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Name: Yanka
Personality: Quiet, mostly likes being left alone and never to be disturbed. He hates anyone that approaches him wrong and is delighted in learning the ways of scaring Ulaya.
Powers: Fear, His abilities would be most of fear and able to scare the slightest bit out of any Ulaya.

Prompt 1: Your god boy is still a kit, and has wandered away from his family. In his wanderings, he walks up on a couple of other kits playing. What does he do?

A growl had erupted through the little area, of flowers. Yanka had wandered away carelessly. His curiousity had grown into a plump peach, he wanted to break it now and explore. But this wasn't what he had in mind at all. Yanka scrapped the flowers from their place as his claws retracted. Chains were lazily dragging along through him. Placing his exact location a sih echoed, this place was almost the place he had dreamed about. A place in which was ment for him, but now it wasn't. The kit rumbled another growl and threw flowers around, tearing them up like toys.

Playful and squeels of joy had suddenly emerged from the fields as another young Ulaya had popped in from no where. More emegred as Yanka groaned. Great, young kit's like him who were active and hyper; not his type at all. Looking over and freezing one of the young Ulaya had looked at him. Nothing of fear and being scared surrounded them. It was rather curiousity from how Tanka looked. "Great." A murmured had spoken out as Tanka sighed and ventured over to them.

"What do you want? Looking at me?" Yanka said angerly, his attitude showing through like water. One of them had said something, rather more like they wanted to be his 'friend.' A laugh suddenly erupted from his throat, this was hilarious. "I'm sorry, i'm not much of a good friend." Yanka spat the word friend out like a bunch of dust left in the wind.

Before he knew it, they were all looking depressed. A snort occured fro him and a grin slipped through. "God, you all are idiots..." He said outloud. The kits looked at him with sadness and almost tumbled away. Tanka's face had drastically changed as he watched them leave. "I guess you can't take jokes?" He spat, they were not understanding it, were they? As Tanka watched them turn around, a shy smile seemed to creep up on him alittle.

"Well... Whatever you three said about becoming friends... I'll take the offer." Tanka sighed in the process looking at the surprised Ulaya, "Well?" He snapped. They seemed to smile and eventually made him follow them, a game or two would be good, atleast...

Name: Deimos
Personality: He will try to be friendly, but will be in fear for the most part because of his powers.
Powers: As the god of fears, he will be able to sense when a ulaya is afraid. When they have nightmares, he sees them and will scream whenever one screams out of fear. He will sense when young kits are afraid of their parent's screaming, or if a kit meets a ulaya that is going to hurt them. Dei can't control his screams usually, which will probably drive away other ulaya from talking to him.



Usually Deimos would try to stick around his family and try to catch up on his sleeping while they stayed around to make sure he was alright, but today he could not fall asleep for one ulaya was having a horrible dream which fled into his thoughts. A small shiver was seen from him as he blinked his eyes and tried to get the other's dream out of his head. Another's sight came to Dei's eyes as they watched a huge snake snap at them and try to kill them. Dei couldn't hold back the loud squeaky scream of fear. The little kit wanted to have his mind interested in something else, so he began on his journey to maybe meet a few ulaya and befriend them, even though his parents would probably strongly disagree with his actions.

The sound of a few kits giggling and yelling out in pure happiness filled the little black kit's ears. Dei blinked and tilted his head a little. Screams of happiness? How I would do anything to have a scream of joy. Dei thought to himself as he pictured himself laughing with his siblings and playing a game with them, rather then trying to catch up on his sleep from the night before. The little kit tried his hardest to picture something happy, but all that came to mind was another ulaya's sight of something horrifying in front of them.

The small kit's heart began racing out of fear as he looked at the two. Dei quietly fought with himself a little bit as he tried to get up the courage to go talk to the other two that were playing just in front of him. Finally, one side of him won the fighting and the little kit began on his walk with his large chains dragging behind him.

Quietly, Dei walked up to the couple kits and let a small, fake, smile grace his face as he tried to act as friendly as possible. Maybe he could actually make friends without scaring them away by his random screams and shivers. Hopefully, his chains wouldn't scare them away like they had some other ulaya he had tried to talk to before when he was a little younger then he was now.

