A Warrior's Redemption

The warrior rode his horse slowly through the forest. He was making good time and he should be able to reach the border of the great land before nightfall. He had been traveling for days, with little food or rest. But not once did he question why he had started this journey.

He was a Knight but no one knew his name anymore. No one remembered what he had done to earn such a respect. His people adored him so much that they named him The Unknown Warrior and it stuck. They were all too eager to forget his past and embrace his indomitable future.

The little girl's parents had died ten years ago and her village had long since vanished, devoured by the unforgiving nature of their home planet. She was all alone out there, without food or water in a world that only wanted her dead. She would have died too, if not for the distant cries of joy that were suddenly heard across the planet: a Legendary Hero had returned! He was back and ready to fight again!

Abandoning his post as gatekeeper at the gate between worlds, The Unknown Warrior boarded a ship to return home as quickly as he could, hoping that he wasn't too late. When he arrived however, the news had spread far beyond his homeland and many other nations cheered with them, thinking that their own hero had returned. But when asked who it was, all anyone could say is: "I don't know".

"You must be the one", people whispered among themselves as they saw him pass by on his way to the village where the young girl was last sighted. "You must have finally returned home!"

But though everyone believed he was their hero, The Unknown Warrior knew better. He knew that this wasn't him, that this couldn't be him because if it was... then something horrible would have happened long ago and nothing could have stopped it from happening.

When The Unknown Warrior finally arrived at his destination, it was already dark outside. There wasn't much light in these parts of the world but even in the darkest nights you could still see enough to find your way around safely. This darkness however... it felt unnatural somehow and made him uneasy in a way he couldn't quite understand yet. But there was no turning back now and only one thought entered his mind: *I hope I'm not too late.*

The little girl lived in an old ruin of a forgotten battlefield within her village borders; people said it used to be a large fort during times of war but now it looked more like a pile of rubble with only two walls left standing up straight. It wasn't hard to find her in there but when The Unknown Warrior stepped inside what he saw shocked him so deeply that he fell down on his knees: everything around him was broken beyond recognition! All of those beautiful memories which once surrounded this place were now shattered in every conceivable way and someone had even tried to burn them away completely!

"Please help me!"

"Huh?"

Turning around one thing became very clear: *I am too late.* There she stood directly behind him: an emaciated little girl dressed in rags with eyes filled with sadness and blood dripping from her mouth; she looked almost dead except for those pleading eyes which still managed to look at him with hope despite everything she's been through because she couldn't give up... not until she knew someone would help her survive after all she'd been through!

"Please save me."

The Unknown Warrior rose from his knees without hesitation; ignoring everything he saw before him and instead focusing on what needed to be done next: "I will do whatever you want," he said solemnly as if he'd been preparing for this moment for years now, "but first we need to leave this place." Then without further ado he lifted her into his arms and carried her outside into the open sky where they both disappeared into thin air just as suddenly as they appeared in front of each other moments earlier.