Right then I heard Mother say, “I was so worried about you.” To my ears it sounded like, “Lucky it was just the dog!” Instantly my gratitude toward Mother died as well. Something dark and bitter crept over it and spread and hardened into rock.

The world was beyond understanding. I began to feel deathly ill. I had to do something, I had to rear up and shatter the rock inside me and spit it out so it would not kill me the way the poison had killed Arsylang. And so I did. I wrenched myself up, stepped over beside the dead Arsylang, raised my fists to the sky, and screamed, “I-ih-iiij, Gök-Deeri!”

It must have shocked my parents terribly, for everything went quiet around me.

“I-ih-iiij, what sort are you if you are so powerless against a pinch of measly powder?”

At that, Father jumped at me, but I fled, my fists raised, and continued to scream: “Have you turned old and deaf and blind? Or are you so evil that you would not deign to hear and help me in my time of need?!”

Father got a hold of me, but I continued to scream: “Yes, it was you! You let it all happen: that Brother and Sister were taken from me, that Grandma died, that the flock was lost, and that my dog is now dead!”

Father held me and tried to silence me: “Let it be, my dear, dear child! Let it be, I ask you, I beg you.”

But I would not hear of it: “I-ih-iiij, Gök-Deeri, what have I done wrong? What have I done to deserve this? Are you not ashamed to have done all this to a poor, weak child? I-ih-iiij, gögergen Gök-Deeri, i-ih-iiij!”

Then Mother was right in front of me. Her eyes wide with horror, she forced my arms down and said something I didn’t hear. “E-eh-eej, Gök-Deeri! Deaf one who did not hear me, now listen to how I shall punish you—” Mother had put her hand over my mouth, but the force used against me only pushed me to the edge. I became a savage beast, kicking and hitting, scratching and biting, until eventually I escaped Father’s grip. And then, waving my clenched fists, I pronounced judgment on Gök-Deeri, our blue sky: “From now on, I will no longer be your son. I will have nothing but contempt for you, i-ih-iiij, gögergen Gök—”