She sells seashells by the sea shore // Laura pony

[atrox]

hangman hooded, softly swinging; don't close the coffin yet, I'm alive

Atrox likes exploring these places that he does not know well.

There’s something enjoyable about finding places of Beqanna that are younger than himself—learning the  paths that twist and the fauna that grows as thick as his waist in places. The river is one of those places, although it is not so new as some of the other lands that he has wandered through. Still, it is not a place that he can think of from his previous life, and he finds there’s something nearly exciting about it.

Not that he gets excited about much these days.

Still, he finds himself wandering through the land as a panther, without his soul guardians today. It is only when he hears the crooning of the creature in the water that he pauses, his yellow eyes snapping to the river. He is in a particularly foul mood today—it is a rare day when he can really process what his last journey to the afterlife had meant to him—and he finds that his temper flares, low and hot in his belly.

He manages to rein it in though, walking closer to the water to see the guppy bathing. For a moment, he just watches her, before she catches him and glances up. He doesn’t react to her greeting at first, instead lifting a heavy paw and rubbing it against his head. When he drops it back down, his tail twitches behind him. He just angles a head to study her, his face impassive. “Do you always screech when bathing?”

Perhaps not the most accurate word for a nereid’s song, but Atrox always has been contrary.

ATROX | THE PANTHER KING