A familiar scent would come to mix and mingle with the sea breeze. A beast on the shores that had not been in Amaryllis in quite some time. The boy had gotten a taste of the life outside and could not deny the way it kept a hold on his darkened heart. The chaos and vastness was something that called to him. Yet the comfort of home beckoned louder.

At some point he had re-entered the lands and began to casually roam about. His way of rogue would not be easily shaken this time. (Unless a pretty lass caught his eye.) He had no destination and no real reason to be here. His knowledge of his family's whereabouts was non existant- regrettably. He did miss them, even he hadn't bothered to actively seek them out as of yet.

Instead he strolled the tide pools in a liesure like manner. His gaze grazed over the shallow pools as he sought out which one would give him his next meal.

The tidepools were a frequent haunt for a woman of the sea; her being entangled with the salty desires of the ocean, her mind as wanderlust as lapping tides. Archesia frequents the shallows when the sea cares to withdraw and expose her bones, revealing treasures of the deep that might have washed in during recent swell. But today was barely fruitful as the golden lioness paced, peering hopefully into exposed pools. She instead gives herself with a wholesomeness to nearby depths, having chosen to dive beneath the surface of a particularly deep pool; sifting through still reeds and gentle sands at the bottom. The next time she resurfaces she is not alone however; a man, not so different from her own wheaty splendor, meandering rocky ledges. "What are you looking for?" a wildly overzealous smile might be spotted down low; her body still submersed within the salty pools.

@Apophis

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Eyes still lingered on the nearest shallow pool. Unaware of the female that had been beneath the surface of the water when he had arrived. When she broke the surface his attention fully grabbed on to the noise of it. His body shifted and his head would be swung around to find the lioness who gazed upon him. He would turn so that he fully faced her. Only a few steps and a rocky ledge parted them.

"A snack." He mused before his tongue would extend to swipe across his lips. "It seems the pools provided a different sort, however." He would allow a smile- (or was it a smirk?) to spread. He would attempt to close the short distance to come to a stand at her particular pool's edge to gaze down at her. There was not a sign of aggression or hostility. Only a bit of flirtation and admiration for the beautiful creature. "Name's Apophis."

@Archesia

Upwards she peers, green eyes alight with a girlish innocence that couldn't be further from the truth. He is charmingly familiar, if not purely for his similarities to herself; though his eyes are wildly different, split down the core with serpent-like oddity. Combined with a giggle, laced with femininity but off-spun by a vague suggestion of her unpredictability, "Apophis," she greets him, almost swooning; her forepaws clinging to the rocky ledge, her gaze intently focused.

It would be wholly unlike Archesia to address this stranger like any sort of normal lioness, and with @Apophis so perfectly situated above her it was far too tempting. Like a mermaid ghoul she attempts to push off the rocky wall with her hind limbs, forelimbs seeking to wrap into the palomino mans mane and drag him into the salty depths - of course, unless he was as sharp in wit as he was in looks, and manages to escape her fiendish efforts like the serpent his eyes so well represented.

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He much preferred how his name sounded when it came from her lips instead of his own. The smirk of a smile had remained ever obvious on his lips as he peered down at the wet temptress. Her eyes pulled at him, even before she did.

He had seen her body move and emerge further from the water, yet he had little time to react. Just barely he was able to jerk his head back before her paws had already encircled around his neck. Eyes widened as he felt the weight of her and then suddenly, they were going down.

Balance was overthrown as he had been ill-prepared for such an attack and into the water he had gone. It took only a few moments of twists and turns for the beast to get his paws corrected beneath enough to push upward and break the surface. He looked a mess. Seawater had soaked his mane down and caused it to cling to his form. Tiny salt crystals alit across his visible face as the sun managed to catch them just right.

He would fling his head around to find her once more. However, this is no anger or irritation to lace the expression of his facade. Instead, there is a flash of humor in his eyes before he jerked forward to try and throw his weight into her in hopes to take her under again.

@Archesia

She wonders in an Archesia kind of way, if the man would sink. Not all lions were as accustomed to water as she, and then she would be faced with the choice of rescuing her golden prince or watching him drown. As the larger beast falls atop her into the water, green eyes remain open as they roll around beneath the surface - watching with pleasure as his face disappears amidst an otherworldly tangle of hair, suspended in salty liquid.

