"You test my patience Hunter."
You snarl.
My body is weighted down by the snow falling around us.
Weighted down by the knowledge that I've broken a promise.
I offer you a story I can hardly remember. A broken story.
Broken like the forest we stand in.
You offer me the threat of death.
And I become dizzy with the smell of rotting branches.
A story of where I've been and what has happened to me,
And how I really have been thinking about you all along.
You say it is not good enough. My words are not good enough.
I know! I know. I'm sor- wait... wait...
I can't feel my feet! Are they touching the ground?
This land feels as though it's swallowing me whole.
You demand for payment, draw my blood.
I swear! On my nobility, I will deliver!
But first... But first...
Let me clear this hazard, move these dead branches.
Let me heal this forest.
I can see the disdain, the hurt, in your eyes.
But all I can think about.. is if I should be holding ice or ash.
Ice?
Or ash?
Ice...
Like the gaze emanating from your eyes?
Or ash...
Like the smoky clutter in my head as I try to form a solid thought.
I offer you a story!
A story of where I've been and what has happened to me!
And how I really have been thinking about you all along!
But I can't think. Please, just look at me with kinder eyes and let me
think.
Let me find my feet...
But I don't. I find yours.
Adorned with that anklet, the anklet designed for none other than the
only person wearing it.
Whom is walking away from me in disappointment.
...you didn't let me finish my story...
... ice or ash?
Let me first heal this forest.
And then I'll heal us.

- Khristianyr

Penned by my hand on the 13th of Khepary, in the year 206 MA.