She followed a track in the sand, for once bloody and fresh. Literally a single track. Like a long furrow. With little scalloped wisps to each side. It smelled so much like blood but nothing like the stench of hoofed game. Nothing like sweat. Only like the ocean, like the sea's internal organs had been disgorged and now waddled in the direction of the bright sand and the overhanging tunnel. Some weird game! A new food would be fun to eat. Maybe it was slow and dumb enough for someone like Walpurgis to catch.

Her crooked tail wagged intently, following the motion of her slurring thighs, at once crouched and tense and cautious, aware that her prey could spring up at any moment! The tunnel at dusk made weird shadows, reflecting both the sun and the sun's reflection off the churning waves. It was kinda spooky. She followed the track to the tunnel's mouth and paused, her maw unhinged and absently gaping drool while her eyes, smaller and furtive, skimmed the shadows to see what might be hiding.

@Drakon

Drakon Tollaire

He knew her. Even from afar. He knew her. He also knew that Georgia didn't really like her without even really asking why she didn't. It had never occurred to the dragon to ask for such information and it definitely didn't matter now. Georgia was no where to be seen. Hecuba was his only companion and it would keep it that way but even so, Drakon would move closer towards @Walpurgis caustiously. He remembered how she was back home. A place he didn't want to remember much about these days. Ears twisting as fiery jewels would watch her closely as she searched for something.

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Walpurgis fixated on prey and only prey. Her squat ears turned toward his approach. The thin crunch of his paws on the cooling sand, that she could hear before many others could hear? She could hear that. She had good senses. Her ears knew where to turn. But her eyes continued searching the tunnel's shadows and the tension in her shoulders didn't shift, didn't turn to see him coming, because she couldn't. Couldn't know. There was one thing to focus on. And it wasn't the broadly approaching lion.

Until he spoke. Until... something spoke, and she forgot what she was doing, forgot what he had said - it was like he popped into existence just then, and although she didn't startle she looked at him with broadly surprised eyes. As though he was a ghost. Or as though he had a piece of broccoli on his face. Definitely like she had been shaken from the middle of a waking daydream, unaware of the circumstances surrounding her. But, like most sleepwalkers, she was used to being disconcerted. Unexpected things happened all the time.

Like @Drakon! She hadn't expected to see him again. Not since they had all traveled together en masse to the island, and since everyone had dispersed as though on the whims of a great plan which Walpurgis knew nothing about and she had been lost since then but (she did get lost most of the time). He looked super spooked. This confirmed that the lingering spooky-feeling she had about this place was right! "Drakon!" she hissed in a low stage-whisper (she knew how to hiss a whisper, but not how to lower her volume). "There's food! But the cave is scary!" The spooky cave was immediately important and questions like how did you get here? and how have you been? were not.

Drakon Tollaire

Did he speak? Honestly, Drakon didn't really know. His mind had focused on her and her alone so if her name or any kind of words came out of his mouth. He couldn't recall them but when she spoke, Drakon blinked and would look at her more closely. "@Walpurgis." He would state her name calmly before glancing towards the cave that she indicate that there was food. Prey down there but it was scary. Ears twisting in his growing thick mane as he would move closer to the entrance of the cave. "You? Scared of a cave?" He would tease her then.

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asddas reading comprehension fail sorry

His gaze fixed on her and she didn't like it, couldn't read it, plus the cave was still spooky. Fur rose along the back of her neck. The thicker ebony strands strained against their weight of grease to form messy, uneven spikes. He looked at the cave and she mimicked, thrashing her skull quickly to again interrogate the dark silence. The bloodied furrow led in but no tracks led out. The washing of the waves and the tide were quick to smooth away lighter footprints. A chance breeze brought the scent of blood up from the tracks and hunger curled in her breast. "Food, Drakon! I wanna eat it!" Game that was still warm and recently alive was a rare treat. Usually she couldn't catch anything alive and nimble enough to outwit her.

