Ankyra Sound i’ve stood in the dark

another bald bird left for marinette at the foot of a sequoia gradually becoming charnel house.

sobeille stalked the sound in rage. no word from moonpacks or swiftcurrent; she was beginning to doubt they’d come at all.

tousaint’s idea rooted within her, spreading black fingertips through a mind already infected. something else took hold too; nascent, but kindling — changing small things about her body so subtly not even sobeille was aware of its presence.

a glance above to the trees which reached for a sky black and unforgiving; a pale moon peering back between their silhouettes, reminding sobeille that some things wax and wane.

but the lives of her maman and tante and chani were worth urgency; she could not do all this waiting.

twice now she consulted the bones, and twice now their readings conflicted. she wished for sialuk’s knowledge or kukutux’s infinite wisdom - anything that might guide her from the path she felt her being entire funneled.

but no, this path must be hers alone to walk. and as always, she did what came easily.

she killed to slake the burning of her mind. bird. seal. coyote.

and she left their bodies to darken the sands of the sound with blood, hearing the hungry chorus of the sound’s spirits as they demanded more.

deeper into the monolith forests she drove, envisioning the end of each wolf that dared jeopardize the lives of sapphique.

all the while a darkening grew within her that eventually even sobeille would not be able to satiate.