Prologue

2006-08-13T13:14:00.000-07:00

Golden-red tongues of light and pain…
Smoke so thick it you can clench it in your fist…
Screams…

Those are the only clear memories I have of my former life. I was a pet, born into captivity of a cruel Human duke. Born into a world of darkness and trapped behind talons of cold hard steel. Until the day the fire came…

Our rescuers had finally arrived, but our owner would rather see us die with him than taste freedom. He set our straw covered floor alight and ran. I never knew his name and I never found out if he made it past the raiding party that had come to save us. That simple fact has kept me from living an empty life seeking vengeance.

Trapped in a burning cage, slowly losing hope that our rescuers would reach us in time my parents did what they had to. They used their last ounce of energy to bend the bars just enough for my small frame to fit through. I never knew my parents’ names either. That simple fact has saved me from living an empty life mourning them.

I remember watching the light of the flames dance on the stone walls. I remember their screams as the flames claimed them. I remember hiding in the shadows. I feel at home in the shadows and that is where I have remained all my life. On the edge of the visible world, between the shadows and the light, there where no one ever thinks to look.

Before those memories I only have fragments; crumpled photographs in my mind of events that I’m not quite sure I ever experienced.

My name is Gast, and this is my story, that is all you need to know for now…