MABEL
The unknown always seemed to be a resolute figment – even if she’d known this world, this realm, her entire life. Her eyes narrowed at the tree, uncertain if was by affront or because it dared to be amused; shrugging her shoulders as the other Ascended strived to explain, not liking that he was right. It had captured her attention, like a moth to a flame, when she shouldn’t be anywhere near fire. Not now. Not anymore. Flammable, despite the waterlogged mess she’d become.
She stepped away then, at the semblance of becoming something tied and tethered to the sapling’s wake; the association of Frey bombardments causing her to recoil all the more. The girl was far more intrigued by this individual anyway – a beacon, a charge, a light in the darkness she could hardly, barely, scarcely recall or remember. Why had he been chosen? What made him special? The answer perplexed her even more. “Alive? Then how were you there?” Her senses were returning, less maimed by the rapids and tides, more herself – eyes narrowing, fingers clenching, aiming to wrap around something.
The question she was granted in return made her sharpen, spine drawn rigid and taut, eyes glancing off elsewhere, down past cobblestones, pathways, lined and marked trails where their feet had rambled back and forth. To a field vacant and forlorn, to an empty world tainted in disarray, disrepair, and heartache. To a realm they’d loved and cherished until it consumed everyone and everything, and they’d had to escape the only way they knew how. “I only have my sister.” Little did she know that her twin wasn’t around anymore either – unaware and ignorant of the meaning of alone – not now, not yet, not when they’d always been united hearts and minds. “The rest died.” Perhaps it didn’t need to be said, implied by the wake of ruins. “Do you?”
She stepped away then, at the semblance of becoming something tied and tethered to the sapling’s wake; the association of Frey bombardments causing her to recoil all the more. The girl was far more intrigued by this individual anyway – a beacon, a charge, a light in the darkness she could hardly, barely, scarcely recall or remember. Why had he been chosen? What made him special? The answer perplexed her even more. “Alive? Then how were you there?” Her senses were returning, less maimed by the rapids and tides, more herself – eyes narrowing, fingers clenching, aiming to wrap around something.
The question she was granted in return made her sharpen, spine drawn rigid and taut, eyes glancing off elsewhere, down past cobblestones, pathways, lined and marked trails where their feet had rambled back and forth. To a field vacant and forlorn, to an empty world tainted in disarray, disrepair, and heartache. To a realm they’d loved and cherished until it consumed everyone and everything, and they’d had to escape the only way they knew how. “I only have my sister.” Little did she know that her twin wasn’t around anymore either – unaware and ignorant of the meaning of alone – not now, not yet, not when they’d always been united hearts and minds. “The rest died.” Perhaps it didn’t need to be said, implied by the wake of ruins. “Do you?”
I bare my teeth
and stretch my claws out
and stretch my claws out
