always alone

The kingdom was his. Fully, finally, unequivocally his. Sean moved through the set with a ease I had not seen in him for months — unhurried, unguarded, free from the low-level tension that rivals and territorial disputes bring even to the most sovereign of creatures. The forest had grown up around him, the vegetation thick and generous, wrapping the background of every frame in a warmth and uniformity that made the photographs sing. I watched him through the lens and felt it — that particular, electric intuition that something extraordinary is on the horizon. A great summer was coming. I could feel it in the light, in the air, in the way Sean held himself on that perch as though he owned not just the territory, but time itself. And perhaps, for now, he did.