The birds chirped behind him, enjoying the balmy summer weather, there was the crash of the water on the cliffs further down the shore, gulls cawed as they fought over food. Riumrix found himself chest deep in the ocean, the water nearly reaching his withers. The giant Exotican inhaled deeply and tightly shut his lids before submerging his head under the water. There was a quiet ’whoosh’ as his cranium displaced the water and it flushed into his ear canals, but once the echoing ripples quieted there was nothing else. The water stifled the sounds of the beach and the woods behind him, and all that there was left was that almost imperceivable sound of the water shifting the sand with its waxing and waning waves. Everything else dulled. It is low tide still, and so Riumrix had had to pace out a decent bit in order to get deep enough, but now that he was out here it was all worth it - it was the perfect time to lose himself to everything. Low tide meant smaller waves and thus less undertow and less distractions, and really all Rix wanted was some peace and quiet to think through everything. He needed to focus, to figure out what his next step should be. It has been over a year since he has arrived here, and although he met up with his Deus once, that was months ago, and Hyperion had not been heard from since. Nor had Riumrix seen any of his comrades at arms, none a single one of the other Exoticans tasked with inhabiting this land. The entire plan had gone to shit, and he did not exactly have a plan B ready other than to continue wracking up a body count to ensure a very leisurely comfortable afterlife. Riumrix could of course go back to his homeland, but if he survived and his Deus somehow had died, he would be considered as a failure. He could remain here… for the most fatal blow his dream afterlife would be if he returned empty-handed. All in all, failure was off the table… So he had to figure out a plan to succeed.

Atakask had been clouding his vision, his thoughts. She was openly seductive, without any shame. She worried nothing about what he might do to her, about the consequences that could occur should they pair, and her brazenness had been admittedly distracting, the way that she so openly offered to relieve his sexual tension. “Damn.” The word came out only has two giant bubbles, and Rix pulled his head back and up out of the water, splashing everything around him including himself. The entire point of the roughly made water isolation chamber had been to ignore her and block her from his thoughts, to let her slip from his mind, but it seemed that she had her hooks in his mind quite deeply. He could not exactly blame himself - after all, she was beautiful indeed, but more than that she was an interesting and curious figure. Even past that, it had been quite a while since he had killed anyone or slept with anyone, so he was even more pent up. But back to Atakask - she came from a land where they did things very differently, where they made… Tools of a sort, where they washed themselves with fragrance that was apparently attractive to others. In his line of work… It did not make sense. Smelling like a pretty little flower would not help him at all to killing countless others especially considering as it would likely give away his position. But even the way that her kingdom was run was different, and Riumrix, being an intellectual along with being a warrior, wanted to figure out the puzzle that was Atakask.

Rix shook his head, sending the water from the hair above his eyes and from the rest of his dampened coat before he turned around and started to head back to shore. As he emerged, long streams of the saltine tears dropped from her belly. Already, the warm summer sun was heating back up, taking the chill of the ocean‘s water from him along his dorsum at least for now. It would not be long until he was dry, especially given how much shorter his coat was along his body than most other wolves. This was, in fact, his preferable season. This was the time when he was most comfortable in this strange place that had much colder seasons than did his homeland. And so, he had headed up the beach until Rix reached the place where thin wispy grasses infiltrated the salt, and it was there that he laid down, settling amongst the soft ground. The sound of the reeds and the tall grasses rubbing against each other at least made some white noise for him, and he closed his eyes and crossed his paws over one another, his chin coming to rest upon his carpi.

He could stay, or he could go. That was the first decision he had to make. If he returned home, he would face the judgment of his people, be considered a failure for the loss of his Deus, and likely then be exiled and marked as a Proditor. And that simply was not a future he wished to have… And so he was left with the option of staying here. He could search out his Deus and the others, but that seemed like quite the definition of insanity - he had been doing that for months already, and ha gotten nowhere, more time wouldn’t change that. Why should he think that anything would change now? He could make this his own home, essentially marking himself as an exile, but with the intent of staying there only long enough to find his Deus.… Or… If he found the others but not his Deus, he could consider attempting to become a Deus himself. Rix raised an eyebrow and lifted the lid. It was a thought… It was a thought. But in order for that to work, he would still have to find more of his own people, so still he was left with the waiting game. And yet he found himself not horribly upset at that. All of his life he had lived among the Exotixans, and when they had infiltrated this place, it had been with a plan. But plans failed, things changed, yet still his fate would be his own. Why would his destiny and fat rest upon the happenings of the others in his troupe? It really didn’t have to…

Finally content with his decision, he stood and stretched out. Already the sun had moved from the horizon to directly overhead of him. He had been laying in the grass for hours, contemplating everything and he was toasty warm. A giant yawn opened his mouth as he exhaled, and he pulled his way forward, starting to head back to the wood. In his next breath, as his forked tongue tasted of the air, he realize he tasted wolf upon it. He placed his most charming smile upon his maw and turned to face whoever was approaching him.

“Well, hello there, Madame. I must say that the water was a pleasant temperature for a dip if you don’t mind a slight chill. The summer sun makes it all worth it in the end should you choose to bask in it after. My name is Riumrix … You are… Quite unique. Why do your eyes glow the way they do? I have never seen anything like it.” Riumrix thought back to what Atakask had told him about the vampires and the rainbow hues wolves, but there was no way that this exquisite specimen was either of those. Unbeknownst to him, magic from the water had seeped in through his mucus membranes and had contaminated his mind, releasing endorphins at the sight of her. “What are you?” it was as if she had immediately captivated him, and all concerns about his future, all curiosity about Atakask vanished. But still he remained his charm and his manners. “I apologize for being so intrusive, but truly I have never seen anyone before with such captivating eyes. I am not from here and I must... I would be honored if you graced me with your name.” All the while, his own gaze grazed over her body hungrily, taking in every aspect of her.

WC: 1410