The sleet was cutting through his coat as easily as a sharp knife sliced through silk. He felt every drop straight down to the skin. The sensation was excruciating - not necessarily pain, but just overwhelming feeling. In no time at all the chill built to such an intensity that his body was racked with shivers. His teeth chattered together loudly, the only sound he could hear over the thick blanket of snow that seemed to absorb all noise. He tried to center himself, focus on his breathing... The rhythm of it. The sharpness of the cold air in his lungs. Snow was wedged so deeply between his paw pads now that it was almost physically painful. As soon as this rain let up, he would quickly make his way out of the area. For now, Kat shrunk closer to the trunk of the tree, trying desperately to find better coverage.
Then a sweet song emerged from the fog, and he was sure that he had died and was being called into the next plane. Lost? Came the call, soft and lilting. Kat peered through the mist, craning his head out from beneath the sparse tree coverage. He couldn't see a thing, it was as impenetrable as a stone wall. "I'm just trying... to catch my breath," he panted, straining so hard to see through the fog that his eyes began to buzz with exertion.
You seem like you could use some company... Katsu didn't have time to react before a giggling angel (demon?) burst through the grey to drag him back to heaven (hell?). He sputtered, Illusion's comparably small weight still hitting him hard and fast when he wasn't prepared for it. Kat reeled back beneath the tree canopy, slamming into the frozen trunk and gasping as the air was knocked clean out of him. An involuntary snarl, guttural and primal, erupted from him. Spittle flew. He wasn't used to being taken by surprise - he prided himself on his composure. His honor. Kat struggled blindly against his opponent, feeling Illusion out only to realize a few things at once: she was markedly smaller than him, and this was a girl. A strange girl. He shuddered, pinned between her and the tree, and swallowed his snarl. The warmth of her was undeniable in this frigid wasteland, but she'd also clearly attacked him - his mind raced. Small. Girl. Vicious. Need to be... Need to do...
What was honor if someone ran at you, unguarded and weak? Honor would be to... protect himself. He could ask questions once she was subdued.
Katsu heaved his shoulder against her, putting all of his weight behind it to shove her off of him. In the same motion, he snaked his jaw around to try and grab her roughly by the scruff. If he could get her scruffed, he could easily pin her based on size difference alone. Then he could... his mind blanked. He wasn't sure what would come next, just that he needed space and she needed to be controlled.
"speech"
wc: 516 - seasonal count met!
