I feel the static of a shadow in your place,
I see a savage in the still upon your face.

Echidna doesn’t flinch.
Her skin is tough, at least for now.

In this quiet forest, she takes a deep breath and she lets herself float on the surface of her own emotions. If she thinks too far back, she remembers it’s all her fault. Every bad thing. All those places before Knell, the times she’d failed him –

Echidna wishes things could have been different, that she could go back and fix all the things she broke between them. But they only went forward, never back. Their lives somewhere tangled together in the strangest way, she can’t quite explain why it must be this way, so she accepts it for what it is. Her dirty hands run through her hair, exhales slowly. If he could only see how she felt inside, all the regret and guilt that she kept pushed down.

He was right. Who were they anymore? Echidna wrinkles her nose, her eyebrows knit together in thought. She concentrates on what he’s saying.

“I’d like that,” Echidna says.

Her dark eyes roam over his face and her hair goes from black to a pale blue. Sometimes she couldn’t control the color changes, especially when she was going through emotions in rapid succession. Echidna tilts her head and hair falls into her eyes, she gives him the slightest smile because it’s all she can muster. This sort of on the edge expression.

And then she shifts into her jaguar form. The large cat stretches lazily before coming over to walk around him, her tail sliding under his chin. Echidna sits down beside him, turns her sleek head in his direction – her eyes glow. Does he remember the good times between them? The hunts they used to take, the blood and carnage, the total freedom?

She watches him with slow blinking eyes, her tongue licking at her jaws.

“Do you still hunt or are you afraid you can't keep up?” Her voice is silky and smooth, on the border of teasing. Echidna uses her large paw to wipe at her face, in this huge forest there must be something good to eat.