[M] I want to believe

Larkspur D'Angelo · 02-17-2011, 01:51 AM

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WARNING This thread contains: graphic violence starting with the 7th post. Reader discretion is advised.

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After speaking to his children individually, going over the basics of the story of their holy ones, the voice of the can tah had begun speaking. Larkspur had done as he had always been told to and listened. He had asked Eris for some of her magic herbs, and explained he had to speak to the ini. She had given him a small supply and he had taken the horse west. Even in the snow, he found his way to that pool he now considered sacred. While his horse grazed and lingered in the area that had once been their own, he had retreated into the darkness that was familiar. Eris’ magic took him further, deep into the deep pink path of the ini, to the eye of Tak and the source of the voices he knew to be holy.

He breathed in cold air and listened. After hours in silence, his orange eyes opened wide and he was pulled back out of that terrible place. His pupils were so dilated that the world remained bright despite the evening shade, and the journey back to Anathema was made without much trouble. Once there he had gathered the children from their various places around the pack caves and brought them into their family one. A fire was lit, and he began to speak in his deep, heavily accented voice. “I spoke t’our Gods today. Y’know that the three of you were made in their image, but t’night I’ll tell you the story of how the Khalif—where I’m from—came to be.” The children looked thrilled by this prospect and had become still and silent. It unnerved him sometimes how still they could become, considering they were twitchy, fidgety puppies. Eris, in the firelight, was a dark shade with glowing eyes. None of the children had her eyes.

“A long time ago, three Gods came down tah th’ mountain of th’ Khalif. Th’ first came in th’ day, a wolf of pure white with eyes th’ color of the sun. The people who saw her called her Ankh. That family was named Brandt, n’they were her favored—they always had white pelts. She was th’ Goddess of Light, an’ would bless the worthy with her color.” He paused, looking at his pale daughter pointedly. She had been chosen to save him. He would never forget such a thing.

“Then, at th’ time ‘tween day n’night, Ankh’s sister, Rah’khir came. She was silver n’brown, color of th’ earth. But then there was silence, for th’ moon rose high. The full moon was red and orange, and from it, He came.” His voice dropped low, knowing the power of the dark one. He too knew the colors that marked his chosen—black and red and orange. He saw them on himself and in his children.

“Tak, the dark god, was as black as night. His eyes were th’ color of th’ moon, but th’ moon changes, my children. Some nights it is silver, and others it is dark and red. His eyes never look th’ same way twice, but they are always terrible. He rules over all the wicked, all the dark ones. Even Ankh and Rah’khir could not stand before him during the night. But th’ sun began t’rise, and as it did, Rah’khir turned against th’ dark one. She chased him even as his body ate th’ earth b’neath him. He ate time an’ th’ stars, but then th’sun rose. Ankh chased him and destroyed him.” He paused for a breath, watching the faces of his children. He enjoyed being able to read them so easily, but also saw the story had not been lost on them.

“Each day, th’ gods repeat this battle. Dawn an’ twilight are the time of Rah’khir, day th’ time of Ankh, and night th’ time of Tak. Each god has power, but Tak’s is the one y’must fear. He is a terrible god,” Larkspur warned, his voice turning harsh. “T’know him is t’know evil. I was born inta his service, an’ I have seen his eye—I have seen the ini, where he lives. It is the place of nightmares, an’ of terrible things. Y’are not to seek it without me t’guide you, or Tak will destroy ya.” A warning, one the dark wolf did not take lightly. Finished with his story, the orange-eyed wolf sat back and turned his face to Eris. She too had expressed a desire to tell them of her faith, and he would certainly not object to that.

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