He hadn’t been sleeping very well, recently.
The girl had come back, sweet, young Nazli who had never deserved the hand Akashingo dealt her, and they dealt it anyway. Akhtar was complicit in that, not so much as any of the other Akashingo wolves, maybe, but he held his guilt close to the black thing he called his heart.
The moon was high above his head, which lay pillowed on a rock so he could stare at the night sky. Tucked beneath his right paw was the abandoned set of bone dice, around his neck the black rabbit skin. Akhtar breathed a sharp breath, reaching out with his tongue to pull another berry into his mouth. He was not inebriated, no, as much as he wanted to be he knew he shouldn’t drift that far out of it. There was no outrunning a guilty conscience, it seemed.
The saluki picked up his head after morosely pushing the berry about, never letting his fangs pierce it.
He raised one paw to the heavens, as if trying to touch the stars.
”Papa what are those?”
“Well, little star, that one is-“
In the quiet, he could almost trick himself into thinking his own voice was his father’s.
The girl had come back, sweet, young Nazli who had never deserved the hand Akashingo dealt her, and they dealt it anyway. Akhtar was complicit in that, not so much as any of the other Akashingo wolves, maybe, but he held his guilt close to the black thing he called his heart.
The moon was high above his head, which lay pillowed on a rock so he could stare at the night sky. Tucked beneath his right paw was the abandoned set of bone dice, around his neck the black rabbit skin. Akhtar breathed a sharp breath, reaching out with his tongue to pull another berry into his mouth. He was not inebriated, no, as much as he wanted to be he knew he shouldn’t drift that far out of it. There was no outrunning a guilty conscience, it seemed.
The saluki picked up his head after morosely pushing the berry about, never letting his fangs pierce it.
He raised one paw to the heavens, as if trying to touch the stars.
”Papa what are those?”
“Well, little star, that one is-“
Cassiopeia. Orion’s Belt. Polaris.
In the quiet, he could almost trick himself into thinking his own voice was his father’s.
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mountain hymn - by Akhtar - July 08, 2023, 12:23 PM