The Fairy Tale of Death

Once upon a time, a fair maiden fell to a hunter's arrow.
No one knows why she was shot, no one even noticed. She lay there, amid the brambles of wild roses and the leafy fronds of forest ferns, her lifeblood draining slowly, a dark crimson stain against the greenery around her.
Already feeling and warmth left her body, and her eyes fluttered on the verge of unconsciousness. She knew she was dying, and she held no fear because she knew for sure, Death would carry her to the Summerlands; so she could join her mother and father, her brother and her sisters who had all died in the wars. Waged by one man, for nothing other than land…death of many innocent men, women and children all for the vain glory of battle.
"I'll…I'll see them soon, for sure." she thought, as she slowly passed away. "For sure, Death will come soon…"
And so he did. Passing through the In-Between lands, the realms that were mere shadows of Life and Death, and so were much, much more than either, he drew swiftly to his side. The maiden saw all of this as a third party…her soul had already separated form her body, held in place by a gossamer thin chain, connecting her spirit's heart to her mortal shell's heart.
"So. You have finally succumbed to me?" the hooded figure spoke, his voice soft and strangely forlorn. She watched in awe as each word shot from beneath the hood, in colours of blue and midnight. "After all this time, keeping you from myself…keeping you from falling to war, to heat and famine, to murder." bending, he fingered her soft midnight hair. "So beautiful, so fragile. And you fell to me by chance! By Fate!" cruel, mocking laughs fell from the hood….she could see them as shards of black light falling slowly from the hood, to the ground, killing patches of plants where they fell.
She trembled softly. She had expected something more…not a hooded figure, with the voice of a boy and the speech of an old man! Where was the skeletal hands, the cold and fog?
He thundered to the sky. "I gave you the Lilies! The Lilies from the Other Side!" he rounded on her. "You! Why did you not keep the Lilies close, you should know what they were, the black Lilies of Death!"
She couldn't speak. Her voice had betrayed her…she couldn't find the words.
"Of course you didn't know…you're only a mortal. You figured them to be some strange, yet beautiful weed, didn't you?" she nodded. "Of course…and now as Death I must do my duty." Pulling a long rod from beneath his cloak, he made a flicking gesture, and the skull on the end of the rod exploded, a blade slicing it's keen through the air. Tinged in silver and purple, it would have been beautiful if it hadn't been so utterly terrifying.
"I, Death pass you from this realm of Life to the realm of Shadow…safe haven through the Inbetween shall be given to your mortal soul." throwing back the hood, she was greeted with the face of a boy, sandy hair braided with feathers and beads, freckles splashed across his nose. Tears were falling from his honey-gold eyes, and she felt sorrow for him. Death could cry, just like the boy he resembled. The boy that she had seen before, she was sure.
Drifting towards him, she reached out her thin alabaster arms as he lowered the scythe slowly towards the chain that connected her to life.
"I know you." she whispered. She remembered now. "You were the boy at the garden gate…the one who wrote in that great book with the phoenix feather. You were the boy that fought off the man that attacked me, when the war started." he nodded. "You were the boy that fed me, that gave me water when I was alone…you were the boy that disappeared after you gave me your cloak to stave off the winter cold." once more he nodded.
"You were the strange, wonderful boy that loved me. And now you are Death that carries me to my family…" wrapping her arms around his shoulder, she softly kissed his cheek. "You were the boy I loved, for all of those things you did for me."
"Yes." an agonised whisper, and a twitch of his arm, and then she was there, on the Other Side, her family rushing towards her from all around. She should have been happy, but she burst into tears. It just wasn't fair…that Death should be forever alone.
In Life, Death slowly lifted his hood, and departed from her body. Again, he was alone, for always. That was the burden of being what he was, who he was. For he was Death…