my eyes deceive

Something stirred in the water.

Old and otherworldly, a primordial thing come to surface from deep below. One would not know that he surely had not always been there. That this was like a rebirth. He moved with a fluidness more becoming an alligator than a canine. Head breaking the surface first so that his nose could breach and he might find his first breaths.

The lily pads swayed around him as the morning light shined across the lake's surface. He had disturbed whatever serenity often claimed this water way.

There was a hunger and a loneliness that rose within him though as he looked around. He had risen into such a beautiful world — alone. Was that what was intended for paradise?

He weaved through the waters and made way for the blossom lined shores.

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They lingered here, she and her quickly growing Javert. The boy was so large already, and he didn’t seem to stop increasing in size. Were she not so sure of his sweet soul, or of her trust in him, then she might have been a touch intimidated by even her own son. But he was a gentle giant, a striking resemblance to another sweet boy she had once known and mothered.

Her reverie broke just as the name neared the precipice of her surface memory, only to slip away as she was distracted by a sound nearby. Silverslip form froze, ears swiveling to listen and watch as the water near her rippled with an unseen disturbance. The petite woman took a step or two backwards, hackles along her back raising in instinct as the creature rose from the water, bedraggled and nightmarish.
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She was small, a wisp of pale colors along the brilliant emerald shore.

He had not meant to target her but it happened nonetheless. His path fixed to her location as he moved closer and closer to the shoreline. Crocodilian still with his movements. Watchful of her with her raised hackles.

Was she scared?

It had not been his intention and he stopped short of land. Elbow deep in the water, tangles of fur hung low and long with the weight of the lake still upon him. Tall ears stood upright as he gazed upon her.

He had wanted to say a word but his voice escaped him from a moment, only a low sound instead. Certainly not a growl but not a real word either.

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The longer she watched it, him, the more she could make sense of the form that had risen from the shallow depths of the terrace. Had she not fallen from the sky her first time in this land, Jesuite likely would have been all manners of confused. She had though, straight from the blue blue sky and into the depths of a lake, so who was to say that the reverse could not be true?

Still, she watched the brute carefully, backing up another few steps not out of fear but to give him space and allow him access to dry land. “Are you alright?” She would ask, voice trepiditious but gentle. Warm. He had just awoken, it seemed, in a strange place and a stranger manner.
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She was thoughtful to ask after a stranger, a beast risen from the waters. What if he had been less kind? It was not his place to worry about her but he did all the same.

“I think...so.”

His own voice remained deep, but warmed too. Orange eyes blinked as he looked around them. The sprawling paradise. He swore he saw the figure of another large creature in the distance, dark hooded and oddly shaped. It was too far to be of worry though.

“You live here?”

If he has risen in the middle of her home, he would certainly understand her hesitancy at his arrival.

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He was sane, it seemed. Enough to answer her, enough to take in his surroundings and ask a question. A promising start, a tenuous inkling that he would not attack or become aggressive yet.

“No. I live the life of a nomad,” She would answer, speaking only of herself instead of her son, too. This man had no need to be aware of his existence, and so Jesuite would keep that secret for now. Only time would tell if she would share it with him.

“Are you enjoying the water?” It was asked with a soft, amused smile. The waters here were comfortable, a pleasing temperature even this early in the morning, so she would not have been surprised if he was content to linger in it. A juxtaposed picture before her of a beast, a hellhound, surrounded by the lily pads and succulents.
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The water.

He looked around his thick limbs, as if he had not given second thought to emerging from some kind of infinite depth. He felt one with it. Perhaps not as murky as he longed for but the lily pads offered shelter in a way he appreciated. As if he belonged beneath the surface.

“I always have.” The barest ghost of a smile on his lips. Always was how long? He felt older than this form, than this new place. Regardless he brought his gaze back to her. “You are nomad of the land, me of the water.” There was humor in the deep tones of his voice.

“What is your name?”

