Sea Monster

[Nurumaji]

It was dusk now. The sun was fading below the horizon, painting the sky a brilliant blood-red. Insects flew and danced above the surface of the lake as fish darted out to catch a small meal. There was no wind, so the lake was still. Back around where the tree's limbs dipped low to reach down into the water, back where it was more swampy and dark, something lurked below the surface.

A large ripple started suddenly, and a fish could be seen gasping above the surface, being supported by four tentacles. The black eel-like appendages squeezed the fish until it was limp, and then two paws surfaced and pulled the aquatic animal back under.

A large black creature was under the water, it was the same one that had taken the life of the fish. She held her meal cradled in her paws, and she looked it over, inspecting it. A thin sharp claw emerged from her paw, and she expertly chipped off some of its scales. Nurumaji smiled lightly as a small puff of red drifted upward from the fish, an indicator that she had gone to far and punctured the flesh.

The strange being glanced upward in the water, the eight tentacles on her head waving back and fourth slowly. The hellcat spread her toes to reveal the flap of skin that connected the digits, and thrust her limbs downward. Nurumaji went up. As her head broke the surface, the rest of her body followed. If a human was to see this, they would be disturbed. Nurumaji looked much like a strange sea-monster.

Moving her fish from her paw to her mouth, the hellcat made sure she had a firm grip and started swimming toward the muddy shore. The sea monster was going to consume her feast.

[River]

Why was he here?

The lean and apparently light form questioned himself over and over and over again as he trudged through the deep muddy embankment on the east side of the lake. Every step was labored and slow, foolishly leaving the hound out in the open and unprotected as he pushed his way through the mud. It was slow going, the chains hanging from his sides and the heavy metal collar weighing him down so much, every step was sucked down by the disgusting substance as if he were walking in quicksand. It clung to his raggedy sandy brown fur and stained every inch of his pelt...

Why was he here again?

For the life of him, the spotted hound simply could not come up with a decent excuse for being in this god-forsaken place. He'd originally made the trek over here from the desert after hiding out in the rough sands for quite some time, searching for something to quench his thirst. Why he had not just gone up a little ways toward the river, with its smooth banks and firm sandy shores, the hound could never even guess.

For whatever reason, he was here now and there was very little he planned to do about it. So, with a tired sigh and a pause, shaking out his long, stringy coat, the once normal canine continued trudging down the shallow shore of the lake, reaching the water in a short time. Once there, he was quick about crouching down in the cool, relatively still waters, letting the liquid peel away the mud that had caked onto his coat on the way there. But something out in the water stirred...

Lifting his head, green pupils glowed gently in the dimming light, allowing the hound a clear view of everything in the area. A black mass stuck out like a sore thumb but it was too far away for the brute to see clearly thanks to his "near-sight", but it smelled of wet feline. Watching it with curiosity, the hound did not bother to stand or to speak or to do anything to the other creature that paddled toward him. He merely observed...

[Nurumaji]

The light was nearly all gone now - only the faint reflection on the water and the yellow glow of the fire-flies as they did their twilight dance. There was still a hint of pink, although it wasn't much and it faded into a dark violet.

But fire-flies weren't the only thing that were glowing.

Nurumaji heard a few splashes near her destination, and she froze, instinctively only letting her eyes show above the surface. Something was there. The hellcat's grip on her fish tightened, and a few of its soft pink insides spurted into her mouth. Saliva began to form around the edges of her mouth, but she ignored it. She had bigger problems now.

Nurumaji squinted towards the shore where she thought she heard splashing. There wasn't much there, only two green fire-flies. They stayed put, and didn't stop their spark. But fire-flies weren't green... The feline quickly ducked under the water, closing her clear eyelids to stop any particles to get into her eyes and damage them. Nurumaji swam slowly a few feet below the surface, making sure that she didn't give any indication of where she was in it.

The little light that trickled down from the surface was enough for Nurumaji, and she was in shallower water. The hellcat peered at what she thought had been sticks at first, but found that they were legs. Hound legs. They seemed cat-like, there were slits where the retractable claws were resting, but they didn't look as flexible as most felines paws were. Nurumaji cocked a brow, and angled her head upward.

Although the image was disturbed by ripples, the feline could make out some features. Like that this being was obviously canine, but yet another hell-beast like her. Nothing special... Nuru wasn't the social type so why should she feel anything else but hostility to this hound?

Remembering the fish she had caught, Nurumaji backed into the deeper water slowly and carefully, swimming near the bottom of the lake swiftly to the shore farther away from the canine. Feeling as if she had put enough distance between her and the other, Nurumaji made her way to the muddy shore, pulling her sleek, black body out of the murky waters. Peering down to the area where the hound was (he appeared to be like a small toy figurine from this distance), the hellcat settled down near the water's edge and stuffed her meal in her mouth.

[River]

As the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, the hound's night vision came into full swing painfully, as if someone had electrically shocked his brain with a faulty wire or something. But it didn't show on his slender face, his expression still calm and curiously watchful. Only now, his eyes were bright like fire flies, and illuminated his facial features in a harsh almost haunting green light. With the improved vision, the strange creature became much clearer to the hound until she submerged herself completely. Then she was nothing more than a dark spot in the bright green water...

Grunting to himself, the once normal canine hefted himself to his feet slowly, his footing unstable against the muddy lake floor but strong toes and retractable claws made keeping his ground an easy task and he was free to scan the water for the creature yet again...

