art by crypsis
Even now, living and functioning in this place, Anatole felt somehow different and as if he himself was not made of the same genetic makeup as the others. Someone might have warned him of the darkness in his blood, but his mother did not know the true horror of Corvus (and this was not his real name) Vendetta or his crimes. The woman who did had vanished, woad bands and all, into the night with her children and her lover. An unconscious part of him understood this, but his mind did not tread into those dark waters except for dreams.
Yet there had been no trauma, nothing more terrible than the day-to-day struggle to survive, and so his mind had been hardened and never suffered great loss. The most terrible thing he had suffered was a fever, brought on by the dirty nails of a young bobcat, and only because of his own stubborn refusal to see a healer. So while gruff and crude, he was not cruel.
The eagle was incapable of smiling, but ruffled her feathers in a knowing way and took wing after the girl’s comment. Anatole feigned ignorance. Green eyes flicked back to the coyote (he identified her as this now because she was from Inferni, and Inferni was coyote to him) following after him. “To the Town Hall,” he explained, and slowed his long-legged gait so she could keep pace with him. They were, more or less, following the river westward. “Usually guests stay with their hosts, but I don’t live…” he paused, unsure of how to explain it. “I live in a den,” he finally settled on. “It’s not very big.” He turned ahead again, frowning.
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