Terran
I almost consent to her idea of leaving the past alone. It would be easier, of course. Easier, but not worth it. Painful or beautiful as our stories might be, I want the truth of hers in its simplest form. It’s the first request I’ve asked of her in years and even though Titanya’s noncommittal shrug deflates the heightened anticipation, I’m no less enraptured by what she says.
Talk of an apocalypse, her brief mention of dying, all just casual banter when Titanya put her signature twist on it. I should be surprised into silence, I know, but the way she brushes off all manner of conquest and danger with a smirk is just so … her that it makes me harrumph out loud. The cold metal of our mother’s skin seems to have sunk deep into her veins.
Word by word I follow quietly, feeling all the more useless as her tale stretches on until, at last, she finishes by bringing us both into the present. “I now hold War’s seal inside of me.” My twin says and despite what others might think, all I can seem to manage is wondering how it didn’t happen sooner. In my mind’s eye there was no better, more obvious choice for such a task. Titanya had always been the one to wrench objects free of my lips; why should it be any different that she would protect all of humanity?
“See?” She presses again, fading and then returning, “You could put a dent in that tree now.”
I don’t even hesitate to try. One foreleg strikes out to twist my body around and I loosen a wing, stretching it out like a blade as my heavy shape swings the appendage in an arc. The feathers break clean through the crown of the sapling behind me, toppling it over to land with a muffled thud on the ground. “Hot damn.” I breath incredulously, blinking for a moment in shock at the rush of adrenaline that follows. Then I’m cracking up, twisting back around to face my twin, head shaking.
“I guess I should be thanking you for saving all our lives, not playing around with your gift.” I mutter, finally, once the giddiness has cleared. “Though I’ll be the first to admit it’s pretty awesome. And useful.”
And it would explain the rock ordeal he’d been confused about since their initial meeting in the Meadow.
“I wandered North, to the Tundra. Thought I’d find something interesting there but I only found age instead. When the new world came I tried out an Island here, but that was as fruitless as anything else I’d ever done.” I surmise, shrugging away my life as if it were a footnote. “Then I met Jinju, and together we made Ander. After his birth her home - this place,” I say, pausing to glance around us into the mote-spotted woods, “was completely destroyed. She didn’t make it out, but I guess you could say death didn’t take for her either.” I smile, an image that nearly matches Titanya's telltale smirk.
“Now we’re here. Imagine that.” I say, a wistful sort of look glazing over my eyes. “I wonder what Talulah and Tiphon would think?”
All around these golden beacons, I see nothing but black
@[Titanya] be my guest