However, he found she'd disappeared from sight strangely. Suspicious now, he scanned the lake shores, the dark trees that lined one end of it and pretty much everywhere except the area right beside him. Foolish of him. Had the cat wanted to make meal out of him, she would've had an easy time of it just then. lucky for the hellhound, she already had herself a nice fish dinner...

Soon growing tired of searching, the canine bent his head down cautiously, his bright gaze still scouring the landscape in case something did decide to ambush him. Pale almost grey tongue gingerly lapped at the water slowly, taking his time drinking the cold soothing liquid. Drinking too fast would irritate his esophagus and he'd probably throw it back up, so even when the creature crawled back into view across the lake, the hound kept his cool, drinking calmly as if he couldn't care less...

In truth, he couldn't really care less about her. Still, he kept his gaze trained on her, foolishly ignoring the rather large shadow swimming toward him from the lake center...

[Nurumaji]

Nurumaji finished her fish, and her gray-pink tongue emerged from her blue mouth and swiped across her maw, removing any traces of excess fish-flesh. The strange octopus-feline hybrid glanced down at the few scattered bones and fins of her meal, and her stomach snarled. This fish was not enough.

Nurumaji snapped up the fins and bones, crunching them until they were small fragments. She swallowed them, and glanced across the lake. The hellhound was still eying her suspiciously. Or that's what the hellcat could determine what his gaze was like. Her belly growled again as she gazed at him. Right now she was looking at him like he was a Thanksgiving turkey.

Her tongue gathered some saliva that had trickled from her mouth, and waited until the hound shifted his gaze. Taking that short chance, Nurumaji slid into the water as if she was part of it. But something caught her attention. A dark shape was heading swiftly to the hound. Nuru could have shouted out to the guy to warn him, but instead she dove under to observe...

ooc- What is the shadow?

[River]

((I'm thinking a freshwater croc or shark, both of which I'm sure exist...))

The hound gave the cat a glance as she finished her meal, watching her out of the corner of his eye. An interesting creature indeed, that one. But, what caused others to be the way they were was of little importance to him. He didn't want anyone to ask about his tail or chains, so he wouldn't ask her about her tentacles or eyes. Equivalent exchange...

But she stole his attention long enough to make him forget he was drinking water and his mind was dragged back to what he was doing by a hacking, almost burning cough. Turning his head away briskly, he waited for the cough to subside, trying to keep from throwing up...

Unfortunately for him, this only aided in the shadow's advance...

The strange cat was a little late on the leap. The hellhound did look over when he heard the splash, his night vision curious, but before he could turn his attention to where she went, which would've resulted in his noticing the shadow, teeth and jaws flashed in a massive spray of water. The sharp points of the weapons grazed the hound's spotted neck just above his metal collar, missing their target by inches as the quick canine managed a quick dodge. But the shark's bite still grabbed hold of one of the many chains that weighed down his light body and, without proper footing in the slick mud of the bank, the hound was dragged down into the lake with little commotion...

[Nurumaji]

The cat was swimming her way furiously now, her long, whip-like tail swerving back and fourth like a crocodile's. The digits in her paws spread, although there was no gap in between them. That was one of the good traits about being aquatic: you were adapted for water movement, as well as land if you were like Nuru.

It was dark now, so there wasn't light fading down from the surface. Nurumaji's eyes were as wide as she could get them with her eyelids still down. The hellcat was about fifteen feet away from the hound and the shadow. She froze when she realized what the shadow was. "Shark..." She whispered, a few bubbles sailing from her mouth.

Nurumaji had no idea that that thing was sharing the lake as a home with her. She instantly felt cold, as if remembering all the times she had thought there was something quite large in the water with her.

But what about the hellhound? Normally, Nurumaji would have just let the shark take him and finish off the remains when the shark was done with him. But wouldn't the shark come after her next? The feline made up her mind and sped up, traveling surprisingly fast for something as strange as her appearance.

Somehow, Nurumaji managed to vault herself a few feet out of the water. Her front legs braced themselves as she collided with the shark, claws extended and sinking into its sides. Of course, the shark was taken by surprise and threw its chunky head backward, dragging River up with him by the chain buried inside him.

Nuru hissed at the shark, and was thrown off balance. Her hind legs slipped off the large aquatic predator, although they left eight, red gagged gashes in its side.

ooc- Sorry its crap.

[River]

((It's not crap. I liked it. ^^))

Wouldn't you know it?

It would be him the shark was coming after. Out of all the creatures that came down to this very lake, out of all the deer and elk and what have you, even with a cat swimming in the same waters with it, it had to come up and get him, didn't it?

Where most creatures would think of their families, their lives and what they wished they could've done, the rather morbid hound thought only of his misfortune. He had no family that he was aware of, his life sucked and the only thing he wanted to do was get revenge. Not exactly the most exciting thoughts for your last moments...

So, instead, he brooded silently to himself as the shark whipped him around painfully by the chain in his side. Enough thrashing would rip the bolts right out of his chest, tearing his diaphragm and destroying his ribcage in the process, not to mention any other internal organs that might be in the way. So, the hound did minimal struggling, simply allowing the shark to whip him under the water...

It seemed distressed by something...

However, his night-vision sight was unable to function in the water and the brute was forced to close his eyes tightly to keep moisture out. Even though he couldn't see, the shark's motions were rather obvious to the hound, as the rather large fish dragged him down toward the lake bottom, thrashing and whipping about in an attempt to throw the hellcat off its side.