Wolves

The beasts were howling, rending the night with their terrible cries of hunger and rage. I tried to keep my family moving, but the snow was deep, and the ice was sly. One of my children left a blood trail where he ran; too big, now, for me to carry.

They were not far behind us, and our eyes showed their whites; rolling in fear. My breath came ragged, its sound as awful as the creatures hunting us. Even as my son fell, with his entrails spilling out as a steaming mess onto the unforgiving snow, it was all I could hear. I knew he cried in pain as they fell upon him, but the sound reached only my heart, bypassing my ears. Crackling in and out, my lungs would fail me soon in this chase.

One by one, my family fell prey to the beasts. The cracking of their bones and anguished howls reverberated in my skull, so often and so loudly I felt my teeth would shatter. After minutes or years, I found myself alone.

I could hear the merciless beasts in the distance, rejoicing in their kill. They must not have noticed one carcass; my own, was missing from their gristly prize. I dragged my weary body, and broken spirit, beneath a fallen tree. The frozen body of this dead sentinel would hide me for the night.

I lifted my wavering gaze to the moon, and silently begged the Mother of the Night to forgive my lack of song. My heart was near bursting with sorrow that must be sung to the Mother.

I wanted to lament my family... but I wanted to live, too.

The Scaled Ones

Burning. The world was burning. Without opening my eyes, or inhaling deeply to catch the smoke, I knew. Only the flames are to be feared. I rose, calmly despite the panic electrifying my body; sending sparks up and out through my nails as they caught my cloak; my hair as it brushed my shoulders.

They have come.

The sound of wings filled the air as their feathers dusted the village with ash. The little school house was gone, and so was the church. I didn't stop to look for Gruvak Aaren. The sight of his burned corpse shining; molten in the firelight, would have been too much. I wanted to help the others fight. Instead, I ran towards the stables.

My bronze was still tethered, and his tail lashed fitfully against the stone walls of his cell. I always kept him at the far end, in the darkest part of the building. He was smaller than the others, but faster, and vicious. When I reached for his reigns, iron lengths of chain I forged myself on his hatch day, he whirled around, hissing spitefully. Even his simple mind could feel the fear. Mounted up, I rode.

A youngling was cowering outside the stables, his dangerously pointed strands of hair tarnished and catching the firelight.

Have you fought for your sires? Do they live?

His eyes were wide, and I saw the answer was no. I remember sneering in contempt as I grabbed his arm roughly, pulling him onto the bronze behind me.

You are no warrior and no whelp; hold your own. I will not stop should you fall.

His mind returned a bit; stimulated by my direct order. Within his fear, desire for survival had grown.

Yes, Erava-lah.

I did not want him, but to give me my courtesies in his frightened weakness gave me hope. Our people would endure. I spurred the bronze harshly, and he ran into the night. I hoped our enemies were too busy slaying our weakest people to notice the strong escape. I was wrong.

A screech filled the night when they descended upon us; the youngling and I. They had miscalculated and dropped down too close. My bronze bit into one's leg as it touched down. A female. I smiled grimly at her, and her eyes reflected my own scaled face as I slashed her throat with the blade she'd failed to see hidden beneath my cloak. Their arrogance could sometimes be their undoing.

I had seen another of the monsters touch down as I had laid waste to the first. I looked for it; whipping my head around; long hair severing a nearby branch when it bestowed on the wood the gentlest of kisses. What I saw surprised me; my first real surprise in at least ninety years.

The youngling had leaped from my bronze and grabbed a broken branch when the attack began, and now stood staring at the corpse of the other attacker; propped up in the night with a pathetic bit of tree straight through his chest.

They are soft, Erava-lah.

Yes. That is why they come in the night with fire, youngling. They fear us.

He had Jareviel blood splashed across his brow. It bothered me. Perhaps I was feeling tender, but as I used my own cloak to clean off his face and restore his mirror-like, young scales to their brilliance, I smiled.

Our people will live.

Decay

These fruits, sweet in summer,
Oft decay quietly
Until we find them; rotting, spent
In little used, ill-purposed, sections
of our homes.

Twin Angels

There once were two girls clinging to a cliff. Around each of their waists a rope was tied, connecting them together. The middle of the rope was lost in the heavens above them; a rock neither could see holding their rope. Each girl loved the other fiercely and unwisely. Both tried to pull the other upward towards safety. They tried and tried, each getting more angry at the other.

"Just let me fall! I'm stronger than you!" Shouted one.

"Let ME fall," the other cried "YOU have more to live for!"

The girls battered themselves bloody against the cliff, neither wanting to lose her friend, until they had grown so angry with one another they began swinging back and forth on their ends of the rope, hitting and cursing until the rope snapped; sending both girls spiraling down to what looked like their doom.

Neither noticed that the other had sprouted great, beautiful wings in the fall. They flew in opposite directions, tears in their eyes, each believing herself to be the sole survivor.

Sanguine

In front of the screen,

Absentmindedly tearing the skin from my lips,
I feel like I’m forgetting something
As the blood drips down my chin.
The filter of my cigarette
Soaks up the trickling river
Of things I forgot to remember.

The Escape of the Snakes from Sinister's Zoo

In the late, late night
By the light of the moon,
The snakes escaped
From Sinister’s zoo.

The big one said
“We have things to do”
But the little one wanted
Something to chew.

“There’s a warm air vent
Across the room;
Won’t you bask under the
Big, round moon”?

The big snake pleaded and wheedled
And conceded at last
To accomplish the little one’s
Desired task.

They squirmed under rugs
And wove around chairs;
They would settle for bugs
Before going back to their lairs!

But there! Sticking out from under a cushion
In the pale moon’s light,
The little one’s scales gave a shiver of
Hungry delight.

Some strange new creature
Thought itself safe from her teeth
So silently slithering
She attacked from beneath!

The big snake was sleepy from exploring all night
But just as he began dozing away
Something gave him a fright
His poor tail became prey.

While the little one lacked
The advantage of size
She had never been known to give up
On her prize.

With her unknowing teeth
Latched onto the bigger snake’s tail
He whipped the small snake around
Like a leaf in a gale.

“I’ll show this intruder
Just who makes the rules!”
And he shot out to consume her;
Eyes glittering like jewels.

When the sun shook the sky
To rouse it from sleep,
The Keeper returned
And heard nary a peep.

She found her snakes vanished
And a strange tear in the couch.
Down on the floor something glimmered
So she bent into a crouch.

A collection of scales
Caught the first rays of sun
Torn from their tails
When their little adventure had ceased to be fun.

No other trace of the snakes
Has ever been found;
Just a tear in the couch and some scales
On the ground.

It’s thought that the snakes,
So determined were they,
Managed to eat one another
In their misguided fray.

LESSON: Know the difference between an enemy and a misguided friend.

Never Give Up

Never give up.
When your endeavors are crumbling,
And your dreams have lost their will to soar,
Walk on.
Walk on through the dark and
The uncertainty.
Walk through the broken-glass shards of your optimism.
Wade through the sweat and tears of your unrewarded hard work.
Walk on, brave soul, though the way is long.
Never give up.
When the world mocks your courage,
Calling you naive, a child in your hopefulness;
Never give up.
Let your passions raise you far above the clouds of their doubt,
And of your own,
And you will persevere.
Strive ever higher, and you may yet touch a star, strong soul.
Never give up.