"H...Hello." He stuttered out as he struggled to keep in his shivers. The kit blinked his eyes as the sight of another kit somewhere being attacked by an older ulaya that had blood dripping from their claws just as Dei's parents had... was it one of them attacking the little one? Of course not... He would not let himself believe that. Die struggled as he tried to keep in the tears that were being built up in his eyes from all the horrifying images that were flashing through his head.

The two kits watched Dei as if he were some sort of alien from another planet as he shivered a little and a small tear slowly rolled down his cheek. Whenever Dei let out a fearful scream, the other two jumped and began to run away towards wherever their parents were. "Don't leave." The little kit said quietly as he watched the other two running away from him through tear filled eyes. Whenever they were out of sight, Dei made his sad, lonely journey back to his family.

Amon was the son of the god of nightmares and the goddess of the death so he have a reputation to uphold since he is the god of the fear. Ever since he came out of the box with the chain around his neck, he relishes in the pain and the fear that radiates from the admirers or the passing creatures that unknowingly stumbled onto his sleeping place. He is the apple of his father's eyes because he is really his father's son due to his domain that relates to his sire's. His blood red eyes appears from the eyelids as he sensed the sun disappearing from the skies and the moon appearing which means its his time to rule the night.

Amon stood up from the bed of the leaves and twigs, stretching his tiny legs while his maw stretched open revealing small rows of fangs. He closes his maw and the tiny pink tongue poked out, licking his nose while he sets off into the dark forest to hunt for his meal since his parents have left him and his siblings all alone in separate corners of the forest or mountains or wherever they feels is suitable for the little growing deities. The chain clanks lightly as it hits each other while he walks deeper into the forest then he froze when he smells and hears the laughter of small group of the kits that apparently fled from their parents and is having their little party in the clearance that is being lit up by the moonlight. A slow malicious grin appears on his face as he pads toward the small laughing group of kits, only thing visible about him is his glowing blood red eyes.

One of the kits spotted the 'glowing red orbs' and sounded the alarm but they were frozen to the ground by sheer terror coursing through their little bodies like ice cold water. Slowly the kits' worst fears began to appear in front of their own eyes. One is so terrified by spiders so that poor kit is starting to see the swarm of spiders scuttling toward him which caused him to scream out and try to escape but ended up tripping over his own paws. The chaos breaks out as the terrified cries of the kits filled the air which is the alarm for the parents to awaken to find their kits missing and go to find them.

The rich scent of the fear and the music of the screaming fills his senses as Amon closes his eyes momentarily just to relish in the fear and chaos he just caused among his peers. He knows that the screaming of the kits will lure the adults in which will make things even more fun for him but he knows that he needs to find food before he go insane with hunger. Amon quietly slips into the shadows with a sadistic grin on his face as he could smell the fresh fear radiating from the adults as they approaches the scene but he was long gone after the parents arrived to find their terrified kits huddled in one small group crying their hearts out.

But before he left, he spoke out to the kits and the voice seems to come from different directions. "Fear the god of fear... Fear Amon!"

After wandering around for the last twelve days by himself, Devus started to wonder if he was invisible. Every time the young kit tried to catch another ulaya’s eye, they quickly looked away scowling, or just avoided his gaze altogether.

The last words he remembered being spoken to him were from his own family, asking him who he was. Not a single comforting word was in his mind as he curled up under some dried leaves to keep warm every night. He was young, but his memory had been amazingly sharp at birth. There had been an argument about the diversity of his litter mates. Thought he remembered every word, he was somewhat confused of their meaning. But, he rightfully felt that most of their contention was aimed at him. It only took him a few days to realize how unwelcome he was in his own family, so, unbeknownst to him, his untrained power to manipulate memories crept out like an hunter on prowl one night while he was asleep, slipping any memory of Devus from his family’s minds. That morning he was looked upon as a dangerous stranger that had infiltrated their family in the night, and was promptly shooed away, unceremoniously forgotten.

