WILT

He stands as still as the trees around him, only moving when the breeze bids it. The fibrous vines of his mane have grown long with time, tangled around the little gasping mouths of ink-black flytraps. At least here, frost does not accumulate thick enough to choke the life from his outermost parts. Mostly, he just comes here to wait for spring. Prey is scarce and energy is too precious a thing to waste otherwise. The spring will bring younglings, fattened from the womb and too clumsy to outrun him.

A flicker of movement in the water draws his attention enough for those empty doll eyes to finally move for perhaps the first time in weeks. Something bigger than the occasional fox, perhaps large even than a deer -  either something of his own kind or something large enough to warrant his spindly legs creaking from their stasis. A breathy groan escapes over his teeth as the first steps use aching, nearly atrophied muscles. Every movement gets the nectar in his veins pumping, warming until he's nearly at the water's edge. Wilt cocks his head and studies the thing for a moment before something beyond hunger yawns awake at his core.

Want. Want.

The aching hollow of his heart bares its teeth and reaches out before he can even crane his neck to sniff at her. She smells like the sea, he realizes as his magic picks at the edge of her mind like a scab. A rasping sigh escapes him as he tries to find any gap for his desperation to take root in her, to drag her heart to his. "A new friend..?" he murmurs, his voice hoarse. Unseen fingers pluck at her heart strings, clumsy as they try to find the right tune. "I am Wilt."