She glanced back to him, noticing his approach and hoping that he would be brave for her. He had been a king and to her mind still was. That meant he was brave and good at giving orders. He would know what to do about the scary cave. "Uhuh!" she nodded, completely unaware that he could mean anything but what he was literally saying. "It's dark! And the... the sounds are weird." She didn't remember the word for echoes or understand that the spooky sound reverberating from the cave was part of the echoes rippling off the sand and sea. "And there's a weird footprint goin' in! But @Drakon, it don't come out! I think it's still in there!"

Drakon Tollaire

He glanced down to the tracks that went into the tunnel that she was looking into but none came out. Odd. Perhaps there was another way in and Drakon was a bit curious to figure out himself. "You always like eating." He would comment, glancing towards the woman as he stood next to her before moving closer to the tunnel. "Why don't we both go in? Hm?" He wasn't entirely afraid of any of this. He had faced worse things than this in his lifetime. So why not put himself in danger once again right? Would it really bother anyone?

@Walpurgis

Table by Naboo

Walpurgis did indeed like eating. She nodded curtly. Eating wasn't what she would call a skill and she would prefer to be complimented for her bravery at facing down the scary darkness, or for general prowess in war, but the lonely fighter would take compliments and recognition where she could get it. "Gotta eat a lot to be big an' strong!" she boosted. Never mind that she had already grown all that there was to grow. She could always get better, learn to fight better and hunt a little, anything to have a secure place in a pride. Whatever was in the cave... once it showed itself... it would stop being scary, and then she would fight it!

She lowered her head and looked ahead into the tunnel as he came alongside her, figuring that she should scout. She had good vision. Good vision and nothing else, they said. "I look real hard. But I don' see it. It's hiding." It didn't occur to her that there could be more to the cave than what she saw. Twisty tunnels, hidden paths? Nah. The darkness she could see was spooky enough. As the sun went down the shadows lengthened and the dim deepened. "Yeah. We gotta go in," she echoed, taking his suggestion as though it was her own, not remembering who had suggested it but it seemed like a good idea so! Onward into the dark place, following the dredged bloody trail. She spread her toes carefully, trying to be quiet, though it had little effect on the squelchy sand. She kept her eyes up but lowered her muzzle to the trail again, nostrils twitching. "I wonder what is it. Maybe it's seaweed." Look it smelled like ocean so.

@Drakon

Drakon Tollaire

Ah, yes a compliment for her would have been more benefiting but Drakon hadn't thought about that. So for now, he kept his mouth shut as she repeated what he had suggested but Drakon would not correct her on it and followed right behind her. He would chuckle at her words. Talking about sea weed and it just caused him to chuckle in the darkness. "Maybe it is. Maybe it's a bat." Or whatever lived in the dark. Who knew right? Drakon could see in the dark but his eye sight was probably not as good as @Walpurgis'.

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Walpurgis didn't understand why what she said was funny but she was happy to amuse. Wary of laughter because sometimes it turned to blows. But also seeking it, because sometimes if she made others laugh they backed off. She smiled but it gave her cold chills, washing under her belly and twisting under her neck like a pack of ice cubes. The furrow of sand was harder to follow the further they got from the twilight of the entrance. She slowed and scuffed around with her front paws, following it by feel. "Maybe it's a big bat!" she speculated, hunger deep in her voice and drool edging at her lips.

She had forgotten to whisper. And something shifted. A dark blob twitched, flopping from one fat side to the other, using a rubbery appendage to protect its wound. Walpurgis jerked to a halt. "@Drakon!" was it a ghost or a food? It moved strange. She vaguely remembered seeing something like this once washed up on the beach. How violent it had been! How naked, slick, unpredictable! The seal was smaller than an orca but it stirred memories of caution. "Hey we eat it! I know these! They... they have big teeth!" She couldn't see any teeth but she remembered them. She lowered her head and growled, challenging the seal to see whose teeth were bigger.

Drakon Tollaire

He followed silently and listened for any flapping of wings but it wasn't wings he heard. Stopping in his tracks, Drakon heard his name being shouted out and caused him to flatten his ears momentarily before pushing them forwards. It wasn't entirely dark but the light was fading from behind them, so they needed to act quickly. Fiery jewels spotted the seal and glanced towards @Walpurgis. Moving to stand beside her, he would lower his head to the ground. "Take one side, and I'll take the other?" Curious to know if she'd do it. But also, knowing she probably would.

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