In the day time he kept to himself, staying out of other ulaya’s ways, trying to survive. He wandered around the outskirts of the habitations to reduce the unwanted meetings of his judgmental species. One day however, two kits no older than him were happened upon by the lone outcast. At first, Devus kept his distance, prowling just outside of their circle of awareness, not wanting to raise alarm. But, seeing them play so innocently and carefree tempted the lonely ulaya to approach them. He was nervous of their reaction to his appearance, but they didn’t seem to care and immediately included him in their play. He was ecstatic to finally be part of a group, however brief and passing it was to the young pair. It was, however, doomed to be short lived, for young kits that were cared for never had parents that were far behind. Upon their parents’ first sight of Devus, his new playmates were quickly whisked away from the “evil rogue” and he was partially surrounded to guide his retreat in the direction that led away from the habited part of the land.

This was the farthest that he had wandered since his birth and, though no stories had been told to him, he somehow knew this was not the place for lone ulaya kits to be wondering alone. Quickly finding a hollowed out log to hide in, Devus spied out into the dark forest that few had ever ventured. It was soon already the next day after he had been chased out, and the sounds of the playing kits had started once again. Though they were just out of sight, he still felt a part of their game and listened intently to hear the outcome. Suddenly, despite the distraction, he became very aware of the sound of heavy breathing coming from a large creature between him and the kits. He cautiously stuck his head out of his protective log to find that a very large bear-like predator was stalking the young ulaya.

As sure as he was that he was no match for the hungry killer, Devus found himself sneaking past the stalker to somehow warn the kits. The sure sounds of the large beast advancing through the forest gave him a sudden burst of the speed needed to reach the young pair first. As he reached them though he froze, for they were staring in his direction with nothing but fear and disgust on their faces. His absolute regret and disappointment mixed with the adrenaline brought Devus’ yet untapped powers out, now fully super-charged, just as the impending threat broke the tree line directly behind him. As he turned to retreat into his dark solitude, he faced the animal with little fear. The young kit felt like all the hope had left his soul and, though it scared him to, he released all the built-up power he was feeling inside of him onto the beast. The effects were immediate as the Psionic blast found its target, bringing the disabled threat to a sudden and permanent stop mid-stride.

Devus couldn’t help but collapse a bit himself as the psychic attack left him feeling drained. He turned toward the kits, not fully prepared for what he saw. A group of adults had heard the clash and now, the same ulayas that had chased him away only a day earlier, were standing just a few feet from him, whispering grateful words to their exhausted savior. As the praises got louder, his strength seemed to return. As the diminutive anti-hero rose to his feet, instead of joining the newly welcoming rabble, he slowly turned, stepped over the defeated menace, and retreated into the dark forest.

With one last look back at the now silent group of his supporters, Devus focused at their recent memories, wiping them clean and erasing himself from their thoughts, allowing them to live in their former peace.

Name: Phobos
Personality: As an adult standoffish, unwilling to let others get to close. Having accepted his powers he would be willing to use them against others and not feel bad about it.
Powers: The power to cause others to see their fears, and to see normal things as things they fear (think the scarecrow in Batman begins XD )


Prompt 1:

Your god boy is still a kit, and has wandered away from his family. In his wanderings, he walks up on a couple other kits playing. What does he do?

Phobos glanced from side to side as he carefully picked his way through the forest. He dodged left a little to avoid breaking a twig on the ground, he wouldn't want his family to hear something and realise he was gone. As he rounded a large tree he saw a clearing, where a few kits were happily playing a game. He crouched down, hiding behind a bush and watched for a while. The game seemed to have no rules, as they would tumble about, chewing on one anothers fur and playfully swatting at each other. They would make fighting and warning noises but not once did one of them get hurt.

Phobos worked up his courage and stepped out from behind the bush. "Can I play?" he asked quietly.

The kits looked up and a pretty little purple and blue kit nodded. "Sure! Just join in!"

Phobos bounded over to the others, finally someone to play with!

Several minutes later he had a pounding headache. One of the kits had him on his stomach and was nipping at his ears as another tugged at his tail. He was supposed to be a god...he was supposed to be better than all of these...these normal creatures! Suddenly the other kits stopped playing and the one that had been chewing on his ears made a strange mewling noise. Phobos got up and looked at them. They stared back wide-eyed, the whites in those eyes clearly showing.

