Blackfeather Woods [m] The world laughed at any attempts we made to exist in it without pain

His teeth raked through Xan's ear and caught some bits of it, which were spat out immediately beside Xan's face. He didn't know nor care how much of it he got; the only thing that mattered was for Alexander to have a permanent reminder of this day. Yet he did not intend to stop there. The absence of emotions in his mind frightened Cicero — ironically so — and he felt his mind clouded, almost as if he too had eaten from the jimson weed. Yet he fought to keep the beast at bay. It was a tragic truth that the more control he physically gained, the less in control he felt. This was exactly what Sheogorath did to those around him, he knew; control them, even if it were by making others hurt him in some way.

He wondered if that was what had happened with Alexander that day, but he didn't know, he didn't remember; he just knew that it was Alexander that'd done it, somehow.

"You know who he is," Cicero said with an icy calmth, halting a moment to think. Then, as if suddenly triggered, he shot forward again after Xan's cries for mercy. It was too late for that, he knew; this needed to happen, had to happen. "It is too late for that, Alexander," he hissed in the remains of Xan's ear, then moving his teeth to hover along the side of his neck, bared, a growl rumbling in the depth of his throat. He wasn't really intending to kill Xan — but the boy had to know that he could. Moments later teeth snapped shut along his guard hairs and he moved on to grab Alexander's scruff roughly between his teeth and placed a paw on his back as premise of what was to come.