[PQ - in progress] What's Left?

[Castile]

and underneath the layers, I find myself asking what's left
a hollowed out form, the skeleton of a ghost, the pitiful echo of what once was

How long has it been since he last saw the smugness of her face? How long ago since she stripped him of his draconic features only to return them at the end of his punishment?

There have been days that soared past with hardly notice while others that seemingly hung suspended and unmoving. Seasons have come and gone, but he bided his time patiently until his impulses could no longer be tamed.

Again, he is here. After having flown across the miles to abbreviate the time away from Loess, Castile resorted to walking the perilous trail up the mountainside. His lungs never shy from the thinning oxygen, having adapted to it at the altitudes he is airborne. It is nonetheless exhausting, the winding path, but he achieves it like so many times before, memorizing the divots and loose rocks. Sweat lathers his coat when he finally reaches the top. A grin tips the corners of his mouth, his head tilting. ”Did you miss me?” Of course she didn’t. Castile noticed the disinterest in her eyes, the disappointment that she openly carries toward the mortals. He, especially, was a thorn in her side which is why she took away from him all that he knew. ”I wonder how I would compare if I had the power you do, in addition to what I already am,” he teases, inclining his head to picture himself with her magic and influence on their world.

”We are your puppets,” he adds while straightening himself and recalling her request from their last meeting. ”Everything we have, and can do, is under your thumb. I don’t see an issue with giving great power because it can always be revoked, which you proved to me.” But his wings rip through his skin now, and he eyes them admiringly before turning back to her. ”The time you forced me separated from my other half confirmed how much a part of me it is. It’s the only life I know – to be a predator. I’m not whole without it,” that is what he learned, what he gathered during that period of loss and turmoil.

Yet still he wants more, to stand above imposters and to be the powerful dragon his father always imagined him to be.

castile