The female kit that had first said he could join was sobbing and quaking in terror. "Not Momma, no not my momma!"

Phobos suddenly felt himself being picked up by the scruff of his neck and heard his father's voice harshly berating him "Stop that this instant!"

Phobos started at the harshness and suddenly the headache disappeared. He looked over and saw the other kits running away into the forest, not one looking back. His stomach clenched, it had been fake, he hadn't hurt them. But still, they were normal, they didn't have his powers. He thought of the fear on the kits' faces. If he didn't get close to them he would never have to feel bad about hurting others again.

(Sorry I borrowed the parents for a moment, I hope thats ok)

Name: Phearin (pronounced- Fayar-rin)

Personality: I would have his personality be where he's kinda paranoid or is scared easily. Or at least mostly when he's a kit. He would be scared about just about anything, pretty much being a sort of wuss. Heck, he could even be scared of himself, and his appearence (depends on how he looks when he grows x3). When he's an adult he is still quite fearful about things and people, but isn't as easy to walk all over like he would have been as a cub, when he's really angered or annoyed he won't refrain from useing his powers on the ulaya who had annoyed him in the first place. He wouldn't be really cold-hearted or anything though, just a bit shy, kind, but quite paranoid and stuff, as said before x3

Powers: I would say that his powers would just be to have the ability to frighten ulaya (obviously x3;; ) One way is to cause the ulaya to see hallucinations of their most greatest fears, with only him and one or few ulaya actually being able to see it. Another way is to temporarily change the way the ulaya feels and thinks and have them feel uneasy and paranoid about their surroundings. He could probably even mix those two powers, not having to make the hallucination not of their greatest fear, but of anything, like exagerate the form of anything, and by altering the ulaya's thoughts or feelings a bit (only of what they find to be frightening and and scary. He cannot alter any of their other emotions), he could make them scared of just about anything.
When he is a kit, he can't seem to control these powers, and he seems to do these things to ulaya that are near him without even knowing it. It could even be because of his powers going out of control like this that could have caused himself to feel so skitish himself. As an adult he is able to grab a better hold onto those powers.

Prompt: 1

Reply:

"Huh? what was that?!" Phearin jumped up in suprise as he heard a small crack not to far from where he was. He had somehow wandered away from his parents and siblings and now had no idea where he was. "I-is s-someone out there?", he hesitantly called out, afraid of getting a reply, or maybe something worse. He looked around, trying to find any sign of someone else out there. He took a step forward 'crick!' "Yeeep!" Phearin whirled around trying to see what the source of the sound was, tripping over his chains. "Wooaah....Oof!" He slowly got up rubbing his forearms on at a time and then looked down, noticing a small broken twig laid underneath his chain. Was this what had been frightening him this whole time? Phearin gave out a small nervous laugh, trying to shrug off his feelings of suspision aside, though if anything he felt a whole lot worse. 'Now's not the time to start falling apart Phearin, stay together, don't panic' he reassured himself, continueing on his way through the dark forest.

"Oh c'mon Daire, I want to play with it too!"

"Huh?!", Phearin perked his ears up as he heard the voice, his whole body tensing. It took him a few minutes before he started to relax, realizing that the voice didn't sound all that threatening...unless if some unknown enemy was trying to disguise his voice so that he would let his gaurd down. 'Ulp' Phearin slowly took one step forward at a time, looking cautiously from left to right.

"Give it to me right now!"
"No way! Why should I?"

There was the voice again...and another on? Phearin started to increase his pace, following the source of where he heard the shouting. He stopped short behind a bush, noticing three small kits playing with something in a clearing. 'Should I....go say hi? Oh...but what if they get angry at me for walking in on them? Or..what if...?' Phearin now felt quite uneasy as he pondered somemore on the kind of situations that could come up. 'Well it couldn't hurt to just say hi, could it..?' He nodded to himself and started to creep out from behind the bush. "Uhhmm...H-hello", he said sheepishly, his head bowed.

"Hmm?" a kit said as they saw Phearin come out.

