She didn’t have anything holding her here. No job, no goals, no real desire. It was a peaceful kind of numbness to not be responsible for anything. In this world, she wasn’t accountable and even less so now that they’d decided to be friends. In truth, Quinn was the only thing that kept her here for right now. Their new friendship was enough to at least make her try, otherwise she was enjoying just laying around in the forest. There were a lot of good trees to make home and a couple small caves and rock features, lots of good hunting, too. Echidna had no reason to leave this place because she had no interest in working or making a name for herself in this world. She was perfectly happy being alone in woods.

Echidna wasn’t much on her crocodile form when she was younger. It was clunky and cold, she didn’t like hunting process. She much preferred being a cat, which was quite the strange sensation in her mind because the crocodile wanted water and the jaguar was iffy at best. It was like having two waring species in her mind, though the jaguar was stronger from the years she’d spent in that form. But she was curious about the crocodile anyway, it was different, it made her wonder what else she might be able to do. She hadn’t done too much with it yet but so far, it was like she remembered it being.

There’d never been an emphasis on this form, even when she was under the care of her nanny back when she lived in the snow. Obviously, a crocodile in the cold was useless. But in the forest, it did okay. Echidna didn’t exactly expect him to come wandering in today but it was a pleasant surprise and at least she could show him this. She can see the apprehension in his eyes at first, the instinct to shy away from the predatory species. It’s almost amusing. When she asks him about what he thought, about the teeth, she can see the switch flip in her brain. He looks partially amused about the whole thing and he comes closer to get a better look, lets his fingers slide over some of her bigger teeth.

She holds back the instinct to snap, it’s strong in this body. An automatic trigger that she has to be aware of with his hand in her mouth because really wasn’t interested in taking off any of his fingers. When he asks her if it’s fun, Echidna settles down into the mud a little more. It’s different from the others. A bit lazier, less inclined to action. She says to him and her eyes blink slowly like she’s trying to make a point. The hunting isn’t as fun either, which, I’m not too fond of being submerged in water all day.

Echidna exhales a rattling breath and then shifts herself into her jaguar form. She half sprints from the bank, her tail tucked but still dripping water. She growls under her breath, sits down to lick at the tip of her tail to clean it off. This one I like much better, Echidna says and shakes out her blocky head. But really, I’m not sure where the croc came from all of sudden. Haven’t been able to shift into that form since I was a kid but back then it was kind of useless because I lived in the coldest place in the whole world.

She tries to forget about the North sometimes but it’s always there, in the back of her mind. It waits in the shadows and springs out at her sometimes when she least expects it. The jaguar lays down and rolls onto her back, contorting herself in various shapes, her greenish eyes blinking up at him wondering what might be on his mind.