As my bones cracked and my life came to another end.

The world fell as silent as my pulse, yet my eyes did not cease working. My mind did not cease thinking. As my heart fell mute the world around me slowed down to a halt. I couldn't hear the sickening tearing from across the room. I couldn't feel the agonizing pain that had rendered me dead. I couldn't feel the weight of the beast that had felled me. I could feel warmth. A warmth I had already experienced once before.

A blinding light flooded the room as a familiar form strutted out of the shadows. Tall and majestic. Beautiful and astounding. The stunning elk that had awakened me walked through the room as if the world meant nothing to it. Its stride was confident and elegant. The blinding light that radiated off of its pelt would have brought most men to their knees. For me, it simply felt warm, impossibly warm.

Eros walked over to the beast that had silenced me and stabbed his antlers into the creature. It slowly lifted it off the ground, off of me, and tossed it aside as if it meant nothing. I screamed silently as the fangs were yanked out of my body. Its venom ceased infecting my blood stream. I tried to breathe, only to be met with nothing. My lungs, chest, heart, and virtually every other part of my body were unable to respond. Crushed and torn apart.

"Forerunner, you have been given but a taste of this world's pain. You've been given a glimpse of its beauty. A hint of it's grandeur. You've been given more than nearly any other before you. With the knowledge that this world is so much more than you could have imagined, I ask you this... Forerunner, do you wish to die? Here and now. Alone in the dark once again, felled by an ancestor from the distant past. Do you wish to die?"

My mind raced for an answer. Raced for something to say. I tried to open my mouth, only to find it sealed. I tried to make a noise, only to find myself mute. I stared up at the incredible sight before me and struggled to perform the simplest of acts. "I want to live." I tried to say. "I want to see the world. To feel the touch of another again. To taste the sun on my skin. I want to live." My mind raced, my body was incapable of answering. I stared up at the incredible creature, the god, and fell unworthy of its light. I stared up at it, and it met my gaze. With no way to answer it, I fell into darkness once again. Warm tears ran down my face as the endless night took me once more. Warm tears formed streaks in the blood that had covered my cheeks. In an act of instinct, I reached up and wiped the salty droplets away.