just know I'm not the sinister type
The wisps led him to the open plateau, where the full moon's bright light glinted from a million shining surfaces, half buried in the dirt and scattered with snow. Hallux wheeled overhead, her silhouette nearly invisible until she passed over one of the myriad streaks of light that claimed the dark heavens above. Slender limbs pulled his delicate form up, up, up and onto the rusted shell of an ancient metal monolith. Ebony claws screeched for purchase on the snow slick surface, breaking the peaceful ambiance of the impossibly still midnight that enveloped them. Tail whirling for balance, the yearling hesitated while he sought purchase on the smooth metal. When he was finally stable on his paws, the godling let out a shaky breath and a plume of mist turned striking silver as it met the cool air. He was more careful as he took the final step up onto the unnaturally round top of the massive relic, gaze following the shape of the broken mast that pointed out to the west. Hallux took up a perch on the very edge of the jagged break where the outstretched limb of the ancient beast had snapped in half, its tip now resting in the snow.
"Do you honestly believe this is all the work of your God?" the dark feathered bird questioned, a hint of wariness in her raspy voice. She regarded her companion with one beady eye for a moment, trying to read his inscrutable features. Every day the boy seemed to take another step away from the child he used to be, towards some new and unknowable destiny. She quickly turned her eyes away to look out on the long forgotten battlefield.
Tipping his chin upward and exhaling a short puff of mist at one of the spectral fireflies that bobbed closer to his face, a wry smile crept onto the amethyst dappled boy's features. The bluish wisp faded, its glow replaced with a tiny cloud of mist. "Who else could it be?" he retorted quietly, sweeping his tail over his heels. There were countless fireflies hanging in the cool, dark air. Scattered all over the plateau, their dim glow casting tiny spots of cool light over the strange relics all around them. It was an incredibly eerie sight, truth be told. Something so hauntingly beautiful.. who else could it be? He only knew God as an agent of beautiful destruction, dealing out cleansing wrath wherever he gained a foothold. From his vantage point over the landscape, Pontifex could see the endless swaths of mysterious orbs spread out as far as the eye could see. "I still don't know what it means- is it an omen of doom? Do you think that when we were stripped of our names, we set into motion something that could change everything we know?" he asked his companion, brows pinched together with concern for the potential disasters that could fall upon them. Before he could see the answer that awaited in the parrot's eyes, he turned his attention away. Upward, to the heavens.
The stars were blurring into curving streaks as the night progressed, though he wasn't entirely certain what to make of it. He knew that the stars carried with them the stories of eras long past, preserving history where the right wolves would be able to see it until the end of time. When they stretched and warped every night, were they changing in some way? And the moon, what did the ever-full moon have to do with all of this? He had looked to his mother for guidance from the start, but even she seemed to only hold some of the answers he needed at the moment. This was a truly troubling time for all of them.
Carefully lowering his haunches to the cold, damp metal beneath him, the boy found himself suddenly fighting against the weight of the unknown. Letting out a slow breath, he forced his attention to a small animal skittering over the snow. A perfect break from this introspection that seemed to come so naturally to him. Leaping down once to the spot where he'd first slipped, then down onto the oddly textured base of the mired relic, and into the thick drifts of snow on the ground. He loped after the vole that was desperately fleeing across the snow, head low between his shoulders and jaws parted in preparation to snap shut around its tiny body. As his shadow fell over it, he stumbled. Regained his footing, nearly lost his nerve. The vole was glowing. The same shade of blue as the moon overhead. Rather than sully its pelt with its blood, he lunged forward and pinned it between the fluffy snow and his slender toes. Sure enough, as he towered over the tiny mammal, it emitted an eerie blue glow. God above, did it never end? When the little creature lifted its head to snap futilely at the strong toes that trapped it against the cold snow, he could see that its eyes were a glassy silver that seemed to amplify both its glowing fur and the ever present light of the full moon that watched over his shoulder.
Before he could talk himself out of it, Pontifex snapped his jaws shut around its tiny head. Hot blood spurted over his tongue, and dripped onto the snow. When the tiny mammal fell limply from his jaws, he was only more horrified to realize the warm fluid dripping from his jaws was mixed with bioluminescence. Tall ears lowering towards his skull, he found himself wondering if he had sinned by killing the potentially blessed creature. No. He was one of God's chosen, and he could kill any of the creatures that he chose. It took far more work than he cared to admit, but he managed to work one long fang into the mouth and throat of the vole. With a swift jerk of his head, he pulled the thick length of enamel up and through the thin flesh of the carcass. Rent asunder, the warm organs of the moon-tainted vole were exposed to the brilliant light of the moon, and the godling's keen attention. Sure enough, the vole's innards were riddled with scattered whorls of bioluminescence, quickly dimming into nothing as the last impulses of a dying body gave way to permanent stillness.
He heard the ruffle of feathers and soft crunch of snow as Hallux alighted on the snow beside him, leaning closer to the dead vole to inspect it herself. "I think I may need to speak with the spirits, do you think mother will let me use the materials for the Ascension ritual again?" he murmured, frowning at the bloodstained snow and eviscerated vole at his paws.
((FINAL WC: 1126))
"Pontifex" || "Hallux" || "others"
