The Revival

face full of teeth white, but not smiling—

The pull to Rionna was gravitational, in a dreadful sense. It wasn’t something I had planned nor did I come often, even in my burning ambitions to be more than a lieutenant under the paw of King Adamh. It was strange, almost alien to me as I trudged along the busy stonework streets. My one eye observed the area as if I’d never been here before, and perhaps one could say that in this current state of mind - I hadn’t.

It almost disgusted me now. Not war, not choosing sides, not politics and not my contribution thus far. But the fact that I could allow myself to think I would spend the rest of my life serving someone else was something I couldn’t comprehend. Meeting Parathion had opened up this Pandora’s box of my mind, and to her I would be eternally in debt.

So it was time to ascend in an unorthodox fashion. No longer will I be Adamh’s war hero, no longer will I serve. He did not know it yet, nor did he even know me. But that will change. Even Jacob will know my name. But how? It begged many questions, this notion. But my ambition was evolving, and I learned quickly that I could not stop it. A wildfire lit by pure lightning, it cannot be killed, stilled, or doused. It was immense and unyielding.

And so too shall I be.

Large paws carried a battle-born figure across the expanse of Rionna, stopping not but one time to sit at the edge of a street, under a tree. Shrouded by the overhand of the tree, I sat silently and watched as wolves meandered by. Listened as words were spilled in gossip and politics, taking it all in. Stoic silence may have been my aesthetic, but inside my mind was warring and whirring. Plans to put into motion. Ideas to speak to Parathion for guidance. The birth of something new.

Something great.

—all teeth, but not smiling

code // art