DRETCH
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| ... and from your lips she drew your hallelujah |
| He sits up and I track the movement with the wide eyes of an owl. It is then that I notice the dim-lit moths floating above his no longer prostrate form. Strange little creatures. They are not ones that I have seen before. They ebb and float on some unseen tide, but do not stray far from what appears to be their tether – him. If I could only see them closer, I might be able to copy their form … I’m drawn away from my scrutiny when the wakened stallion finally stands, wincing and grunting and groaning in obvious pain. I’m not allowed to show my weakness like that – Set would have my head. How free he must feel. The teal-eyed stranger moves slowly out of the water, finding a level area on dry ground before gingerly shaking water from his coat. The scent of blood and ichor grows stronger now, no longer dulled by the icy waters. I run my tongue over a fang, ducking my head toward the river’s surface, nostrils wrinkled against the otherworldly smell. Hey, you. The taut address stretches between us, earning him pinned ears and tight lips. Still, I wade closer. Curiosity and the cat and all. Can you pull this out? comes his request, and I follow the glance to his shoulder where the evidence of his encounter is all black and red, where immortality battles supernatural. He cranes his neck about, tugging one, then two, bits of hell-snake from his hide. I’ve not seen the aftermath of a monster encounter before – not such evidence as this, at least. Tufts of hair, feather, and bits of blood – black and red as this stallion’s shoulder – to be sure. The torn up earth of a struggling, pleading victim, the alien stench of ichor, yes. But always my guardians – pah! – would pull me away, drag me to some different part of the commonlands. Only engage if you must, he would say, my nature (curious) and whim (strong-willed) would vie for supremacy. Though, I do prefer to keep my hide intact. It is a lovely one, after all. Smiling faintly, the laughter that dances in my gray eyes lost to the darkness, I wade even closer. No tremble touches my lips as I nose at the discarded teeth. I wish I could carry them away with me, a remarkable souvenir … Please, he exhales, and my eyes snap to his, easy to see through my own eyes now that we are so close. It is a foreign word, one that I’ve only overheard, never one directed at me before. His voice is low and raspy, and I study his mouth as he sways unsteady on his feet. Again, like a preening bird, he goes to pulling out what hell-teeth he can reach, discarding the little trophies at our feet. Or just fucking kill me, if that is easier, he says and I respond with a short bark of laughter. “Somehow you don’t strike me as an easy kill,” I say, my voice husky with disuse. A shrug rolls through my shoulders, pale eyes flaring as he snorts and covers the immediate vicinity and his lips with bits of his own blood. “I mean, I can if you really want me to - ” in this I am utterly confident, my words emphasized with a hyena’s smile and distinctive sniggering laughter “- but that may be a waste.” I nose about his mangled shoulder, huffing softly until I find one of the larger fangs. I grasp it in my shifter’s mouth, careful not to crush it with the strength that ripples through my hyena-jaw. It’s buried deep and offers no doubt painful resistance, but finally comes loose as I tighten my neck and take a step back. It tastes of poison but I do not dispose of it as he has the others. Instead, I place it carefully on a bit of rock near my feet. “Finders, keepers,” I tell him, grasping the other and tug-tug-tugging before popping it free of his flesh. Setting it carefully next to the other, I look back at him expectantly, my muzzle back to its own form now that the hyena’s had served its purpose. |
@[Chemdog]
eeee! thank you for bearing with me through new-character-growing-pains <333