[ Knox is in his own form ]

The hunter is filled with rage. Rage at the festering wound that has overtaken his once clear and beautiful features. His right side is red and pus-filled, a hideous display of all of his failures.

{Anaan:} I told you to never play with fire.

But did the hunter listen? No. No. No. No. NO. Never! So he walks now with one eye blind, glittering and smoking with the silver of his magic just so he can see. It is empty of a pupil, lacking all life. He hates, he burns, he smolders with the fire of passion of want. Is it murder that he longs for? Does he miss the taste of blood, the thick sludge of it as it congeals on its way down his throat? He pounds through the wood. He was born here. He was born in blood. But what about now, half blinded, wounds pricking like a thousand beetle-bugs. Beetle-bug beetle-bug beetle-bug.

{The Imps:} Oh Beetle-bug beetle-bug beetle-bug ay!

Silence. Quiet. The utter impossibility of madness.

{Roanne:} Sun, yuh must remembur yurself.

But how can he? He is alone, utterly, completely, entirely alone. Well... except for Milo.

Knox looks back at the boy now, following a short distance away and pretending not to be seen. He had forgotten Milo was there at all.

"DON'T YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY?"

A screaming roar, an echo of hate. "Stop just standing there like an invalid, son! Your father is blistering and breaking apart and you've still nothing to say?"

Suddenly Milo is more present than ever before. Knox sees the boy and channels all hate, channels all rage... he moves towards him with stamping hooves and flared nostrils. "Speak! Speak! SPE--"

No. Wait. The glimmer of fire, the memory of hurt. Knox sees it through the trees and finds himself struck dumb. It is a bright warning, a massive flash to turn and run. Anaan's words echo in his ears.

I told you to never play with fire.

But Milo... what does Knox want from the boy? What does he expect to get, to lose? He is already burnt and buried alive, already in constant pain from the grief and the burns. When the fire fades so too does the flash of fear. He feels drawn to it, feels he must move closer.

{Huric:} But these were the woods...
{Anaan:} ...the woods where he's failed so many times.

And it is true, that in this forest Knox has made his greatest mistakes. He has lost half his vision, lost his morality. Gained his closest friend, only to lose her and with her his heart. Buried the remnants of the dead. He is where he is born, and perhaps where he deserves to die.

"Move," he says without sympathy, pushing past his son and moving towards the place where the light came from. Get the hell out of my sight, he thinks with the bitterness of fire.



""