Common

CW - Mild gore and character death allusions. Asmodeus is not eligible to be claimed.

Asmodeus had never felt more grateful for the ocean than he did as he stumbled his way ashore on the Crossing, his limbs and body fatigued. The water had washed away the evidence of what he had done, scouring the blood freckles until only his own patchwork coat remained, but the stain of it remained on his soul. He would have felt safer fleeing directly to the Desert, but he lacked both the energy and mental stability to journey so far after what he had done.

And what he had done sat so heavily on his mind that it threatened to crush him beneath its weight.

He blinked blearily at his surroundings as he shuffled his way up the unfamiliar beach, knowing where he was but not recognizing it until he spotted the harsh outline of the Vulcan Peak. Asmodeus had gone out of his way to swim southwest rather than southeast from Tinuvel, knowing that any unexpected action he could take now would lessen the risk of him being followed by the Cove's Queens.

The thought of Xiomara finding him after what he'd done made his throat close and his eyes go wide and wild, panic throttling both his breath and his train of thought. His mother would hate him, if she didn't already. He'd certainly done enough to earn her ire by going with Nyimara, and until this moment, the knowledge hadn't ever truly bothered him after what his father had done.

But she was the only parent he had left now.

A dry sob wracked its way through his tired body and he stumbled for a moment, somehow having lurched his way up the beach and into the rim of trees that surrounded the Commons. His shoulder pressed into a lean tree with enough force that a few dry leaves dislodged from above, sprinkling down around him and making him flinch as they brushed against his patchwork coat.

The Desert King's head lowered to the ground, muzzle in the mud, and he moaned softly. What had he done?

Adult Stallion 16.0HClassic Champagne ChimeraSolomon x Xiomara