In Memoriam: Miles

(Told from the viewpoint of Harold Windamier via speech while traveling down the mountainside)

And lo, we stand here today in this most dreadful of ceremonies, in this air that has grown stale with disease and chaos, where all the birds dare not sing, for otherwise they be perceived as basking in the tragedy that has occurred, we come here to honor the majesty of the man who accompanied us for all of these two or so days, the great Senor Commander Miles.

Miles was an affable, oh yes my friends, oh so affable, a man who could be tricked into thinking that dogs were cats, that prisoners were soldiers and that demotions could be salvations. You, whose armor glowed like the sun itself, whose face burned like a marshmallow, you, whose arms shook like grass attacked by the four winds, you were oh so young to die!

Oh but hear us, dear Senor Miles! While your armor still lies over this grave, we shall gain vengeance for you by slaying the almighty great villain of these times. For this, we make an oath to your most sacred armor, to slay the man, the demon, the creature that they called Marcus Aurelius. We will repent for your cowardly, oh so cowardly ways, by defeating him, just as a bee would sting its foe for their queen.

Oh Miles, shall we not forget your handsome face, your tumbling spear, your oh so dashing mustache that was clearly an imitation of my very own! No Miles, we will not forget your heroically letting us do all the fighting, how you continually gave us weapons due to insanity, how you continued to whimper about. You were our pet, our colleague, and almost our dearest of friends! We who are about to step onto this cruelest of worlds, this beast of a land, shall one day join you, but only after we have honored yourself and your true passions!

Senor Miles, we may have dashed by accident your hopes, your dreams, your loves and uh, your life, but if we could go into the way-back past, where the future was but a haze, where the birds still sang, would we, could we, we would and bring you to our arms, to hear your loveable miserly ways that would make the hobos of the Crystal Valley laugh with glee. Senor Miles, may your grace and charm forever go down in history! So say we all my dear friends! So say we all!

Goodbye, Senor Miles. Goodbye.