What Happens in the Altar ...

After he and Aresenn had killed the bear, they decided to go their separate ways for a while. The pirate boy had some business back home to take care of, and while Sephiran didn’t have a particular task to complete, he wasn’t ready to head down south yet. In his mind, he had some unfinished business to attend to. Because he couldn’t get that snarky little girl out of his head. He had tried to find her fallen log home several times, but it was so well hidden in the forest, he kept getting lost. He had only been able to find it once, and to his dismay, she wasn’t there. Still, he wanted to make sure she knew he was looking for her. So he had left his scent all over her log, marking it urine to signify that he would make it his if he ever found her. Unfortunately for Aurelia, Sephiran was a sportsman at heart. He had no problem with stalking his prey, no matter how long it took him to find her. Because the chase was enthralling.

He hadn’t expected to catch her scent north of the pine forest, in a territory where the earth split into geysers that shot out steaming hot water. He could feel the heat within the earth as he walked, weaving between small pockets of water that were still warm to the touch. The sky was littered with stars, a crescent moon lighting his way, as the soft hues of the northern light could be seen in the far distance. But Sephiran wasn’t a man who cared for the scenery. The night helped conceal him from wandering eyes, given the dark hues of his pelt. But he made no attempt at hiding his approach as he followed her scent, drawn to her like a buzzard to rotting meat.

The first thing that came to sight was the soft glow of a fire on the horizon, which acted as a beacon that would lead him to her. He had missed most of whatever ceremony she was completing, and the area smelt of an array of burning herbs intertwined with smoke. It was something he hadn’t experienced before, and he took a deep inhale, trying to deduce if this was the same smoke that had made him so sleepy. But it didn’t smell the same, so he figured it was different. ” “ A foreign language made his ears swivel upon his skull, creeping forward on silent paws behind a collection of boulders that were concealing his pretense. Given the mix of aromas in the air, he figured she couldn’t smell him. So his arrival was meant to catch her by surprise. It was meant to terrify her.

Soft splashes of water and a deep sigh followed the odd words, and eventually, everything fell silent. Bouts of steam rose up into the sky, emanating from the pool of water she was sitting in. He decided to her enjoy this peaceful moment so that when he ruined it, it would be more gratifying for him. Then, without any forewarning, the beast crept out into the open, slinking up toward her from behind. “Well now... look at what we have here.” He crooned, lips peeling back into a sly smirk. One that revealed nearly all the teeth in his mouth, as he purposely walked through her pristine alter to stand at the edge of the water, looming over her.

"Speech"