In Retrospect

Numair Salmalín?

Aye, he was different; there was something about him that just struck people as odd. A certain wrongness, if it were, as though he wasn't quite who he claimed to be. He stuck out like a sore thumb in the middle of a busy marketplace too, towering over everyone else by a good foot or two.

The Storkman, he would later come to be called.

What an appropriate name, he thought wryly one night after all the horror of his past had relinquished (but not retreated) its hold on him. Some saw him as a bringer of happiness, while others would lament at the misfortune he lay at their feet.

Arram supposed, maybe it was a blessing in disguise to have somehow – unknowingly – angered his old friend and Emperor when he did. The life he was forced to live when he went into hiding had been a hard one, but at least he had finally learnt the meaning of humility, and as such was able to savour sweet success all the more later on.


My inspiration: Tunstall Chick.

- Khadeejah: 12/06/2009