Rattleskin Redoubt april is the cruellest month

For one born of few words, only grasping onto what meager sentences were offered before finally discovering the richness of rhetoric, he was rapt. That name. . .tumbled like rain itself, or a massive waterfall, shimmering off rock and crag into fine mist.

Only after a few seconds of slightly-slack-jawed attention did he realize his cue to speak had now come.

Juh. . .

”No, darling. Not the name they gave you.”

He felt the gentle prick of teeth upon his neck and sighed, and with that sound escaped—

Caligula.

The first time he’d said it aloud. It tasted like hot blood in his mouth.

Are you. . .from here? he went on, each word slow as if navigating a minefield.