The King and Qunan

Kind was the fire in the pit to Qunan. He watched it while lying on the floor of the hut. He turned his gaze up his grandmother. He looked past her towards her the King’s Tooth and Feather strung up over head.

“Gra-Nan, tell me more about the king” Qunan said, eyes kept on the savage mementos. “Tell me about the king with three toes, small hands, and a maw of might.”

Qunan’s grandmother softly asked “My little Qunan, do you remember the Ways?”

“Yes, Gra-Nan” sighed Qunan “But please tell me about the king, I want to be strong like him.”

“Remember the Ways my Qunan.” She replied faintly.

“Gra-Nan?”

“Remember…”

“Gra-Nan please ?!”

Cold was the wind of the northern to Qunan. He listened to its bitter howl while lying semi-conscious in the forest snow.

“Please, Gra-nan… tell me about the King…I want to be strong.” Pleaded an older Qunan. A Qunan who strived to be chief and was beaten. But not defeated. He came to and picked himself up only to buckle back to his knees. Still he kept his gaze on the King.

As the King stomped away from him, Qunan gathered a few stones that followed him down from the cliff. He painfully stood and loosed on the King.

“Face Me!” Qunan cried, watching stone bounce of the King’s thick scaly tail and throwing another.

“I…I…. I’m still here…. Face…. Me!!!”

Qunan hurled the rest of the stones at the King, all failing to call attention. Then Qunan grabbed Gra-Nan’s King’s Tooth and Feather. He ripped them from around his neck and let them fly towards the King. It was when those mementos they hit its feathery crown did the King turn back to Qunan.

The King faced Qunan. There was a pause and silence between both. Then the King charged. Before Qunan could act the King had him under its three toed foot. Pinned, Qunan was back down in the forest snow beholding the King’s massive body, small arms, and boxy tooth filled snout. Qunan closed his eyes expecting the King to end his life with a roar and a bite. There was a roar, yet no bite. Qunan looked back up at the King to find something worst, a gaze from the King. Not the empty gaze found in any other animal. A gaze saying; “you are lost”, “you do not know the law”, “you are not worthy”.
The King lifted its foot from Qunan who was still on the ground realizing that the King was right. The King was leaving him again, because again he had failed. With other choice Qunan breathed in and remembered.

“Let bite the frost. For there are more savage things.”

The King carried on.

“Let howl the wind.” Qunan continued getting back to his feet, “And break through the roar of kings.”

It was here the King Halted.

Be warm not from the Sun, but the heat of one's own…” breathed Qunan, “Inner flame that drives flesh and bone. And thou’s flame who's burns hottest will have the land as their throne.”

The King still had its back to Qunan, but the mild waving of its tail anticipated his next words.

“Delivered these words from the mightiest maw!” Qunan proclaimed, “For up here it is the way, it is the law!”

The King looked back Qunan and in its eyes Qunan saw a gaze much different than the one before. A gaze that said, “Now you may begin”. The King carried on through the snow and in its footsteps Qunan followed.