i hear the wicked get no rest, but when you do
---------- i hope you dream of me
Many of the residents have fled the jungle, and the world beneath the emerald Tephran canopy has grown quiet. From where he perches on an obsidian outcropping, Gale can see much of the tropical kingdom.
Steam erupts from the numerous places where lava and water meet, filling the spaces between the trees with fog. The heat rises, and the winter clouds overhead lose their snow instead as a fine and mistlike rain. In the western distance, the sea stretches toward the black sand, and far far out in the distance he can See the black white sand islands - Islandres and Ischia. To the east, the volcano-warmed jungle eventually ends in the distant red hills of Loess.
Far beyond that, farther than he cares to look, is Hyaline. His power has only grown since he left the mountainous kingdom, and he has carved any regret for that decision out of himself. It lives in Ciri now, along with the rest of his weakness.
The residents there will be dealt with when he’s bored enough to make it there. Until then, he is content with his harassment of blood relations and the Tephran residents.
One such resident, a hollow-eyed yellow mare, cries in her sleep and catches his attention.
Lyla.
She’s been especially distraught since the death of Midway; the pair of them had kept each other company since Gale had found them a few days after arriving. The mare had given him nearly six months of panic, fear, and a dark and delicious depression before she’d thrown herself into the lava. He wonders how long it will be till Lyla follows her.
In the end, he doesn’t wonder long. He loses his patience with her pleading, and by midafternoon is wandering the Jungle with blood splashed across his navy face, searching for something to occupy himself with. Gale is wingless today, and the glowing golden slashes of brindle along his sides are clearly visible. The lightning that dances across his skin and white spinal mane is a pale blue, and the flashes illuminate the thick, belly-high fog that floats between the trees.
GALE |
