WHEN I BEHAVED TWENTY-FIVE / Open, Feral

EVERY GRIN WE SHARE IS LIKE.
"speech." . 'thoughts' . attack

If he had it together enough, he would know that he must have had a lapse in his sanity or the like. No sane creature would be doing as he was. Hell, the only reason he was here, doing any of this, was because of Ares. His daughter, though not of blood or official straits. Coughing, blood covering his tongue as he choked on air, nose clogged with the rich liquid. Choking and coughing, tears squeezing from his eyes as he struggled to keep himself in the land of the aware.

Chanting to himself the mantras he used when he was once a student of the ways of the Grim, when he was but a young man years, eons, lifetimes ago. These words filled his mind with the calm that was fleeting him at the instinctual fear of drowning in his own blood, the calm that he needed to get through with this. His fears were irrational but he'd never felt so ... so mortal. Inhaling as he could barely pay attention to the sounds that she made, eyes fuzzily focused on her beak as broken pieced words escaped her. Closing his eyes as he swayed, trying to keep himself upright, letting her sword skin in before the world was shattered by the sound of bone on wood.

Fur bristling as he forced his eyes to open, greeted by the sight of Ares slammed her head, speechless as his mind processed the words she'd spoken. This was his child, the words were enough to assure him. Swallowing thickly around a tongue to swollen to speak, jaws aching as he stumbled over his fat tongue and looping mind, "Little one ... it's gonna be okay ...", voice all but a whisper, strength fading too quickly for him. Forelegs inching forward until they gave out, closing his eyes as he groaned in agony, muzzle digging into the mud, "I'm sorry, little one. I couldn't protect you ...", he croaked, raising his head just enough from the mud to gaze at her through foggy eyes, From yourself, or from the world., he finished within his mind as the fuzzy darkness that swallowed all of his senses swallowed him whole in a warm loving embrace. With that, his consciousness faded, one paw reached out towards her direction with a sense of sadness and longing to comfort her. If only his body had been stronger.

// out, passed out not dead dw //

A PRAYER COMMITTED TO THE SONG WE SING.
aesior opheles of tanglewood. -- grim - feline shifter.

credit @/teef