He lived in a constant state of curiosity and intrigue, and although Atakask had promised Riumrix that if he had stayed around the water’s edge long enough he would be likely to see a vampire, Riumrix was not one of the most patient vargs in the world. It seemed like such a petty thing to lie about it, but really what did Riumrix know about Atakask? It was entirely possible that she had made the whole thing up… or at least that had been Rix’s thought until he had come across a different type of being all together. What reason did Atakask have for lying? None at all other than for her own amusement at manipulating a stranger. But she had already managed to manipulate him well enough merely with her charm and wiles. And so he had started searching out for either of the two things that Atakask had told him about – either the rainbow hued wolves or else the bloodsucking vampires. But he had not caught a single sniff of anything strange. Then again, when he had come upon the beauteous blue eyed wonder, she had not smelled any different either. Well, that was not exactly true – her scent was intoxicating, drawing him closer and closer with every breath. And really, scents were so much more intricate for Riumrix, given that he tasted flavors on the air in much more detail than did normal wolves given his forked tongue and enhanced senses.

At any rate, despite his new fascination with the she wolf, nothing would divert his neverending curiosity. Always was the Exotican hungry for new information about the world that he lived in, be it cultures, ideologies, or the actual physiologies of the beings that walked around him. Riumrix hunted as he went, taking down whatever prey he came upon day by day. Usually it was something smaller, scared by his wanderings, that fled suddenly from him, thereby catching his attention – coneys, voles, squirrels, small little meals. Sometimes he fed on birds, ones that were too lazy in their surveillance to even notice his presence, or took flight too slowly to evade his attack. These all worked as snacks really – holding him over but never really sating his hunger. But at one point, he had gotten lucky. Whilst travelling through the swamp, at one point his paw had slipped into the water, disturbing it enough to send a swelling set of ripples outward… which had triggered the next set of events.

A caiman, large enough and hungry enough to think that attacking a wolf would be worth it, had lunged out of the water toward Riumrix. With a snort and a smile of contempt, Rix had leapt back into a crouch, all of his muscles tightened in anticipation of the need for sudden movement. The caiman had landed and hissed, its maw agape, ready to snap again and Riumrix whipped his elongated tail in front of the reptilian, distracting it, all the while keeping the rest of his body still. The caiman had lunged again, this time aiming for Rix’s baiting tail and missing poorly. But Riumrix missed nothing. The moment that the caiman lunged upward, Riumrix moved in for the kill, his jaw wrapping around the touch scaled flesh of the predator’s nape, and clamping down as hard as he could. The caiman began to gator roll, attempting to get into a position in which it could bite Riumrix back, but its movement proved to be its fatal mistake – it allowed Rix’s teeth to sink deeper and deeper until a final thrash shook Riumrix off, but it was at the cost of the caiman’s life. The exotican’s teeth had torn out the deep tissues, and the exotican watched with hungry eyes as it started to slip back into the murky waters, dying the liquid a dark crimson red. The brute clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Tsk tsk tsk, this will never do!” Riumrix strode into the water and latched onto its now closed jaws and began to drag it out. And that was when a scent finally crossed the boundary – one that he recognized – that of a pack. With a crooked grin, he heaved and tossed the caimen to drape across his back perpendicularly, its long tail trailing on the ground behind them as he walked through the swamp, more careful now to now slip into the waters again. And when he finally came upon the territory, he saw three standing vargs and one collapsed on the floor, drugged. Riumrix slung the caiman to the ground, belly up, and began to gnaw on its flesh hungrily. His eyes turned to the two wolves with red eyes before shifting to the colorful wolf on the ground.

“Let me guess…you two are vampires, and that is a ‘rainbow’? Curiouser and curiouser.” He extended a paw. “Where are my manners, would any of you care for a bite?”


Word Count: 821