Mama, I failed... [fam]

Vitus had never felt pain before, not like this. Not something that ached with each step, that jostled his gait to the point where he couldn't walk right. Not something that burned, that blossomed, that seemed to ache with each gust of wind. It wasn't anything serious, not something that a healer couldn't fix or wouldn't heal on his own in a few weeks or a month (He assumed...) but it was still nothing he had ever felt before. But it all paled in comparrison to the agony he felt within. His heart clenched every time he went over the fight in his mind, every time his side hit that ground and the stranger child overpowered him. He had failed, he had lost, and it affected Vitus to the core. 

He moved with a broken gait, limping as each step sent pain through his shoulder. Blood dried over his eyelid, making it hard to see, to blink, but he didn't stop to run his aching paws over his eyes to remove it. The cold winter wind had dried the blood along his nape and along his skull, and it almost felt liberating when it nearly froze him to the core. It allowed the pain to almost become numb, but then the tremors began. Oh, Vitus was just not having any luck today. This morning he had fled, he had run from his home (only for a short time!) because the emotion had gotten almost overwhelming. His mother seemed depressed, his siblings nearly distant. The only constant was Amalia's happiness, and even then it felt overwhelming in amongst all the negative emotion. He couldn't handle it, he couldn't understand it, and that frustrated the boy. Maybe when he was older he'd understand his anger was from his lack of ability to help but for now, it was merely overwhelming and it ate at him. But this, this failure...he failed in a small battle against another child. The fire of his anger did little to help him achieve victory and it was a hard blow. How could he protect his siblings and his family if he could not win a simple fight. How useless was he if the only thing he was created to do was something he..couldn't. Agony clawed at his heart, made his lungs burn as the constricted, and he felt dizzy with each step. Yet he didn't call, didn't make a sound. He didn't want them to know of his failure, of his loss, and how deeply it affected him.


"Burn Baby Burn"