Being

Plot

Character

Setting

Along the edge of the abruptly-ending hill he walked, venturing for home after another unsuccessful search. The trees of the island still had no fruit to give, yet they kept living, meandering upward, away from the ground. His fading eyes followed his feet back to his empty home in his empty city, full of empty clothes and empty glasses, with empty little exoskeletons in the corners of empty windowsills.

A king of stone, dirt, pointless trees is hardly a king at all, yet King he was called when life ruled the island.

His wish was granted, along with his curse. He wished to rule, and the kingdom was his, after being stripped of man and beast and near all life. He wished to be above the world, and his empty kingdom was made highest of kingdoms, never to touch water: ocean, cloud, river or puddle. He wished for immortality, and he will live forever as the King of Solitude, never again to feel warmth or hear a voice. Becoming this king meant that no other were to verify his existence. Immortality did not hardly mean living forever, immortality meant hardly living forever.

The king will never know about the man and beast following close behind his kingdom, yearning as well to exist.

The wish-granting Trickster had recently had his others tricked away, too. The dumb turtle was not company, but a vessel for rants and jokes and venting.
The King of Solitude, surrounded with nothing.

The Trickster on the turtle, following.