For lost innocence

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I'm assuming the glint is the pools but in case I'm wrong he's just chilling and hasn't seen her yet

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Something new every day, that's what true adventure brought. Raiden could say he's seen a good amount, but pools of gold? No, that was new. They shimmered even under the night sky, specs of... water? Light? Dancing above the still pools. It was magical. If Raiden hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he'd never believed it, and frankly, he was finding it hard to anyway. Would he sound crazy when he told his mother? So many questions and no one to ask.

Was it worth risking a dip of his paw? Was it consumable? Or would any attempts to steal a part of the unknown take the life from his bones just as fast as a poor bug beneath his paw? He was curious, but he was taught early the consequences of curiosity. If only his uncle were here, perhaps then he might at least know why the water took another hue. @Jarilo had always been able to answer his boundless questions as a boy.

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Look what the tide spat back out.

A noise whipped her into a hunters prowl before distance could be made from the waters. A man, cloaked in an oakland pelt. Bird in the cage. One little birdy. Birdy with the wings all clipped and feathers all spattered about the floor.

Then there were two. One leashed by curiosity in the eyes. 

The other led by salt pushed up in the wound.

She was watching. Feather-steps, silent, treading along the natural curve of the stones that trapped them in together like animals. 

Her chest fired fierce beats across her skin. Nauseating, sickly drums. Bleary eyes were forced into feral pins on the wolfman, watching the scan of his own wade across the water. But she was struggling to breathe right, peering through stone and trying to hide away in its darkness, and left with oh, so little coverage. ​No good nose to smell right with when it had been pooled by water and was a broken mess anyways. Didn't work now. She tried and tried, and it still did not work. Couldn't smell right.

Grew harder to see again between the blur across her waterline and between the veiny reds of her strained eyes. No, and the sound of his breathing, steps, they were not familiar. The buzzing here wasn't familiar. The colors along his back were nothing the same. He didn't wear the skin of a sand dweller. Angry. Angry, angry, angry! Miserable. Miserable imp. Her lip wobbled and she cowered down in a fit, before beginning to press forward. Closer.

She was not in the belly of the desert any longer. Where was she?

And who was he?

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Curiosity drew the man's nose down, an inch from the golden hue, as he peered into the glowing shallows for anything that might live beneath the surface. Anything that still breathed life. With the moon above, it was difficult to see anything but his own reflection, but perhaps that was a blessing. It was grounding, a reminder that even beyond the odd hue, this water— liquid was just that. And he was a man in an unfamiliar land.

Something in the night shifted, inky like the sky above but slinking in an unkind manner. Raiden's ear twitched toward the sound of a soft step, his head shooting up to follow suit as he peered toward his company. “Who goes there? If you are a friend, you have no need to lurk in shadows.” His tone was commanding but offered kindness should his stranger do the same. The man of thunder took a step back away from the mysterious pools, his stance wide, ready should he be met with fangs.

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Little kitty under the rafters couldn't stay dead.

Couldn't stay gone.

Couldn't stay hidden.

Caught.

The arabian's ears were drooped, pointed muzzle beginning to retreat towards her shoulder as two bloodshot eyes tried to fixate on the man ahead. A wrist lifted to shield her chest, and in the next moment, the little devil moved fast. A tall stand closer to the stranger that still maintained a distance, but not for long.
"Who are you?"

Closer she moved. She smelled of the waters and the gold from the pool had lost much of its color on her. Subtle glimmers that only dragged down whatever weight she had built up on her. Tail too heavy to lift right. Ears too heavy to hold right. 

That posture dropped again, heavy breathing, heart racing. Stinging eyes. Water still felt like it filled her lungs and it tried hard to snort out her nose in ragged breaths. Soaked fur, cold to her skin. Miniature in the face of the man even now, and yet still she stood as a shattered bull. Angry, hard to see. Shivering legs and trying to make out who– who he was supposed to be. Didn't recognize him even with closing much of the distance like she had. 

Just a lost pet who had nowhere to go.
Legend was terrified.

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I am sooooooooooo sorry for the wait I've been juggling leadership/recruitment threads in the free time I have had to post

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The woman rushed him from the leaching darkness, a sylph wound, and spun from the night air as she closed the gap. Raiden took a defensive step back and squared stance, bracing for some impact, though it never came, nor the glint of fangs that caused him to hide his own. However, his lip would curl uncomfortably as his space was near invaded. Up close he could make out her sodden frame better. Her size suggested she was an adult, small as that may be, but her ears brought a childish appearance.

Who are you?

“The same could be said to you.” His shoulders relaxed as Raiden made the assessment to lower his guard. This woman looked wild, but she was cold and wet on winter nights. “Raiden... I will not harm you.” Her stare was wide and bloodshot, perhaps from the sea or maybe the tainted pools, “Are you alright? A bit cold for a dip.” He spoke in warm tones, the joke on his lips a bit too serious to grab the humor of it. Only the truth.
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