There was a battle raging around me, waged for the value of my life—a life spared by shadows, seemingly blessed by fate. I knew none of this, of course; I only felt the steady pull of hunger inside of me, drawing upon the fragile life I carried in fragile bones. How tragic it would be if they battled themselves to ashes in the ground, wiping out their adversaries, tearing each other limb from limb all on account of my safety—only to have me die at their feet, of mere starvation?

Lightning and clouds and shrill harpy screams; they danced around my head, a depraved farce of a halo if I’d ever known one; I sailed with my captor through sizzling air, gliding over golden sand and, suddenly, a lush oasis filled with a bounty that would do me no good in my newborn state. The world was a blur around me, a magnificent adventure that is usually only told through children’s stories, a fantastic journey built of equal parts fear and excitement. And still the bleating that passed my lips was due to a primal need of mine, and the black residue that remained fixed in the corners of my eyes, a swirling after-image of a horror I could not understand and yet understood with every fiber of my being.

Then—suddenly—I plummeted from the skies, falling quickly, oblivious to the danger I was in—

--and then, the darkness was complete.

I was not unconscious for long; my body hurt too much to allow me any peaceful reprieve. It is here, at this abysmal moment, that my memories begin, and I recollect them with a clarity that I wish I did not possess: I felt aflame as I blinked myself to wakefulness, feeling some stabbing pain that was not hunger, something that blazed my nerves and caused a mournful scream to leave my infantile lips and fat, opalescent tears to fall from my doe-like eyes. What an awful existence I remember waking up to! My body rumbled hungrily; my poor feet were ruined; my body ached from where the harpy had gripped me; I was hot and alone, and while there were others around me, gathered to witness a nearly-broken babe, there was no Father-shadow anywhere to be found to keep me safe from the heat, the bustle of bodies, and the terror I felt from the blackness...

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