"A-and who might...y-you three be?" He said, looking at the three kits. He pinned his ears back as he started to see some of the kit's expression's change from a confused to a sort of uneasy look. Was it him? Or something behind him? Why were they looking at him like that? The kit in the middle of the other two started to glare at Phearin.

"Hold on a sec... Who, are you?"

"Well...I, uh..I'm Phearin. Son of Pravus and De'taila'ketra", he replied with a friendly smile on his face. He hoped that this kit wouldn't be of a threat to him, since he hadn't really done any harm to him or the other two kits.

"Pah...Son of Pravus and De- ... De'taila... -ugh..whatever-!, Gods of nightmares and death? What a liar!", the kit sneered while one of the others hesitantly snickered to the other kit's comment.

"A...a liar?" Phearin replied, his ears drooped even more. "B-but...I wasn't lying.."

"Quit it Daire!" another kit growled, an angry but worried look on her face.

"Don't tell me that you seriously believe him, Ianthe!" He said annoyed. The kit named Ianthe just glared back at him, then a look of shame appeared on her face, looking down.

"Gah...this freak is just a waste of my time.. lets just get back to playing" He said, turning his back on Phearin and started to paw at the dead rat that they had caught earlier, passing it back and forth between him and one of the other kits.

"Umm....c-can I p-play too?", Phearin asked, stuttering. He was afraid that the one kit named Daire might lose his patience with him... he hoped to leave that little chat behind and start a new, hopeing to at least gain some friends during this experience. Surely he hadn't really meant what he said?

"Hmm...let me think...NO!" Daire replied in a rude sort of tone.

"Umm....why not?" Phearin replied, confused. He looked at the two other kits, Ianthe looked nervously between him and Daire, and from the look of her pose, she looked like she was about to take off at any moment. She seemed to act quite strange from the other kits. The other kit just nodded in agreement with Daire.

"Just because....I don't really like wierdos..", Daire smirked.

Wierdo? What had he meant by that? Was he really that much of a misfit to them? He looked up as he felt a small drop of water hit the top of his head; It had started to sprinkle a bit. He whiped the droplet off of his fur and looked back at Daire. "W-what.... what d-do you mean b-by that?" He said, his voice slightly choked up by small tears.

"Haha, now look at him...the little crybaby..hahaha!!"
Phearin just looked down, trying to whipe some of his tears away. 'What...what had I done to him to treat me this way? Why, I'll show him who's a crybaby! But...'

"Gah! What the heck is this thing?!"

He had stopped in thought and looked at Daire, He had scooted back and away from the dead rat that he had played with earlier, and he could see why, almost jumping back by what he saw. The rat looked like it was bubbleing, its body expanding and enlargening, making it three times larger than Phearin. He looked away from the sight and looked at Daire, watching him quiver and shake, his tail inbetween his legs. While as Ianthe had a quizzical look on her face looking inbetween Daire and the rat.

"Whats wrong Daire?", She asked, sounding quite confused.

Phearin looked back over to the rat, nearly drawing back in disgust. The rat started to bleed out a sort of green goo out of small cuts on its body, nose, and eyes, and it's teeth began to morph into large sharp canines. The rat bellowed out a loud roar and started to look around, sniffing about the air.

'How did this happen? Should this even happen at all?!' He thought, almost panicing from what was happening in front of him. The rat had stopped sniffing, turning its attention directly torward Daire, steadily walking torward him, licking its maw.

"Get away from me!", Daire shouted in distress, running off into the forest, the rat following behind it. Ianthe watched, horrified by Daire's actions, looking back at where the rat first laid. She then looked over to Phearin.

"Y-you....you did this!", she shouted out with an accusing tone, slowly backing away and ran off to the forest to find Daire, the other kit soon following after her.

'I....I had done this? But....how?' he said, still shocked by what had suddenly taken place. 'plop' A large raindrop fell onto the ground. then more started to appear, landing onto the ground, Phearin's face, pelt, everywhere. He looked down and brushed the water away from his face, looking down into a puddle, looking down at his reflection, smiling down at himself. "It couldn't have been m-me...I could never do that to someone...not like that" He then watched as his reflection changed, his maw curl up into a menacing smirk.

"Are you sure about that?", a voice said with a deep laugh.

