Dragoncrest Cliffs Close your eyes and sleep,

removed from the blind animal impulse, yunxu’s head swims. his heartbeat pulses all the way down to his shoulder as he struggles to stand, and the pain is so overwhelming he has to stop, curled in on himself, and take several slow breaths.

a shame to ruin all of aimi’s hard work, he thinks hysterically.

heavy footsteps fade into the rain. something else rises over him, a great shadow under the water, and yunxu is halfway to his feet, ignoring the searing ache that runs all the way down to his toes, before he remembers the second of conversation before all of this.

“是 –” yunxu’s voice catches in his throat. he swallows, staring at the gargoyle’s face; dripping blood from his lip, his brow, his ear, the ragged bite in his shoulder. “yes. did i –”

he turns his head. behind him, there is only empty sky.

cold realization rises in the back of his mind, and is immediately tamped down by the next figure to come charging in, roaring at the top of his lungs and nearly knocking yunxu over in his haste to reach the bluff’s edge.

the young shark’s hackles make a valiant effort to rise again, but the heavy throb in his shoulder reminds him of just what had happened before. discretion is the better part of valor and he has no valor to begin with, just…

…whatever it is that just drove someone off a cliff.

yunxu looks anxiously after the stone-grey leviathan pacing back and forth over the edge, waiting for him to find the body surely broken on the rocks below.

nausea curls in his the pit of his stomach. his mouth tastes overwhelmingly of blood.