• "Oh, won't you give up? You were once great- admirable, even. But like the great Roman pillars, you too, fell. At the loss of friends and hope you fractured. You gave way. Kiba. Demetrius. Caius. Torage. Cole. Josie. Varka. Dead by your fault! All you, Calypsa! Aren't you proud?"
    I lay in the snow. My onyx fur glinted ruby in the scarletmoonlight. My white shadowed tail and eyes appeared ghostly. The thick red of my forepaws were paired with the cracked pads if my paws. My silver ears and hindpaws were shimmering, like the opal tears streaming down my face. My right eye was the deep azure, my left the bright red. I was crumpled in a puddle of the fruit of my veins. The snow was inked red. I pressed my paw into it, a weak impression left from weak limbs.
    "I wish you could see, Relik. So badly I wish for you. Our bodies may die, our souls may forget, but the snow never will. This blood... My prints... Even our words are preserved. The pawprint is the snow's memory. Overshadowed, but never erased."
    "Oh what are you? A poet? A prophet? A proverb? Ha! You are nothing but a disgrace. The red crescent moon upon your brow means nothing! Will you really be a
    substitutional sacrifice? Or a pathetic slaughter?"
    He sank his fangs into my throat. I felt it. I felt the
    black hole. I had come close to death before- those who have called this the Abyss, the Light, an Awakening. It was the black hole. It sucked all the life out of you, all your hope. What was hope anymore? A false dream made by the gnarled hand of reality. All of life was meaningless, filled by useless desires and pleasures.
    But how could anyone benefit? No purpose was worth dying for anymore. No one was brave enough to fight this sick world and come out swinging still, with a
    hopefull heart and firm belief. No! They all came out clones of society, broken tools of fate. And I was but another useless scrap among the rubble of life called 'hope'.
    But three simple words struck. Ani. Izakiel. Roka. I had
    nothing left to hope for. But plenty to protect.
    "Relik....stop.....you must...."
    "I must do nothing at your will! I do not-"
    "You do not know anything! Have you ever felt love? Ever? True loyalty- not fear?"
    "I.... Suppose not. Why?"
    "You fight so you can live. You must fight for others to live. Can you do that? Can you start with me?"
    His face grew cold. As if some ancient secret struck. I thought of the time I had spared him. I gave him life, he spared me, out of kinship I spared him.
    "You owe me a kindness."
    " I owe you life. And love. And forgiveness."
    "Repay me then! Live for RELIK! And Relik alone!"
    "I will sister. I am.... Truly...."
    He laid next to me, no longer a foe, but finally a brother. I murmured to myself, tears flowing.
    "You would be proud, Kiba."