the first time valravn was aware he saw
an ancient memory half obscured came;
(he flinched and cried, dangling from sugar's jaws)
of a leviathan's figure aflame.

that dream came and went like unruly wind
sailing on to thunderous distant shores,
where forgotten, its soul lingered behind
subconscious echoes whose hammering bore

visceral memories of val's past lives --
some short, some long, some fettered with ruin.
val's mewling ceased, his sense of doom reprised
as newborn exhaustion sunk through his skin.

rise and rise again; sunset to sunfall
a thousand lives stretched out between them all.