Ankyra Sound I am the mask you wear

cries of seagull pierced a hollow descant, banshies shrieking above the drum of metronome waves. it was a particularly blustering morning. inshore, resident orcas rollicked in the whitecaps. Lycaon sat reticent atop the siltstone overlooking the inlet, watching as they played and breached with stygian fins slicing across the surface and spouting fine mists into the air. he'd often watch them--perhaps the same pod, as he had come to recognize particular members of the unit--as a child, and consider what it might be like to join them. it was a piece of enjoyment he'd never shared with anyone -- it felt secretive and special and meant uniquely for his eyes.

he recalled early mornings of furtive retreat from the grotto, whist withdrawal from Caiaphas' somnolent flank, to slake his intrigue with the animals as they hunted. this time, he observed them at dusk. instead of hunting, they seemed to play with one another -- lobbing the surface with their flukes and rolling to reveal their white bellies and spyhopping to watch seagulls swoop and dive abovehead.

Caiaphas' return meant a wane in Lycaon's megrims to some extent, though in no meaningful way -- resentment bent upon the influence that female had exerted over Ingram. resentment and  feelings of betrayal inflowed from old and unhealed wounds freshly dehiscenced.

as Wylla sifted a path above the strand, her scent wiffled under his nose. he could not distinguish why, but something was different about it -- it wasn't necessarily familarity, in the sense that he could recognize Ingram coming from a mile upshore, but as with Caiaphas, it bore a faint kindling of recognition. fainter this time, even. so faint he didn't recognize the receipt of its purchase in his memory. 

he picked down the rockface with sluggish effort, mostly slip-sliding his way to the bottom. the interloper hadn't surfaced from the leviathan forest, but he could see shadows skewing and flexing in the dimness therein and began keeping pace alongside it from the strand. "looking for girls on the beach to creep on, huh pal? unfortunately, you just get me. though i am, admittedly, very bodacious." he hollered into the forest, eyes straining to make heads or tails of the figure distorting the darkness. "so very bodacious. don't you want a closer look?"