Anyone! Evening 61°
There it was.
Toad had grown up hearing grand stories of the Redhawks. Tales of great battles, of hunts that lasted for days and ended in great caches for whole seasons. She had only remembered a handful of names, as told by Robin and by the rare wolves who had visited the Teekon Wilds and returned with warped fantasies of their own. She recalled in her dreams a great caldera, its eastern walls towering over a mythical lake, flooded with serpents and legendary fish of unheard of proportions.
The caldera was... big. There was no doubt it was immense. The natural shelter seemed an ideal place for any group of animals that wished for a natural defense against outsiders. Yet, there was no one about.
Toad walked along the lakeside. Ghosts of the past followed her: unnamed beasts with their turmoil and tribulations, terrible travesties, terrifying tragedies. She knew that much had happened in this vast landscape, and she looked all about her upward at the rocky walls as though they would tell her. Overhead, a raven flew past and sounded its deathly song. Toad exhaled, not realizing how long she had been holding her breath.
There, she stopped, walking tenderly to the sunken lake's edge and looking into its surface. Her reflection stared back; she seemed fat, and spoilt. Toad blinked and looked away, ahead at the great wall of stone butting up against the lake at its farthest edge. She could have been one of them, had she left earlier. She didn't like having her future unwrittem. She didn't like not knowing anything.
Toad let out a deep sigh, turning to leave the lake's edge.
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »