It was work to cross the plains. Easy enough to follow the massive white shape, like chasing a cloud across the surface of the sun - everything else a dazzling gold. It wasn't as hot as the height of summer - more wind now, whipping down in to the valley - but for the darkly coated Fang there was no reprieve until the pair had found the edge of a lake, where they could bathe and eat, and then carry on.
The lake water permeated his layered coat and slicked his fur against his broad body, and when it touched the dried blood that had caked to his neck there were blooms of red, and then more pain - the sucking of air between his clenched teeth. They did not linger long there; home was somewhere within the mountains.
Before them rose the Sunspire; a day or so later it was beneath them, the air thin and the boy feeling light-headed once again. The view of the canyon from on high was something spectacular - it took his breath away when he first laid eyes upon the sprawling red rock, which seemed in every sense, impervious.
This was to be his fresh start.
Here, being once again stripped of his personhood, again given a new name and made to follow a new master, the boy could make something of himself. There was no Aventus here to beat him, no Avicus to protect, no Shikoba or Kukutux to keep him locked away - or to seek a bite as penance any longer. Gone was Kiliutak; in his place now stood Fang — Sivuġat.
Kukutux would learn to fear that name.
The lake water permeated his layered coat and slicked his fur against his broad body, and when it touched the dried blood that had caked to his neck there were blooms of red, and then more pain - the sucking of air between his clenched teeth. They did not linger long there; home was somewhere within the mountains.
Before them rose the Sunspire; a day or so later it was beneath them, the air thin and the boy feeling light-headed once again. The view of the canyon from on high was something spectacular - it took his breath away when he first laid eyes upon the sprawling red rock, which seemed in every sense, impervious.
This was to be his fresh start.
Here, being once again stripped of his personhood, again given a new name and made to follow a new master, the boy could make something of himself. There was no Aventus here to beat him, no Avicus to protect, no Shikoba or Kukutux to keep him locked away - or to seek a bite as penance any longer. Gone was Kiliutak; in his place now stood Fang — Sivuġat.
Kukutux would learn to fear that name.
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