The Twelfth Moon || ✔️

17. The Tattoo

"I am?" I asked surprised, my brows raised as high as possible. From what I'd heard in Spitta, tattoos were a painful thing.

"Yes, you are," Lotta ordered. "Its tradition here in Death Moon to get a tattoo after your Ascension. Here's mine, see," she said as she turned her back towards me and bared her shoulder. The silhouettes of four flying birds decorated her left back side. "My name stands for freedom. Nothing represents freedom more to me than a bird in flight, because it's not bound by anything up there in the skies. I have one bird for my mother, one for my father, one for my brother and finally one for myself."

The black linings were elegant and they graced Lotta. "It's a beautiful tattoo," I said. I meant it. But I had never thought about getting a tattoo myself.

"Yours will be beautiful too," she replied. "Vince here is the best artist in Rahas. Luckily for you, he owes me a favor."

Vince rolled his eyes at the mention of said favor. "You owe me some too, Lotta. Don't they cancel themselves out?"

Lotta shot him a stern glare. "No, they don't." She turned back to me when she continued. "So, any ideas on what you'd like? You're one of us now, after all."

I had to admit that belonging somewhere felt easy. Lotta had welcomed me with open arms, even knowing I came from Fire Moon. And the feeling I got earlier when Lotta and I were walking around in the city, had made me want to belong here. To Rahas, to people like Lotta. And since I had Ascended into Death Moon, I would have to belong here, even if Jerr and Aven might not want that. So what would it say of me if I rejected the very first tradition offered to me? "I.. I have never thought of getting a tattoo," I said quietly. "I wouldn't know what to get."

Vince joined in as he said, "Maybe you can think of something important to you. What matters most to you? We can work something out."

I shook my head as my mind stayed empty. I could think of a few things, but none of them seemed important enough to have marked permanently on my body. "I can't really think of anything good enough."

"You can just use one of my existing designs," Vince answered. "Your tattoo doesn't necessarily need to mean anything. Having a good tattoo can be enough."

I shook my head. "No, no. I want it to mean something. If I'm doing this, I'm doing this the right way."

Vince frowned. "There's no right or wrong way to get a tattoo," he said.

"Ah Vince, of course there is," Lotta chimed in. "Have you ever had an Ascending wolf asking for a meaningless tattoo?"

Vince let out a slow laugh. "Can't say that I have. You're not making my job easier, you know."

"Your job isn't supposed to be easy, Vince. By the Moons, good thing I'm still around for quality checks in this place," Lotta joked as she punched his arm. She then turned back to me again . "You said earlier that you had a hard time in Fire Moon." Vince raised his head at the mention of my origins, but gave no other sign of distrust or any other negative emotion. "Did you have anything to get you through your time there?"

I thought about it for a few moments, but only one thing came to mind. Something I didn't think Vince would be able to conceptualize. "The prospect of leaving," I said. "By the end, I followed our Moon's cycle every night and counted down the days until my Ascension, which would get me out of Fire Moon."

"You wanted to leave that badly?" Vince asked. The question was posed out of genuine curiosity, I couldn't sense any judgment lacing his words.