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He always had. He remembered his life from before, then? Jesuite found herself jealous, a beast that writhed in her belly and her chest, green and black, darker than all the other emotions that swirled within her. Her expression didn’t change much, though the ever present somber glint to her eyes deepened just a touch.

He did look quite at home in the water, though; that, she could no deny, monster though he may have looked. He didn’t act as one, though, which led the woman to let herself relax a bit, guard hairs smoothing out a bit.

“Jesuite,” She would answer him, a small smile gracing her maw. “And you, nomad of the depths?” A gentle jest in return.
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Jesuite, not so fragile a name it would crumble in his mouth, but it left a sweet taste along his tongue.

“Jesuite,” Out loud now with a warmth in his chest where the water lapped at it too. His eyes softened into wrinkles at the edges with a toothy grin pulled across his features. How nice his title was as it ran across her vocal chords.

Was it his title? Surely, but it sounded new and refreshed from her.

“Dagoth. Hardly as well-placed as yours, nomad of land.”

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She could only offer a soft laugh. “Well-placed, or mis-placed?” For she had always felt as if she was walking in a world that wasn't hers, even before this time and place. It was like she was a piece of the puzzle that almost fit, but not quite — the piece of the puzzle that had to be forced into that last spot, but even when it was all together, something still didn't look quite right. The only time she'd come close had been with the man in her memories, and their family. Oh, their family. Her sons, and her daughters.

Their names were on the tip of her tongue, but as soon as she reached for them, a sharp pain lanced through her mind, as if warding her away from it all. As if there was something there that she shouldn't remember.

Preferring not to bring attention to it all, to sweep it under the rug, Jesuite spoke again, instead. “Well met, Dagoth of the Deep.” Her small smile widened the barest amount as the woman stepped back, giving him space to bring himself out of the water should he choose. “Will you be remaining in the water, or can creatures such as yourself thrive on land as well?” Once upon a time, she had been a playful thing, and that surfaced now, peeking at him from her own depths.

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Did she reveal something to him just then? Something intimate but fleeting, gone before he could hold onto it. It was no different than a ripple in the water, maybe. A shining of his imagination and thinking that somehow he might be able to fix something.

What was there to fix?

The things he knew for certain were that she seemed fine and healthy, hardly a damsel in distress. He might have stood there wondering forever what it was that he had imagined in her words had she not spoke again.

“Only one way to find out, hm?” A toothy grin remained for a moment as he moved forward, expecting movement would not startle her now. Even as the water seemed to hold onto him, begged him to return and wished to drag him into its depths. He broke free of the surface to stand upon the shoreline now.

“Well, I am not sure about thrive just yet, but it seems I have survived.” He was content to return her humor back to her.

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“And here I expected you to keel over.” There it was again, pulled to the surface again by his own jest. It was interesting that he brought such an old trait out of her where no other wolf had been able to. Not the first time she woke here, and not now. She was playful with Javert, of course, but it was not the same. He was her son, and a mother would always have a capacity to tease and joke with her children.

“You remember?” She would ask, unable to help herself. “Your life from before?” Jealousy, again. It flared deep within her breast, though a certain sort of self-hatred followed closely on its heels. Why did she want to know and remember her old life so much? She lived here, she had Javert here, and yet...

And yet that hole in her heart still seeped like an old, gaping wound, as if it would never and could never be filled.

The self-loathing only grew.

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“I'm flattered.” He snorted with a soft flick of a drenched tail. Droplets sent out across the terrace's surface. They rippled and he felt the pull again, the desire to be back within the depths as if it was a home.

The company was kinder out here, though.

As of his memory? He gazed up at the cloudy sky, the shine of the sun that bathed him. As if any of it might conjure the specifics. He could only grapple feelings and they felt fleeting the longer he remained away from the water.

He inhaled — “Poorly. There is the...feelings. Of protection, of strength, of more. I had more and I gave more.” Who had he given it to? He looked to her face now as if it might pull something familiar back to him. Then he wondered once more what she had, what she felt. There had been that glimpse but nothing more so far.

