Otter Creek untroubling and untroubled where i lie

as he walked in step behind her, his gaze fell to the weave of each slender hip. an old hunger gripped him, monstrous and infernal -- his step faltered.

he could continue to follow her, and he knew what would happen next. it would not be the liaison she would expect -- and for that, despite the insurgence of primal violence that clotted his mind and cloyed his senses, iliksis drew to a stop.

she had turned around to face him then, and he thought he saw in the deep turquoise of her eye's flat depth his own future reflection, fractured by dark pools of fear or pain. she was not afraid now, but she would be -- his blood hammered, its course so resounding that he felt it pound beyond the meaty gristle behind his eyes.

iliksis had wanted many things in his life. some he had gotten, others he had taken or stolen -- but he would not defile this. determined, and terrified by the roaring incubus that rose its ugly head in his emotions, iliksis fled relmyna's presence.