Farewell

My dear future self,
 
I write this letter surrounded by the sounds of bustling, military preparation, as Martin and Caerbhall martial the soldiers for the defence of…well, everything, really: the castle, the Five Realms, the Wyrd, our own lives and last but not least, the future. The future of the entire world and all the people in it.
 
Its curious, for the first time in my life, the notion of fighting for “The People”, that nebulous, faceless mass I spent my entire life inflicting petty vengeance upon, doesn’t fill me with contempt.
 
Why? Oh don’t play coy, you know why, my dear future self. The reason is a part of who you are, and who I have become.
 
Anyway, I believe this will be the last time I write to you.
 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that out of some fatalistic sense of foreboding; I have absolutely no intention of dying tomorrow! The world has too many more secrets to be uncovered and recorded by Takuma, the magical wandering poet, for something as banal as death to thwart me!
 
No, I am ceasing these letters for the simple reason that they are no longer necessary.
 
We both recall when I penned that first long, spiteful letter to you, huddled and shivering in the sparse shelter of the roadside bushes, freshly fled from my home with only the all consuming rage in my heart to warm me. Whether it was due to my juvenile need to fantasize about my inevitable revenge and vindication, or the pitiful desire of a lost boy to sooth his loneliness, I began writing to you. You, my dear future self, a formless entity shrouded in the fog of choices as yet unmade, who could be anything my wildest dreams concocted: a celebrated playwright, a bloody-handed avenger, a debauched hedonist of peerless wealth; all looking back at the sobbing little fatherless fox, laughing in your blissful contentment at his present suffering.
 
But despite all those years, all those letters, all those hopes, dreams and desires committed to ink and parchment, who you ultimately are is someone entirely different.
 
You’re brave, especially when those you love are in need, at which point your courage gives way to sheer recklessness, because against all odds, you’re also loyal. You’re kind, in your own particular way. You’re cunning, and reliable. You aren’t rich, or particularly beloved and well renowned, except for a scant handful of people, and you wouldn’t trade their regard for all the glory in every legend spoken in every tongue.
 
And you’re sly, my dear future self, because quite uninvited and unexpectedly, you became me.
 
So thank you, I will take it from here,
 
Sincerely and forever more,
 
Takuma