Firefly Man Take Me Now

Those nights when the moon was too full and it felt as if the darkness was pressing into him... No one would ever know. The nights where the same crystals that now lined his back had once sprouted from his orifices. A terrible ooze clogging his throat and lungs. Nightmares and hallucinations that drove him to madness. Drove him to maiming his best friend, to deserting his lover, to begging for death. That was years ago now, but it still haunts him. The arrival of the statues had done nothing to quell his fears. Even though he had played nice and given gifts to those terrifying altars, the appearance of the wolfdogs had done nothing but cause more pain.

Gil doesn't hear Sagittarius try to charm her way into staying. His head has pulled back, ears flattened, yellow eyes blank and in a daze. Staring out at the foggy red landscape with the spires reaching for a too large sun, Gil doesn't listen. Doesn't care. All that matters is keeping his family safe. Away from the danger.

Away from him.

The approach of Siduri worsens his fear and anger. Her pale fur, her sweet face, her leg... naked and bare for all to see. A permanent mark worse than the ones he received. His fur bristles in response, his entire body puffing up in unadulterated fear and anger as he sidesteps away from Sagittarius to stare at Siduri. "Home. Now." The words seethed through clenched teeth as he steps toward his precious, sweet Siduri. Though others of his had been harmed, hers had been worse. She had nearly lost her leg, her life even, that fateful night.

Because of him.

"Both of you. Home. NOW," the rage fills him as he turns his wild gaze from Siduri to Sagittarius and back again. "Do not leave the treehouses. Do not come back. Stay with your mother. Don't make me say it again," there is pure venom and fear in his tone as he braces for what he is prepared to do. No matter how stubborn, no matter how determined, he was not going to risk his girl's lives for their thirst of exploration. Could they not see the terror in his expression? How the whites of his eyes continued to stretch at the edges with each passing moment and thump of his quickening heart.

Stay away from him.

"speech"