To my general shock it seems I have not actually uploaded this piece to Tumblr before. Way back in 2021 things were...very dark and bad. I lost three family members and a companion their equal in about a year. Three of them in about four months. There was and still is a lot of baggage tangled up in there.
I was painting my character Ama Tala (The mother of all wolves) thinking somber thoughts on the winter solstice. My grandmother died that night.
It gives me a lot to think about every year. Last embers. Long cold nights. Sparks. New beginnings. Growing days.
Happy Winter Solstice.
Cool Facts- Numbering less than 1,000 individuals, the Somali wild ass is a subspecies of the African wild ass. Herds change in size depending on the amount of rain for that year. Stallions generally take care of a dozen or so mares throughout their territory, but large gatherings of mares can occur when rain and food is plentiful. Other males are welcome to enter the stallion’s territory, as long as they only graze and show no interest in gaining a mate. Mares are pregnant for about a year and the foal stays with their parent herd for several years before branching out. Somali wild ass are hunted for medicinal purposes and for acting as competition for livestock. Luckily, zoos around the world are working towards breeding Somali wild ass and releasing them back into the wild.
It was cold and dark. The fight was over. The Order had won, but narrowly. The death eaters had disapparated. All except one. He stood on the brink of no man's land. He was watching James’s every movement. No one had noticed him. He could have killed every single one of the Order members frantically moving their injured and fallen.
James felt a prickle go up his spine, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. Slowly, he turned. There was a blur directly opposite him. It came into focus. A lone death eater on the field. He felt Sirius flinch at his side. Wand arm rising.
The death eater lifted his hand to his face and removed the intricately decorated mask. James hadn’t needed him to show his face. He’d known it was Regulus the second he laid his eyes upon him.
Their eyes locked, and James unconsciously took a step forward. Sirius grasped his arm.
“Come on, James, we need to go.” Sirius looked over at his brother, his face oddly blank. “He’ll kill you, James. He’s made his choice. Don’t make it easier for him.”
He let Sirius drag him away, but he didn’t look away, couldn’t look away. He stared at Regulus right up to the moment Sirius apparated them back to the safe house.