Otatso Wetlands azure

He’d been unable to take it anymore.

The eyes, gentle upon him. The words. Aquillius had needed to get away. Doedapple had extracted a promise from him to “come back in one stupid piece”. He’d agreed just to get out of there before he started chewing his own ears off at the platitudes.

So he left. Traveling until his legs burned with exertion, until his ribs ached. But it felt good, getting out, running, hunting just for himself instead of trying to fulfill a debt that wasn’t his to take on. Aquillius hadn’t ever truly explored alone before. He’d always had some destination in mind.

Now, he just wanted to go where the wind pulled him for a day or two.

Which was here, knee deep in the wetlands. Like an alligator, smoothly gliding through the dark with his single gleaming eye to mark him. He pulled himself onto land, after a moment, ignoring the drips off his coat in favor of eyeing the water, searching for the flash of scales.