He awakes in the swamp but it is not the swamp. The rider wipes from his mouth a poisonous green substance and staggers to his feet. Essence fills his eyes with clouds. Where is the road? Where is the horse? The gun, still at his hip, he smells the bullets and the gunpowder. Where is … Continue reading VIII. The Serpents
VII. The Swamp
He knows that soon it will be dark. The rider passes beneath a massive root which spurns the earth and falls into the depths of the murky water. The swamp seems endless and fog toils on the surface of the deep primordial recess; the only semblance of active life. He regrets now the absence of … Continue reading VII. The Swamp
Death and the Hawk – IV. Gravitation
The darkness doesn’t go away. It stays even when she opens her eyes. Cheek flush against the damp, cold ground. The rain has passed and she sits up on her knees, hand touching the tender swelling above her left eye. Ankle sprained. Finger broken. Ribs split in four places. She grasps the bent digit tightly … Continue reading Death and the Hawk – IV. Gravitation
Death and the Hawk – III. Enrapture
The rain came lightly and drove Marjolaine beneath the exposed roots of a tree. All around her y’lle took on the dark pallor of the storm. She hugged her knees, both swords beside her on the dirt. Those hawkish eyes peer out toward the crackling branches and the silence. The vast silence. Leaves with their … Continue reading Death and the Hawk – III. Enrapture
Death and the Hawk – II. Obsession
The priest use to tell me about his father. ‘His arms were thick as the tree trunks he chopped. The lice in his beard as big as grubs.’ ‘Use to take me out to the woods. Near the wooden altars of our gods. He use to beat me. Never quite sure why, there wasn’t always … Continue reading Death and the Hawk – II. Obsession
Death and the Hawk – I. Nostalgia
The forest is quiet but for the wind and the huntress, on a knee, takes two fingers and dips them into the small puddle of blood. There’s blackness to it, a deep and reflecting blackness. Mud, unlikely, but the wound is deep. It’s carrier most likely dead. She hears an unfamiliar voice in the back … Continue reading Death and the Hawk – I. Nostalgia
The Sword and the Ant
She sat and watched her clothes blur colors in endless cycles. All the calamities in her life that had been written out to lead her to this moment appeared in her eyes. Alone. Thirty. Washing laundry past midnight. A newspaper sat on her lap, never made it past the first article; Animal Attacks Continue. The … Continue reading The Sword and the Ant
VI. The Departure
The Sodom mornings and Gomorrah nights; sky fire frames a town trapped in the enclosure of primitive mountains which have seen stranger things in the dust of their eyes. They look on casting long shadows and swaying reflections under their god the white desert sun. A drunk cannot see them it is to dark but … Continue reading VI. The Departure
V. The Burning
The dried up field had marks of black ash laid out to the horizon. In the distance, the reaping fire devoured those wheat straw that polluted the field. It was early afternoon when they set the blaze and the two men stood on the white dirt and watched the smoke veil over the blue sky … Continue reading V. The Burning
IV. The Wendigo
It's a timeless hour of the day. The sun is muted white and the snow, falling in great clumps, snaps the gnarled limbs of a black tree. The rider hears not a single bird just the heavy meandering steps of his appaloosa. His journey has again brought him to the silence of nature; he feels … Continue reading IV. The Wendigo
