O’tonal discovers who he was meant to be
He had temporarily forgotten the agitation earlier while they had searched for Aselle and then nearly drowned, but it was worse than ever now, and he suddenly felt as if bones would snap. He was angry. Every bit of anger he had felt since his mother had handed him Nitsu and then slipped out of their hut felt as if it was all rushing to the surface, like a boil ready to burst. These people had killed his family – his clan. They had taken everything from him and made him a slave and after surviving it all, he was now searching the river bank in a useless attempt to save one of them – a boy he liked and who had no part in the destruction of his clan, but still one of them.
He realized with a start that he did not have to return to the village. He was free, if he wanted to be, and he very much wanted to be. The feeling swelled in his chest, and he soon felt his true self bursting through his skin. Bones broke and reformed, his hair and his teeth grew and though it was painful, it was also the most alive he had ever felt, the most whole he had ever been. This was who he was meant to be, not a slave whose name was One-hand. His heart beat so fast he thought it might explode in his chest and his blood heated to the point he thought he might cook from the inside out, power coursed through his body, and after an entire season of having absolutely no power over anything, even the pain of the cracking and elongating of the bones and muscles in his face did not stop him from soaking in every bit of power that seemed to fill him from the very moon itself.
O’tonal dropped to his feet and ran.
Because you want to know…
Inspiration for O’tonal came not from all of the many tales of werewolves that we all know and love, but from a story I read about a boy born with Hypertrichosis, which is a disease that causes its victim to be born much harrier than even your harriest friend. If you’ve read my section on bricolage, you know I write by piecing together bits of things I find interesting and making something of them. Another bit of interesting story that created O’tonal came from a story I read about a girl who had escaped an attacker after having both of her hands cut off. She hid from him in a culvert until she was able to get help and went on to live another day, thus, O’tonal also has a missing hand.
