a short short
I found this orphaned amidst my miscellany recently. I have no idea when I wrote it, and obviously it was never attached to a long-term plan. I was quite startled by it; I hope you enjoy.
Evil in a Cage
When the being called Tozareth woke from slumber, it was puzzled. Last it knew, it had been locked in battle with Those Ones, it must be time to get back to it. It yawned, and stretched, and only then began to feel itself constrained. As if something in the interim had changed. As if powers had been lost to it.
It ran its hands idly across itself while it looked around the darkened abyss where it had been sleeping. This wasn’t a place familiar to it; definitely not somewhere it might have chosen to rest. Tozareth preferred the repose offered by the gnawed-on bones of vanquished enemies. Its immediate impression was that it hadn’t come to this place or gone to sleep of its own volition.
It bared its teeth as it found a battle like none other in the fog of recent memory. So far as it recalled, it had been at war like always. It had warred against Those Ones because this was the nature of things, it was the essential shape of how the world was made. Those Ones were virtuous and beautiful, they deserved to be punished.
The other reason they needed to be fought and killed was the might of their magic, and it seemed all too likely they were responsible for putting it here.
Tozareth rose, reaching for the walls of its cage. It meant to beat on them, batter them down, but couldn’t locate them. All there was was darkness. Darkness and softness without end or edges. Competing against its rage was a strong desire to go back to sleep.
It sat back down, but did not sleep. It had thinking to do.
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