The air smelled like trinitrotoluene and sawdust. Muzhik walked through the trees without support, as his limbs could not even hold a rifle. One had fallen off at the elbow and the other… barely clung on by shreds of fabric and skin. It was only when he had become more aware, after he found focus through the ringing in both ears, did he see it too - finally shrug off his body one last time.
Why was there no dream to entertain him? Was he not destined to see something as he was dying? Either way, the woods perhaps had finally lost its mercy and consideration for him. Muzhik found a pleasant tree to die beside.
Once his back pressed against the bark, he slid down with a loud thud, which unsettled the light snow from above - allowing it to trample him, making glistening white stars that glowed on his flowing blood, before they too melted.
“So… this is the atheist’s price to pay… at the end of two worlds, with no heaven guaranteed…” Amazingly, he smiled and what vision that remained in his last eye - was only blurred by the tears that came from knowing he no longer had to suffer. “Yeah… finally, I can die a human and not a soldier. Like a dumb fox, caught by a hunter, surrounded by trees and snow.”
He tilted his head back. It was no Siberia, but it would have to do. Despite it all and his clearly fatal wounds, everything lacked permanence. It was a hard thing to come to terms with, enough that it made him briefly frown.
A pair of boots stomped toward him, with an
otherwise meek voice that panted with great panic.
“Ahhh… that surely isn’t one of the fascists, now is it? It must be a dream…” So the woods have
finally declared they will take him, he concluded. “Fine. I guess this is better than any other thing. Let me dream of a saviour…”
And once he was found by Mati, she fell to her knees beside him. As a knight would, mourning his dying king. The sight of what remained of Muzhik was pitiful beyond belief.
“No, no, no, no, this isn’t happening!” Mati’s stomach was tied into a thousand knots and yet, she couldn’t let herself cry anymore. She had already spent the last week mourning this inevitable conclusion. Her face was fairly wet from sweat and tears, but there would be no sobs
from here. “Muuuuuuuzhiiiik!”
“Sorry…” He replied with vermillion trickling from each word that left his lips. Which were split alongside his cheeks, jagged like his carved jaw. Shrapnel stuck out of his face like steel
butterflies that innocently found safe refuge against him. The winged chunks of steel, of war’s
origami, could not persuade him from being emotive with his face. “I have no sword to offer to you, for you to bring it to some lake…”
And despite his bloodied form, riddled with wounds and scraps of steel that stuck out of him, Mati held him close. The holy robes and hood that the Old Witch had given her actually allowed her to navigate the Woods of Dreams, but could not prepare her heart for this sight still.
“I’m not… going to leave you… O-or throw anything of yours away into some lake! Let alone to some witch in a bog…” Mati laughed into his neck.
Surely, she still felt his arms wrap around her, in a phantom touch. Even if they were not there. “Come with me… you think your story ends here?”
“Mati… Matilde, my love… there’s not much left of my story to tell.” Confided Muzhik, but he had completely misunderstood and underestimated her dedication. Despite his horrifically maimed condition, Mati knew that something was keeping him alive. Thus, she did not feel so bad when she began to pull him by the shreds of his jacket, away from the tree. “I’m… probably supposed to die here…”
“You’re no King Arthur, you idiot…” She sniffed. “There is no war or battle for you to fight anymore and I won’t let you settle for a dream…”
“What… do you mean?”
“I’m taking you to the Lady of the Woods… and we are going to make sure you return.”
And like a log through the woods, Mati would drag him. No matter how much he protested and she would not dare leave him, at any part of this journey. Nor would she hesitate, as he so clearly hurt and bled from the wounds of his own fatality. No - she would be strong for the both of them. Loyal and strong.
“Mati… why…?”
“You said it yourself… you would have Bevidere be selfish and allow Arthur to live forever…”
“Hmm…”
“So allow me to be selfish… but I promise, you won’t hurt ever again. Neither of us will.”
It all made sense in that instance. As he was dragged like a bag of meat and bones, Muzhik let himself have a silly little laugh.
“Ah ha ha! Ahhhh… ha ha!” His smile was still cheerful, even when he was entirely shattered and cracked. “I was the sword all along, huh…? And you’re my sheath, my paradise… my avalon.”
“Yes…” Mati couldn’t spare the time to wipe her tears, as she knew it would take half a day’s ride to get back to the Lady of the Woods, to what remained of the Tree of Life. The Goddess of these woods. “And a sword… doesn’t dull in the sheath, it's protected… Right?”
“I’m the one… who was supposed to protect you…”
“You already do, dummy…” With another effortful tug, the worst of the journey was over. “But a sword and sheath… are always meant to be as one. I won’t scatter you to the lake or woods. You’re coming with me, you’re going to become a part of me and we are… going to be together.”
It was true, that when it came to life and death, there was nothing more selfish than to never want life to conclude. But love, in all of its beauty, is the most righteous selfishness of all.
Mati and Muzhik would perform a ritual that would bind them together… and ensure their shared immortality for many lifetimes ahead.
And perhaps, just maybe, this bond may contribute to the salvation of the world…
Or maybe, that is just a cute fairy tale they will always tell one another?