The testing of a hero

In those stories of great lives which are already written, when there comes a time of great peril, and our heroine is truly tested, we can feel a great anticipation of the justification that experience will grant them.  When the story is your own, however, and you find yourself in that moment, the feeling is somewhat different.  You see, you do not know whether this event will be the testing of a hero, or whether it will be the messenger of his demise.  And in the end, whichever outcome you are confident in will find its way to the light.  For there are heroes which come to unwholesome ends untarnished, and there are villains formed in the hubris of their own success.  Be the hero, whatever the outcome.  Let history write the rest.