What Was Once Forsaken..(Dante)

[DoM Archive]

Date: 10/5/98 10:16 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: DanteQuivX

What Was Once Forsaken...




Sometimes in a life there are paths that are forbidden, forsaken, forgotten. Sometimes, a persons straight line on the path they believe set upon curves, turning them back to the choices that were once untaken. And sometimes, those paths once lost can be found once again... in times of desperation.. in times of need. And even sometimes can a person go back and take the choice over again, and open up those shadowed paths.

He stood at the edge of Twilight Island, looking down upon the great monoliths from a mountaintop above. He didn't look like a mage, sound like a mage or act like one. He wasn't a hero. He wasn't dressed in stars and a cape. Such were the stuff of fairy tales, and however whimsical this place might seem it bore the familiarity of reality.
Indeed, at a glance some may wonder what he was even doing in a place like this. A street whore, too pretty for his own good, dressed in the leather pants and fishnet shirt that was almost a trademark. Doc Marten's crushed the grass he stood upon, hardened with spikes jutting from the toe..a fancy.. sometimes when you look tough on the streets, they leave you alone. Well, perhaps not even sometimes...not when you had a face the bully's just loved
to see bruised.
But something had changed in the infamous "Angel"'s life. He had gone from the protected... to the protector. Him. Someone actually needed *him* to protect them. It was... shocking.. in a way.. but it felt oh so good to be needed, didn't it? Whispers of sound followed him down the path towards the main events, the duels, the cigarette left trodden over by a steeltoed boot. He had family here, on this Island, something he had long forsaken..or
hidden from out of his own shame. He had led a dark life, too long held in slavery... too long kept by his own vices. Once "freedom" had been reacquired he kept to the streets that were his last refuge, coming out to the luxury of family only on rare occassion.. and even then... he barely spoke of himself, his life.

Yet.. the streets, that life, it wasn't always the way it had been. Growing up he'd led quite a different path. Son of a warlord..a great Necromancer who ruled with an iron fist of control, his mother an assassin and, once retired from that work, a leader in her own right. But he had been the meek child. Leading, in Dante's opinion, was not something he was cut out to do. Yet ever the silent one there was never a word said on that.. and he had
begun the teachings that would hopefully follow him in his fathers footsteps.

Until the day he ran away, tormented too much by a twin sister, and ran directly into the arms of a slaver with a penchant for little boys.

That is when paths became lost, doors closed, and created the man/boy that now hovered on the edges of the dueling rings, watching the sparks of magic flitting within. Could he do that? Could he relearn what had been taken from him all those years ago? Silver locks became worried in bronze fingers, before they were tucked behind pointed ears as he watched, nervous..and just a bit afraid. No. He had to learn the Arts once again. He had to
protect the ones he loved. He made a promise, did he not?
He clutched the small spiral bound notebook to his chest as he made his way over to where his aunt, Dansantes, called the duels. It had been his mothers once, given to her by the aunt he now approached when mom had decided to try her hand at the Duels. Somehow, he always felt younger when he was with Aunt Dans. It was that motherly look she gave him, it had to be, made him feel all but ten years old again, and it was something he didn't mind one
bit.
Decisions were made, an opponent found. And for the first time in Dante's life he stepped into the famous rings of the Duel of Magic. Nervous. Frightened. He tried not to stutter through the spells he once recited with perfect clarity to his father too many years ago. Out of place and none to self assured, Dante cast the first spell in a duel that would begin the relearnings of the magic arts.

And he won.