He rarely trusted anything or anyone, so perhaps that was an unnecessary statement, but sometimes it was good to be reminded that only people are treacherous and not only animals want you dead. The universe entertains creative endeavors only for the opportunity to destroy them, and the sea along Denocte's remote borders lapped and danced its silent threats for all the kingdom to see - should they choose to look.
Raymond had looked, had marked the sea's erratic behavior, and the part of him that ate grass and still wanted to jump at the movement of the slightest shadow shuddered its primal affright.
This was the deep breath before a storm. Clouds gathered like carrion crows in the sky, painting it into a sheet of purple bruises, and even Ruth had woken from a deep slumber in the Armas as though roused by an unseen hand. Little tremors - the passage of tiny equine feet, the occasional cry of rutting elk through the range - never bothered her, but rumbles that made even a Tarrasque's footsteps feel soft unsettled her as deeply as they unsettled him.
Mother nature loosed her breath on the following morning.
Raymond was not in the city proper when the tsunami hit, preferring as was his wont the open spaces afforded him by being nearly anywhere else. But he saw the wall of water roll in and break upon the castle walls, brown and churning in its insistence, and no sooner did disaster strike than he ran toward rather than away from the danger.
Where had Calliope been amidst all this?
The streets of the Night Court were full of rushing water and dangerous flotsam. He waded through it, head on a swivel, careful not to lose his footing lest he be swept away and dashed across some unforgiving wall. Amidst the chaos, his devil-red skin stood out like a rallying point.
Raymond. Ruth's inner voice was agitated, a cornered-lion sound vibrating with the urge to pounce.
Be ready.
Overhead, the sky came alive with tongues of forked lightning and whipping winds. The storm was coming hard on the tsunami's heels.
Raymond.
and at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
when the man comes around
and at his feet they'll cast their golden crowns
when the man comes around
@Anyone | getting this started
aut viam inveniam aut faciam
