I can smell her.
The sweet stench weasels its way into my slumber and pry’s open my eyes to the thorny thicket around me. Vines zigzag across my view as they climb and partially strangle the tree limbs under which I have sought refuge. Beyond the vines my waking mind grabs at her movement, a snippet of white falling into the darkness that leads away from the Lagoon. Without much consideration I drop my skull and push slowly through the thorns.

Opening my lungs and drawing in the atmosphere I catch her fading scent in the air. Subconsciously I curl my greying upper lip, exposing my pale gums and yellow stained teeth and pushing the smell of her deeper into my nose. I prick my towers forward at the sound of a distant call, though faint I gather its source is somewhere behind me and probably responsible for the masculine fragrance that is tangled in with the dames. I assume that the call was intended for the fleeing lass and a mischievous grin conquers my face as I quicken my step after her. A lovers tiff perhaps? Working my stocky frame through the tightly knit scrub I try to remain quiet, gaining on the girl slowly. She should know better than to be in the Lagoon by herself, and I should know better than to stalk her but given the time and the place, one can’t be blamed for their instinct.

A flitter in my chest when I can finally lay my dark menacing eyes on her pretty hide, standing in a clearing and making it all the more easier for me to do what I must. Walking slowly, one large hoof in front of the other, I snake alongside the loner and drink in the marvellous sight. ”Are you alright love?” I break the silence but do not wait for her reply. I know she isn’t. ”A pretty thing like you should know better than to come here unaccompanied, but you alright now. I’ve got ya” I state through the corner of my grin, my tone gruff and a little too revealing of my true thoughts. I suck in the air around her and suddenly I can feel every drop of blood that flows through my veins. The sight of her alone, scared and totally vulnerable paired with her intoxicating perfume and the fact that I haven’t had myself a woman in years almost send me mad and with movements quicker than my logic, I reach for the base of her pearl white neck with my dirty grass stained teeth.