Running away didn’t equate to an easy escape.
After Harusi, Nawaka, and Vitunguu left him to mend, Gepeto took a moment to really assess what was happening. He had lost his brother. He had left the Stormborn pride. He had climbed, and fallen out of, a tree. And then he was tended to by a traveling group of healers.
Or he was ******** dreaming and none of this was really happening.
In a moment of panic and delirium, Gepeto plunged his head into the pool of water. It was as he expected, cold, but the shock made him inhale reflexively all the same and it sent a contrast of burning fluids down to his lungs. As quickly as he had moved in, he moved out. Heaving his massive head back, sending an arch of water into the air. It would have been sort of cool if it weren’t somewhat terrifying.
And that confirmed things. He wasn’t dreaming. This was all real. And fate was pulling the same s**t it always did.
He sunk back onto his haunches again, mane sopping wet and flattened around his head. Clinging to him. Making him appear a little less intimidating. A little less imposing.
But it didn’t quite matter at the moment, as Gepeto’s gaze glazed over and his thoughts took hold of the reins. This was a load of bullshit. It really was. What on earth was he even doing at this point? He needed a distraction, that’s what it was. He had spent too much time wallowing already. Wasting what time he had left on a past that, at every turn, he swore he would forget.
He needed a distraction.
A hunt? Sure. That had turned out great for him. The wound on his thigh looked moist, covered in the substance Vitunguu had smeared upon it, but wasn’t bleeding. In fact, it felt numb. Good enough to walk on if need be. It served as a reminder of his mortality, however. He had grown weak…
Being a part of a unit had made him soft.
A moment passed in silence, his golden eyes fixed to the earth at his feet. Then he shook himself dry and whispered, “Never again.” To which there was an unexpected reply.
"Oh but what's the fun in that?"
---
It came from somewhere beyond his vision, moving one step after another like a dark shadow spilling out of the tree line. What struck him first was the glowing eyes, so strange and unnerving that he instinctively rose to all fours. Then, the unnatural gait aroused his suspicions, as it went from a stagger to a steady stride. This was a morphing of shadow to beast that took place right before his eyes, and he blinked them several times over to be sure he wasn't... dreaming. It's features were masked in darkness for an instant before taking shape beneath the sunlight. A black leopard. A familiar face... it was the female? The one from the tree he had tried to maul.
What was it about females being gluttons for punishment?
Groaning and groggy, the male raised his head high and flicked his tail in a blatant display of irritation. A half-hearted snarl rasped from his throat as his eyes were trained upon the stranger. Not now, he thought. And then another thought quickly replied, But you did ask for a distraction.
No one ever discussed the important part of 'asking', carelessly, of things from the nether. Like, who the hell were you asking s**t of, and how would they deliver? Some deities were benevolent while others not quite so. And with so many Gods to choose from in the pantheon, even the heretics could benefit from being cautious with their desires.
The shadow continued to close in on him, sliding her long limbs across the earth, eyes like that of a huntress about to nail her prey. In an attempt to thwart those efforts he spoke up suddenly and with a threatening tone. "I suggest you leave. You had your advantage in the canopies but down here... you are tempting fate." A hiss sent wrinkles across his maw. "I will not hesitate to kill you."
"You poor thing." Came the distorted voice pooling out of the female herself. But it fired up a cognitive dissonance within him. At first Gepeto heard a male's voice, but then it quickly went female. Switching in and out between the two until settling on a light, sweet, and charming range. "I only wish to help." It was almost innocent.
But he wasn't buying it. "Don't need it." Another snarl, teeth gnashing together.
She slowed to a stop, her prowl ending with a tilt her dainty head. The eyes, a brilliant orange, shimmered with an intensity that kept Gepeto on his guard. Remaining quiet and tense, his muscles twitched fervently; ready to fire if, and when, needed.
The moment passed, and she spoke again. "Are you sure?" A smile. "I bet you've lost something? Wanting for it back, perhaps? Afraid to take the appropriate steps in order to... oh, I don't know... liberate yourself?"
His features darkened, skeptical and closed-off.
The figure simply stared into him, waiting.
Then he broke his front with a scoff. "You're in no position." Slight tremors began to circulate throughout his form. He couldn't control them. The rage was boiling once again, building up like water pressure against a seal.
"Oh?" she mused, head lifting to arch like that of the water he had sent flying only a short while ago. "Mmm. I'd have to disagree. You see... Everyone wants for something and" A brief moment of levity wherein she laughed... but it wasn't without it's own hint of malice. "I am truly the only one who can help with getting it. Or, well..." Another pause. "Goodness. You all tend to be so resistant. It's really quite easy... You're really building your own walls, pretending you don't know the way over them. You're your own worse enemy."
His emotions were intensifying, but he attempted to exercise restraint. He just wanted to be left alone. Through his grit teeth the male uttered. "Leave. Now."
And to this her lips curled into a sinister grin, the citrus gaze narrowing. Her tail flicked to one side of her hunkering form as she lowered belly to the earth. Her lips, creating words he could not hear. Then, at last, she spoke aloud in an aggressive whisper. "Go on. Do it. You know you want to."
Give in.
And he did. He so did. In an instant the withholding, the guarding, the patience was gone. He didn't realize he saw red until after he was lunging for her. Snapping and snarling, moving quickly at the leopardess with every intention to mutilate, Gepeto looked as feral as he had during his very first viking. When the slaughter of innocents made up for the deep wounds on his very soul...
But in the second it took him to reach her, the feline was gone. He slid across the earth, tumbling to his side where his would would flare up and keep him stationary and in pain. In her place was a fading cloud of deep blue smoke. It took no shape but hung heavily before him for several seconds. He could swear he felt eyes on him, from either within the gaseous form or beyond it... and then it dissipated in the wind.
A whisper found his ear, and he shot a look over his shoulder accompanied by the swatting out of his claws. No one was there, but the words were as crystal clear as the lagoon itself.
"Temptation... It has a key to every lock. It always finds a way in. You are never without it... Embrace me."
(WC: 1253)