Dragoncrest Cliffs Close your eyes and sleep,

if mahler/jackalope fight continues after this feel free to skip me until it's done :)

blood

it sprays across his muzzle under the cut of his teeth and he comes forward, steady, flat unblinking gleam of his eyes and tastes it spreading over the water –

a crippled seabird no teeth to bite no wings to fly but it panics, it staggers away and the earth crumbles out from beneath it and it

falls

the young shark’s teeth come down on empty air he wheels backwards, blood running from his chin

and the squid-ink kraken comes after a blur of furious black shoulder and leg streaming red swallowed by the wind

gone.

he turns, lists to the side, shoulder throbbing adrenaline bleeding out of him but there are still snapping jaws ahead and there is still blood in his nose, still painted over his fur and,

there is something he needs

there is something –

his jaws snap together. his sides heave. a tiny seasalt thing smoothed by the rain, stained red, he takes a wobbly step,

and his shoulder gives way under him and sends him sprawling to the ground.