[private] Sometimes I forget I'm still awake; Ripley, Ryatah

[Ripley]

Once, Pangea had been their home - and land whose inhabitants were off-limits to harm from this creature and its children. But that had changed. The master was there but not, content to allow her strict tether a little slack. Suddenly the canyons were able to become hunting grounds, and though there was now no other hunter by its side - this one enjoyed chasing all manner of creatures from that land. Ever since the darkness, ever since the loss of their partner, this monster has been increasingly on-edge. Somehow more filled with rage, more erratic, more bloodthirsty than ever before. Killing when it did not need to feed, leaving the corpses where they fell and moving onto the next. This night, though, it is hungry. It moves through the forest, quiet - though the soft green glow that surrounds it gives away its location. It hasn’t minded so much - there is little by way of a challenge in these woods and, like most predators - it doesn’t believe in picking a bigger fight than it needs to. Deer are a common meal, as are any of the equine creatures it believes are an entirely different species than itself. The sound of a body, large and therefore laden with plenty of meat, running through the forest draws its attention and it follows at an easier pace. Feeling the anticipation growing with every stride, its knife-weilding tail held aloft, carefully and gracefully avoiding colliding with any trees and making any more noise than strictly necessary. In a clearing, a mare patched with grey and white stands - only a few slivers of moonlight illuminating her. A strange clicking noise emerges from the throat of the hunter as it slows its pace, moving around the clearing instead of directly into it. The foliage helps obscure some of the eerie green glow but not all, hints of the armoured body show and illuminate the cold black eyes that blink in a hardshelled face. Will the mare be tired from her run? Or will she have enough strength for her legs to carry her somewhere other than this clearing before she falls? Truthfully, no real thoughts pass through the mind of the hunter as it steps past the trees - it has a singular focus now. Its lips curl back in a snarl, revealing two sets of gleaming silver teeth, before it lunges. RIPLEY

@Ethenia