in cauda venenum
invincible. you earned your scars, you earned your nightmares and your broken bones. and yet you stand, still strong. they used to chant it when you walked down the alleyways and when you dream, you can hear them again. you don't want to be that person anymore.
i. ab incunabulis
“From the cradle, from infancy, from the beginning”
in another life, that’s what it feels like. it is hard to believe that you were soft, that you were new. that there was hope in your eyes, a spring in your step. you find it hard to believe some days as well. back then, you were tiny, and you had a family. an abundance of brothers and sisters and the world was not so cold, so filled with thorns. back then, when you were a kit - the world was yours to conquer and your mother whispered phrases into your ear and you repeated them much to her enjoyment. you fought back then over petty things - like the warmest place to nap and your favorite toy. as though those things meant something. the memories are dull now. you aren’t even sure how you left your home. one day you were warm, the next you first felt rain and cold and the moon staring down as you were left yowling and wondering where you went wrong.