“You, Jesuite?”

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His demeanor did not match his appearance. Even sopping, soaking wet, the silverspun waif knew he was a monster of a man; his height alone towered above hers, and she could see from here that the tips of her ears would not have even grazed the longer furs of his chin. Somehow, the woman felt at ease as he stood before her, water yet streaming free of his coat.

What did she remember? Family, of course, but greater than that...

“Loss.”

The word tumbled free of her mouth before she had a chance to stop it, surprising even herself. Jesuite paused, once-teal eyes flickering away from him for a moment. It was like a memory had surfaced then, taking her by the shoulders and roughly shaking her. Her now-lavender gaze returned to him.

“Feelings of love, and those of loss.” She covered as best she could, unable to explain how deep her losses truly ran, even to herself. “But I gained just as much, here.” Did she? Or was it all a mask? “Here, I have my son. Javert.” She had not had him the first time she'd awoken here; honestly, he was exactly what she had needed and what helped her wake up each morning.

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Loss.

How deep and sorrowful. Love and loss. Lost love, he presumed. What kind he wanted to ask but at once knew it could not be his place. She had only just met him. He doubted she would weep so openly about a lost life she hardly recalled.

Besides, there was good here. A son.

“Javert and Jesuite...” He hummed warmly. “Perhaps it is me who is misplaced.” Humor but the worry budded within him too. Maybe the boy had been the thing that had moved in the distance. Watchful over his mother?

“You and your son have a home here?”

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Sleepy high phone post lol. Need them good feels k thx

She had always been one to wear her heart on her shoulder; hiding emotions, or ignoring them, was a foreign concept to her, as unintelligible as another language. Jesuite knew that her facade was tiring and so, she was not surprised when her own mask slipped, just a little, when standing here front of this kelp-drenched beast of a man.

“Hard to believe a man of your size is out of place anywhere.” Or perhaps, that was opposite his experience. Did his size, his monstrous appearance, make him stick out like a sore thumb? Was it a similar feeling to never really knowing where you were supposed to be? Or if those around secretly hated you? Wanted to find someone else?

Pain struck her heart at that point, a broken memory of… someone. A cliff. A heartbreak.

Jesuite masked it.

“Not here, specifically, but we are a touch nomadic. Right now, this terrace is where we’ve found ourselves. At some point, we’ll likely move on to the next.” her tail twitched behind her. He said he felt misplaced. Could she help him with that? “I assume you don’t have anywhere to go yet? You could linger here, with us, until you get your bearings?” The added benefit of another adult’s company was a nice bonus, too.
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And yet he imagined all of the places he could be.

No mountains would suit him, beaches would have been too...sandy. He needed something like this. The depths of warm waters and the bloom of green all around them. If he could have this for forever it still would not have been long enough.

“It would be...nice.” More than nice but he did not wish to press his presence so heavily into her. “You should ask your son. Young boys grow protective and, rightfully, wary of strangers. I ought to know.”

His damp tail waved for a moment. He had been young once, days further away from him than not.

He was a man who yearned for simple comforts now, a life of peace and contentment.

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Javert. The peacekeeper's thoughts turned to her son, wandering somewhere in the near distance. Her aqua-ead turned, drawing her lavender gaze away from the beast of the depths to search for the boy. The horizon did not reveal him, but she was sure he was nearby all the same. He was never truly far from her, not because she hovered over him but because Javert felt the need to stay in the area with her; it was not something that the woman minded. He was still young afterall.

A small, gentle smile found its way to her face as she looked at Dagoth once more. “I doubt he will mind but I will speak to him all the same.” A paw lifted, her intention to turn away to go find the boy. It was time they found something to eat, anyhow. She paused, however. “We'll meet again soon, then,” She offered, half a statement, half a question. She assumed he'd explore the general area first before moving on, and if she was going to talk to her son about his presence here, well... it was better he stuck around, wasn't it?

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