In the world before names settled onto things, the forest kept its secrets in its skin — bark that pulsed faintly like something breathing, leaves rendered as the cells and atoms that constructed them. Through this wood runs the Antherion: white as old bone, small-antlered, with the alert and gentle face of a creature that has never known cruelty. Her eyes are dark and wide and very old. On her back rides the Fourfold — a goddess of four faces turned to the four directions. She and the creature cannot help but become part of the wood they run through. The painting borrows from the hunting tapestries of the medieval unicorn cycles, then lets the scales, the hint of cracked plaster, the oxidized color, and the fresco-worn palette suggest something older still — as if this scene had always existed on some monastery wall, half-forgotten, rediscovered only now. Year Created: 2026 Medium: Oil on canvas Painting Size: 72x72 inches. Canvas depth - 2.25 inches.