| ALiSTAIR
this is what salvation must be like after a while
I had moved away from the caves opened up by the earthquake, unwilling to be both deaf and blind, and found myself on top of a tall rock, the crisp fall wind buffeting my uneven fur. I wasn't sure why I had wandered towards the crags, but something about the rocky terrain was almost comforting, the open sky so different from the endless forest that I was used to. And it was a little exciting to feel the wind, and while my scruffy appearance looked even wilder when it was windswept, I didn't mind. Most already looked at me as strange, so what was a strange appearance to boot?
The wind had started to sting at my stark white eyes and so I descended further towards the ground, finding a grassy hollow to settle down in for a moment. I hadn't gotten out of Taviora since visiting my family in Glorall, and it seemed contradictory to my pursuit of knowledge, but I simply couldn't find anyone who had the information that I wanted to know. I had mastered understanding and speaking my native tongue, working day and night to learn how to read lips and infer words and then speak them out loud. But there were other languages, other dialects that I didn't know. I wanted to be able to hear things, but unfortunately my useless ears had betrayed me.
They laid against my head now, useless in every sense of the word, and so I usually kept them tucked against my skull. Those who met me likely wouldn't think immediately that I couldn't hear, but after a moment of my speaking they could probably make an educated guess. I hated knowing that I would never be respected due to my disability. Perhaps there were more things to work on rather than just forming the words. Inflection, phrasing... I wonder if I could ever fix my monotone voice.
But there was no reason dwelling on things that I couldn't change. The most I could do was overcome them.
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