Jay

I was whelped by a slave woman, the legends say. On a mountain crag by night; cries of the snow leopards echoing below. Left to die in the savage snows. A bitch wolf found me and gave suck. I was with the pack ten years before men came.

They took me for a curiosity. I was hauled to their cities in chains, a thing to leer at. One night I bit out my jailer’s throat and ran free under the moon. By then I knew speech. I made my way to the New World on a steamship.

By the time hair sprouted on my cock I’d tamed lands, beasts, and women. Dark eyed servant girls laughed and filled my cup with wine; my cellars were stacked high with gold. Still. I was troubled by dreams. Talons of snow in the dark. The shrieking wind.