affame_le_geant_eats_what_he_wants fyn gula there was only one thing on thora's mind as she watched praayli thrust the knife into her own heart and it was not that she was next, for she had already accepted the fact as one swallows water, bound to meeting fate's appointed requirements. it was flight. the part of her that was bird, taking over in this moment of madness, in this hour of injustice when one opposses an iron will against another without mercy, without pause for consideration---cayris, a blind man who can see only his own inner vision speaking a foreign language to a deaf man who thinks only in english. she saw the open shackle like a cage door neglected and then flew away. only to be at liberty in her memory, all that was left of her that could not be destroyed. surrounded by riotous revolutionaries wallowing in the filth of their exploits, she did not get far on foot. she slipped on the blood-stained snow, stumbled, and then fell facefirst, causing fresh blood to flow from the original wound. she was immediately recaptured by an attendant who kept a close eye on his scabbard. he forcefully yanked her to her feet, just in time to watch cayris lifting praayli's corpse, her self-inflicted chest wound still bleeding out, dripping to the snow like a faucet needing attention. the crowd broke into hearty applause, punctuated by loud proclamations with raised fists, piercing whistles of praise made from blowing freezing air through impeccably cleaned teeth. cayris raised her light body above his head and turned around like a devil inside a rusty music box. he lifted his wolf-head to the quarter moon and then howled deep and long, immediately hushing the crowd. in this brief instance, thora realized where it was she was trying to go and that was into the arms of twinkletoes. she stood there, feeling the strong, vise-like, grip of the attendant on her arms, the hammer pounding pain of her broken beak, and the sinking revelation that this was the end of her life. .. ...and all it was that she wanted was everything she had not given away. and so she flew with wings of remembrance to where she heard the voice of her husband as if he was calling from an unexplored continent, an island that was all their own, that no one knew about. "i want to think your thoughts," he was saying, "because they're mine. i want only what's urgent with you. i want to say we met for a reason and that the reason is important and i want it to be bigger than us and take over us. i want your smile always. i want your scar on my lips. i want your disappointments in my heart. i want your strength in my soul and i want your soul in my eyes. i want you to tell me what's best when i don't know. when you're lost i want to find you. i want to give you your reflection. i want you so much that i am breathless. i never want to say goodbye to you..." she remembered these words for he had tattooed them on the inside of her conscience. she gave a desperate look across the mob to where twinkletoes stood bound and gagged. but it was his eyes that were free and they returned her gaze as if she was looking into a mirror, an endless sea where their love would forever rest. out of the depths of the misery she had been pounded down to came forth a final expression of her longing, a last testament of the devotion she had shared with her beloved, yet, the words were swallowed by a fresh outpour of wild exhuberance from the crowd and went unheard, for it was here at this time that cayris tossed praayli into the bonfire, another splash of brilliant sparks filling the air heavy with shame. another symbolic act for the digital camera to document, another statement from "the insufferable hunger of the damned" that resistance would not be tolerated. "the hungry giant eats what he wants!" cayris yelled, and the mob repeated him word for word. the bongo playing picked up again and the declaration became yet, another chant. poj linnet, cayris's right hand wolf-man quickly scribbled it down in his pocket journal as a note and three days later it would be written across a banner. 030225 ... . "LE GEANT AFFAME MANGE CE QU'IL VEUT" 030225 what's it to you? who go blather from