livestock, judah stafford

[attr="class","appn"]judah stafford

[attr="class","appc"]age 20

[attr="class","appc"]group commoner

[attr="class","appc"]sex male

[attr="class","appc"]occupation livestock

[attr="class","appp"]



the quiet came as quiet is - softly, a gentle and gradual change he grew accustomed to. it was the cold that came harshly. the loss so sharp that it rang in his ears, shrilly in the key of ferocity.[break][break]

they brought him in with the wounded cattle. they weed them out if they are too sick - judah stands crammed amongst the gaunt and the blistered, the coughing and crying. there must be corpses in their midst, for all the clustered flies.[break][break]

they really are livestock. he thinks it may have been different, he may have been different had he not known any more than this, had he not known anything before the tunnels. he remembers his mother cried and he remembers her face, swollen and blotched so plump with tears. like a rotting fruit overripened and bursting, he remembers wanting to watch it split. there is a heirarchy, everywhere, every family prays for their first child, cherishes their second, and forgets to wish blessings on the third.[break][break]

but he may be blessed, anyways. lucky, they say, spoiled; having caught the eye of his majesty, become his prize, ungrateful as he is, bitter-blooded boy. [break][break]

judah is only the king's to take. he moves freely, (unless he is needed). he angers the king as much as he pleases him. he is fearless, (for he is angry). but judah is not his own. he is the king's prized bloodbag and he is fury's heir. without any of the sentiment, without any of the fear, he knows he will not exist when he is no longer needed.[break][break]

he is in your blood and in your head.[break][break]

(you think he doesn't know the way you dream of collapsing the underground, of smoking them out like rats, of flames that will overtake you too, but only when here is nothing left to set aflame.)