It seems no rescue was required however, as the Palomino man surfaces and Archesia follows suit; popping up beside him, treading water dangerously close, feeling the gushing of water from his own limbs circle her body. The woman is struck by a devious cackle at the sight of the bedraggled prince, though it’s partially entrapped under the surface of the water, spluttering.

The snicker is interrupted, the males larger body mass tossed against her smaller frame; dragging her under. Just as she did before the woman seems so oddly at peace, her lungs clinging to savoured oxygen like second nature. But she is more a mermaid of nightmares than of dreams, and if @Apophis wanted to tangle she would entertain him. Archesia seeks to reach with bared fangs to try and grasp at the whiskered gristle of her partners jowl, trying to use tender nerve-ends to yield him back below the surface with her. And she is not so gentle.

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His body collided with hers. Fur and limbs meshed together for only a moment before she is going down. However, he would not stay above. It would seem she had another plan as teeth found their mark upon the thick of his jowl. The dragged weight she added forced back beneath the surface with her.

Except for this time, he hadn't been lucky enough to gulp enough oxygen to do him any good. Maw had parted during the 'attack' and salted water filled his mouth. Immediately he pushed upward to emerge in a mess of spits and sputters as he attempted to rid his tongue of the horrid taste. (And to try and breathe, obviously.) Somehow the chokes still managed to morph into a hearty chuckle before he would try to grab hold of the edge and pull himself out.

@Archesia

She watches his struggle from beneath the surface, his open mouth and the fountain of escaping air. Perhaps he would drown after all. It is said that the kiss of a mermaid can protect a man from drowning, but it seems her overzealous smooch is doing little to help him. @Apophis tears away, and if she hadn't chosen to loiter there quietly, within the ocean pool, she might have managed to catch him on his way out. As it were, his soaked Palomino behind might be snagged softly as she surfaces, a departing pinch as it were.

But instead of following the water-woman disappears for a few more moments, limbs kicking off the edge of the pool to plummet her dainty bodice down to the bottom. She recovers the body of a medium Abalone, it's shell a brilliant blue, and returns to the surface with it clasped within her jaws - it's snail-like antennas searching for a lost stability. Archesia will seek to toss it up over the edge before trying to clamor out of the water, "Here, a snack." The brief, under-water taste of his saliva was snack enough for her, at least for the moment.

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Without further surprise attacks, he had managed to pull his disheveled self from the deep tide pool to stand between it another that was more shallow. His eyes watched as she vanished from sight to go below once again. His own body decided to shake out and send the salt-coated droplets flying about his form. Still, some clung to his hide and his mane was a mess he could not fix until it dried.

She emerged once more before she tossed something out over the edge. Curiously he stalked a few steps forward to look it over. The blue was an appealing hue, yet the snail-like sea creature that he saw was enough to turn his lip up in disgust. "Uh, you can have it." That thing looked disgusting and he rather not give it a try. "My appetite for food has left me, it seems." His gaze dragged from it and back up toward her.

"Can I have the name of the beauty that attempted to drown me?" There it was again, the crooked grin that fit so well on his lips.

@Archesia

She is seamless upon her exit, paw-pads roughened and adapted to slippery rock surfaces. Water dampens golden pelt against elegant sinew, the sun casting an otherworldly glimmer across exposed flesh. She comes to stand in front of the man, water still streaming from the bunched tresses of her coat, mindlessly choosing to leave it there, trickling slowly.

"Abalone," Archesia comments upon his withdrawal from her offering, "They are delicacies of Sea Kings, you know." If a seaside dweller were to trade anything of value to those who lived away from the coast, it would surely be Abalone; for both their taste, and the beauty of their vibrant, bowl-like shells. She watches as the snail scrambles, maw pinched with an absent smile, reaching out to poke it back into the rock pool. Today it lives.

"Archesia," it is a plentiful smile but far from wholesome, the smaller woman seeking to close the small gap between herself and @Apophis, where she will endeavor to rub her right side down the length of his own like a house-cat. "We look alike, you and I, had you noticed?" her mind was always flurry with coded messages, ones she rarely understood herself, and frequently her lips would speak them with no permission required.

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