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Denari,
with a face resembling a furry moon,
had turned rebellious of his father's tyranny. |
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He had no desire to rule the empire under the sun.
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His fathers labyrinthine structures sprawled across the sun
scorched terra, having replaced the flora that had once dominated the region.
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Every angle, every line was perfectly constructed and
gleamed with superior sterility.
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The authoritarian monkey czar commanded legions of insects,
(one of the few creatures that escaped his old love’s appetite), pressing ever
outward to conquer the wet jungles.
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Denari sympathized with the
dark wild places outside his fathers dominion. |
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He opted to move like the lunar cycle and speak only at
night.
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He conspired with the fish, amphibians, and aquatic
reptiles to spread dissention.
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To this end, he composed poetry and music and drifted from
watering hole to watering hole performing passionately.
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One sleepless evening,
he wandered into a long forgotten wing of the great palace
which opened up into a moonlit courtyard. |
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With his left eye he discovered a mysterious door and with
his right eye, a strange window.
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At first he was fooled by his left eye.
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It diverted his attention from the window, insisting that
it alone bore true sight.
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However, Denari had long suspected that that which is most
apparent is only superficial, and those things which are denied grow deep roots in the
darkness.
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He was able to bypass his left eye and the lie that there
was nothing to see but a rather extravagant looking gold gilded door,...
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and he acknowledged the report of his right eye:
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that there was also presented here a rather unexpected
window.
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Peering through the
mysterious window
he spied a sleeping girl. |
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The sight of her inspired him deeply and he climbed through
the window with the intention of reciting his most profound poetry.
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He spoke in a silvery voice, his head growing light with a
curious delirium.
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She stirred in her sleep and woke to the word
"austere".
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Still under the spell of sleep,...
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she accepted
and returned his kiss...
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...with the best of intentions...
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...but tasting his lower lip brought back memories.
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She couldn’t help but crawl through his open mouth,
into him.
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It was a trick she had learned
as a child.
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She began consuming him from
the inside. |
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When she finally awoke
from her sleepy feast of frenzy,
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she discovered there was
just a crust of skin remaining,
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she had hollowed out all of him,
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and now she rested
within his shape.
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She looked into the mirror,
her only comfort for a century,
and she saw her new monkey face reflected. |
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She felt the calm of the
moon. |
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She realized that in this
new form
she could climb out of the window facing every direction
and escape. |
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And so she did. |
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As her fingers pressed against the stone bricks,...
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...her body descending block by block to the grass below
the window,...
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she wondered why she had never attempted this before.
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There were no guards at the bottom or hungry alligators...
she wondered if she would be missed.
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As her little feet made contact
with the soft carpet
of green and gold,...
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...she felt cool drops
of dew and mud
enter the spaces
between her toes.
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A smile
brighter than any exploding star
spread across
her lips...
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...and she almost died
of pleasure.
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