"The Road I Walk is Paved In Gold"
Like a damaged reel of videotape, a broken record spinning feebly over the fissure with ugly static warbling, sunrise for the shadows arrived with repetition capable of deadening even the brightest eyes into some dim, docile, sheep-like compliance, twilight a shade pulled at predictable, timed intervals and condemned to be hatefully rejected by the destroyer for what it was, what it meant. Squabbling dogs nibbling their ticks, jockeying for position, rutting to produce piss-soaked replicas of themselves, they had no power here, and likewise he could only suffer them while slaughtering or torturing the odd, meaningless clone that wandered too close, rather than vaporize life in a vicious snake of teeth from which a thousand tiny soldiers, the insects, would emerge to swallow everything, the crippled victims negligible substitutes that failed even in their rawest screams and pleas and rages to provide anything worthwhile for her other than bland sustenance.
Even had he possessed the mental capacity to muse consciously on all this destructive nonsense, there would be no means to such an end. What did these wolves have but their dens, their hunts, their skittish fear and inevitable extinction? Osiris was nothing, said nothing, felt nothing, knew nothing and so now played the part spectacularly, trudging aimlessly through the wimping willows, no memories and no conviction, the blackflies, the worshippers, huddled between his broad shoulders and along her spine, bunched together in the thick fur and inactive as if tired and cold.
He seemed not to be looking for food, or even for someone to hurt, but simply roaming with only the fireflies to light his way. Golden brilliance seemed to radiate light along with the tiny insects as his bi colored gaze landed upon the reflection of himself. The water of the pond rippling and distorting his form.
His skull was pounding, brain reeling with sloshes he could almost hear. The Golden King knew not what he would do next...but he knew his end game.
And what a game it would be.