11/2/2024, 3:43 PM
Death. It was the only assurance, the only predictable outcome to an otherwise chaotic and unorderly existence. Each and every organism that had ever come into being on no more than a fleeting and frivolous chance followed their own spiraling of roads and tangled pathways. Each would weave in different directions and have different lengths, but they all had one assurance, one definitive end. One promise that was made to each and every individual, unyielding in its resoluteness, the promise of death’s cold kiss from off stilled frozen lips. It was entwined, braided into the fate's design and there was nothing anyone could say or do to unravel that destined knot.
Ruger’s ear twitched subtly as he regarded the deer, or rather the remainder of what had been left of it, that lay before him. It had collapsed some time ago, be it from exhaustion or predation, he couldn’t say for certain. He supposed that all mattered little at this point, should it have mattered at all in any case. The carcass was being reclaimed by the earth, swallowed up by the flies that had amassed around its swollen decay, the promise fate had made to the sorry creature having been fulfilled.
Why then had the reaper not granted him the same fate? Why did his lungs continue to expand and contract with measured breaths, or the organ in his chest beat fervent pulsations of heated blood through his extremities? If he was cut would he not bleed red? Had he not earned that privileged pledge? The thoughts swirling through his mind drew the bow into his waiting hands, a way to purge his own curiosities if only for the sake of satisfying the questions that eluded him. An arrow to its target, emotionless eyes found the vein running down his forearm and stared with narrowed gaze, a thought that begged to turn to action wrestling his better judgment.
Mechanically his eyes flicked away, fixating briefly once again on the deer before a propulsion of muscles pushed him onward in abandon of the carcass. No. It wouldn't do any good to dwell on such questions and he knew as much. To do so would lead one down a road paved with madness and into the waiting arms of the fiend that governed that domain.
With each passing stride, the creature could feel the cold detachment that had been creeping over him ebb, but still it was a constant reminder of the shadow that continued to follow him. Perhaps one day the shade would swallow him and it would all end, but that day was not today. Today the wolf would continue to run until his lungs burned and muscles ached. The only guarantee that was made to him would continue to be kept, and that eventually he would be fulfilled. He had to be. He was sure of that much.
Even as a young fledgling he had found a certain peace of mind while traversing the woods in contemplative strides. It was his time to think. The silence that hung over his furred body was as still and deafening as the deepest oceans. The ground below him and the earth surrounding him, the sun above his head all reminded him that this was what life was. There were no rules and no regulations, there was simply the forest, the land and its occupants. He didn’t know much more, he didn't want to know anything more than that. He had renounced ties that would bind him, cutting free the tethers that attached him to the earthly realm. He hadn't had desires for such trivial things. Maybe that was why he had been cursed to roam then? Lost behind the bars of a cage that had been in his own making? Ruger's brow tightened, unimpressed as ever with the hand he had been dealt.
"Common"
Tove