[open] swear i'm awake...

[Porthos]

it's not a prestidigitation

The aching was deep.

The rattle of his own skull and clinking of golden teeth echoing in his piked ears as he opened and shut his jaws, body searing with pain as he heaved himself off of the ground. He craned his neck and tipped his heavy horned head for hollow sockets to gaze at the dark fleshy wings that protruded from his sides. He strained as he stretched them in and out, feeling the awkwardness of sharp splayed finger-like limbs that helped to stabilize the sensitive leathery membrane between them. The cool air that brushed against the exposed skin made him cringe; he had never felt anything like this when he had his perfect feathered wings.

He hissed in a shaking breath as he remembered the events prior to his waking here...the price he paid for that gold. "Goddess be damned..." he snarled as his gold teeth clicked with the words that rumbled from deep within his chest. The sound a horrible clinking reminder of what she had done to him. Distorting him into this monster...he didn't care he had stolen from her.  All he cared about was himself and what she had done to him, and he would never forgive her nor forget it either.

Porthos surveyed the forest around him, dark and filled with the heady scent of decaying leaves and damp soil. He had no idea where the goddess had sent him, and he knew this sure as hell was not the home he once knew. Slender black legs carried him forward at a slinking walk with his piked ears swiveling to take in the sounds of the forest, alert to the sound of potential company. Be it benevolent or malevolent. At this point he didn't care who he ran into, so long as they could tell him where the hell he was. Following a slender trail of brown and reddish leaves, he weaved through thick forest for what seemed like hours with seemingly no end in sight. He would fly if not for the thick canopy of the trees making it impossible to access the skies above. As well as the intense aching pain his body felt with each movement he made.

He had no idea if it were day or night with how dark it was here, and he wondered if this was some sort of never-ending forest the goddess had sent him to wander for eternity... the thought making his rage begin to boil. His silky black tail swished irritably, catching stray strands upon the grabbing thorny clutches of thorn bushes as he passed between them. Would this trail ever end? 

porthos

image by myself


Word Count: 438

[Starboard]

starboard

make it pretty, but train it to kill

She has always harbored a fondness for danger. There was something about the thrill of adrenaline flooding her veins that caused her to seek out extremes where others sought safety. Simplicity does not suit her. A predator always, she is not happy unless there was something to hunt. And if it ran? Well...that was all the better.

Winning is easy for her, but she enjoys earning her trophies the old fashioned way.

The forest doesn't often call to her but today, she can almost hear her name on the wind that slips through the trees. While she is naturally more suited to the water, the Gods saw fit to make her dangerous on land, too. She weaves easily through the forest, her dripping wings gently grazing the briars and brambles along the way. The woodland creatures scatter away from her. They are stupid things, but even stupid things have a sense of self preservation.

The forest grows thicker as she continues on. She pauses, her reptilian eyes spotting a clueless deer just ahead. Rabbits, squirrels, those are easy pickings...but a deer? A deer would give chase. Her fangs begin to ache as they fill with venom and she opens her mouth slightly to relieve herself of the bitter taste. She has nearly made up her mind to pounce, when a new sounds and tastes flood her senses. Its almost a merry sound, but distinctly foreign here in depth of the forest. Her pretty head sweeps to the side as she searches for the source, and she is quite surprised to find it coming from a rather flustered looking stallion. His color is mostly unremarkable, but his head and horns are truly something to behold. With a flare of her water wings she approaches, her ivory hips swinging sinfully and the gold in her mane catching the light. "You look lost." she purrs, flashing the lost stallion a beautiful, fanged smile. "One needs to be careful getting lost here...there are monsters in these woods."

She isn't one to name names, but she doesn't care to let the insinuation hang on her words.

