[open] you say you want your freedom, any

[starlore]

( this world will have the wolves outside your door
make you leave all that you love to fight a war
and never tell you what you're dying for )

He is shot through with things that glow.
Vibrant tattoos splashed across his face, a halo tipped low across his brow.
He is his own light source.

And he believes, perhaps foolishly, that this is enough to keep him safe.
He has been protected from the darkness by his parents, shielded from the things that move through the shadows. Monsters, he thinks they’re called, though he is too young to know the true meaning of the word.

He loiters at the sea’s edge now, though if not for the waves that break constantly against the shore it would look more like a black chasm than water. He dips his nose into the surf and exhales sharply, studying the glint of his halo on the water’s surface.

He does not know how far he has wandered from his parents. Or from his sister, who has been his constant companion since before they had emerged into this world of darkness.

(He’s heard rumors of the world that existed before this one. A world of night and day where some strange orb glowed in the sky. A world of seasons and stars.)

Something stirs behind him, further up the beach and he turns sharply. A nearby boulder explodes as fear grips his heart and his pulse accelerate. He has no way of knowing that he is responsible for the explosion, he knows nothing about the magic involved, and he reads it as a threat.

“I’m not afraid of you!” he calls into the darkness, his voice shaking.

starlore