Moonspear beating wings they whisper, a baby's breath

arcturus felt his body still, suddenly aware of the world around him as if he had been pulled out from some strange reverie; the cool water swept around him and he was aware of a subtle current that played along his toys. his paws felt the flat, smooth surface of the river-stones, the scintillating glint of sunlight on the water that rippled in the far banks, the steady breathing of the honeycomb-hued wolf besides him, the quiet sigh of reeds bent in the wind, and besides him, the subtle ripples of water reflecting off of his stilled body and leaping ever outward.

his eyes were the only part of him unbroken by immobility: stern as the glissading features of a crocodile parting water, he drifted towards the shadowed reeds soundlessly. ahead of him in that shaded egress hes saw the fat form of a bullfrog reclining on a brilliantly green lily-pad, its thick fingers splayed out and soft white throat pulsing as it watched the world with two spherical, liquid amber eyes.

he drew closer, closer -- a shadow descending on that arch of ropy water-reeds and tall cattails. the bullfrog tracked his doom's approach with a languid sort of indifference, and just as the boy felt victory was certain in his grasps, its speckled form slipped casually from its plantly throne and all that was left was a lily rising in insouciant bobbles in its place.