@Porthos

[Porthos]

we were always sure that we would never change

Damn it all to hell..., he thought to himself as he caught his reflection in a shallow pool of water that was so still it looked like a black mirror. He truely could not believe this was himself, his visage that of a distorted and gold touched beast. With a snarl that rumbled from deep within his chest and reverberated off his golden teeth through his hollow skull, he struck the water's surface with a dark hoof and sent the image splattering like black blood on the forest floor. He turned as a startled deer bounded past him with sheer panic alight in it's large dark eyes. He was nearly about to silently question what could possibly have the daft creature in such blind panicked bounding when a voice like silk graced his piked ears. Porthos turned his head slowly, hollow sockets beholding the most ethereal slinking creature that had ever graced his view. Aqueous wings and hair touched with gold that matched his own gold adornments, her lithe serpentine body slinking toward him while flashing him a dazzling fanged smile. If he still had his eyes they would be blazing with primal male interest as he gazed upon her. He let out a harsh laugh at her words, his own answer a deep sensuous growl that emit from his skull. "Ahhh darling, am I not the only monster to grace these woods?", he unfurled his own wings to flare them high and wide, the sore muscles protesting at the movement, but his eternally grinning skull gave away no secrets to his pain.

Porthos could not help but be enticed by this creature. She was unlike any he had beheld, and yet somehow seemed more dangerous than that damned goddess that caused this whole mess. He dared to take a step closer, his heavy horned skull rattling and clinking with the movement. He had no fear of gods, and did not fear the female before him either when a smarter equine would have already fled for the hills. He inclined his skull at her, his jaws parting and clicking shut once before opening again as he said, "Indeed though, this monster is...misplaced...what the hell is this realm anyway, Viperess?" He cocked a hind leg and lazily let his hip dip low, a casual movement that only accentuated the lack of self preservation in the presence of a predator. Porthos was ready to continue flirting with danger, but his need to understand his whereabouts overrode his carnal desires now. Maybe this watery viper would speak truth and entertain his query, or maybe she would seek to sink those pearly white fangs deep into his throat and pump him full of venom. Either way, he was more than willing to take the risk....and even wondered if he would enjoy having her poison course through his brindled blood bay body, rendering him absolutely useless, writhing and filled with a sweet desire to clutch at his slipping mortality. It would be better than walking an eternity in endless cold woods alone as this beastly form he now possessed.

porthos

Image by Myself

@broken 
^{ooc: Getting back into the swing of writing him haha}

[Starboard]

starboard

make it pretty, but train it to kill

From an early age, her mother told her stories of monsters. Some were the obvious kind, with gnashing teeth and frothing, hungry jaws. Be wary of those, she had said, but they are not the biggest threat. No, the most dangerous monsters were the unassuming ones, she had said. The ones that the Gods had wrapped and hidden in silk and gossamer. Those were the ones to watch out for. "Nothing is as it seems..." she had often said, her face pinched with worry and a light sheen of sweat on her slender neck.

Somehow, maybe, her mother had manifested her own fears in her only daughter.

She watches him carefully, though without caution. He is likely stronger than her and who knows what is lurking beneath his blood-colored coat, but that is of little consequence to her. She is sin made living flesh and dangerous besides. Her mouth spells death. As he steps into her orbit the scent of testosterone (musky and sweet at the same time) floods her mouth and nose and she makes no effort to hide the deep breath she inhales. While she is confident to the point of recklessness, males are uncharted territory for her. But she recovers quickly, her inhale switching to another beautiful, dangerous grin. "I suppose a lot of that would depend on your definition of monsters." she purrs, rolling her shoulder in a shrug.

She can tell she has captured him into her thrall. His hollow eyes never leave her pretty face, and she blinks her reptilian eyes in a show of innocence. "Misplaced, hm? Thats just a fancy word for lost, Boneboy." she coos. If he can give her a nickname, then turn about is fair play. "This realm, as you call it, is called Beqanna. But this large concentration of trees you're currently stumbling through is known as The Forest." she says offhandedly.

Her teeth aren't the only thing that are razor sharp. Her tongue is silver laced, too.

@Porthos