Phearin gasped and fell back, confused by what he just saw. And that voice...who was that? As he got back up, trying to shake the mud off of his back, he looked back over to where the kits had left, his eyes widening as he saw that the dead rat that the kits had played with before now laid, as if nothing had happened, but....how? Phearin started to heavily breathe, scared and confused... what was going on?! He started to take off into the forest, now hopeing to get back home as soon as possible. one question lingering in his mind as went... 'Who...what, am I?'

{{Yeah, stupid, I know, I suck at ending stories, they look a bit rushed, don't they? x3;
Just wanting to clear some things up, I set this during the time around when he might have just came out of his box recently...well not too recently. Just about as recent as it would be where he is then able to talk and knows exactly who his parents are. Although I made it where he is kinda unaware that, like his parents, he has powers too, or that he knows he does, but he just didn't know what they were yet >w<; I also imagined it where Pravus and De'taila are really known by other ulaya, like Daire.
And also to explain that part around the end with his reflection, I just put that in there to kinda show how, in some ways, his powers could even affect him unknowingly, how he's afraid that he could be a bad person or something, I don't know x3
Oh, and the third kit in my entry doesn't have a name xD;;}}

Name: Kuragari ("the darkness," Japanese)

Personality: Mysterious and aloof. Despite his fearsome appearance, Kuragari takes little joy in the pain he must cause, and others would find him to be a good companion, if it weren't for his... hunger.

Powers: Kuragari literally eats fear. This of course causes excruciating mental agony for the innocent Ulaya as they are forced to relive their worst memories. But in the end, the Ulaya find that their fear is utterly gone, and after a while all that is left is a faint memory of the pain he inadvertantly caused. That is enough for Ulaya to shun him. Each night the fears he has consumed manifest themselves in his dreams, but he feels no fear himself and plays with them untouched - perhaps a gift from the God of Nightmares. As he matures, he will learn to manipulate shadows also, wrapping them around himself like a cloak or twisting them into fanciful shapes.

Prompt 1:

Your god boy is still a kit, and has wandered away from his family. In his wanderings, he walks up on a couple other kits playing. What does he do?

Like one that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.
-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

It was the hunger that had drawn Kuragari away. The gnawing, aching sensation in his chest made him restless, and finally he slipped away through the dark trees in search of something that would fill it.

The coolness between the trees and the dappled patterns of sunlight filtering through leaves high overhead were pleasant, and he would have enjoyed himself otherwise. But his paws seemed to move with a purpose that he did not yet understand, and the pain in his chest made him uneasy. There was something he needed to do.

As he continued on, he began to hear faint yips and squeals of pleasure from up ahead. Suddenly the forest broke out into a broad clearing dotted with dandelions and cornflowers. Three kits were leaping and tussling in the tall grass over a strip of cloth, occasionally breaking off to n** at each other's short tails.

Curious about this strange game, Kuragari padded silently out from behind a tree. At first the kits appeared not to notice the young godling crouched in the shadows, still tumbling over one another with joyous abandon. But eventually one looked up from tugging at another's ear and immediately dropped it in surprise. "Hey, look over there!"

They stopped their wriggling and stared at him with interest. He was certainly the most outlandish Ulaya they had ever seen. They were too young to have paid much attention to the stories of a litter of godlings, or they would have been more cautious.

"Do you want to play with us?" the one who had spotted him first asked finally. Kuragari said nothing. He had never seen such odd kits, with their bright coloring and innocent expressions. Actually, he had never seen non-godling kits at all, and wasn't sure what he was supposed to do.

"What's your name?" another asked, after it was apparent he wasn't going to answer.

"Kuragari," he said slowly.

"I'm Amira! You're awful funny-looking," she said with glee. "Were you born like that? Where do you come from? Are there lots'and'lots of other Ulaya like you there? You sure you don't want to play with us?"

Confused by her barrage of questions, Kuragari wondered how to respond. The ache was growing stronger the longer he looked at them and his heart began to pound in anticipation. Not knowing how or why, he reached out his mind to touch Amira's. It seemed strange and alien, full of half-formed thoughts that danced away like brightly colored butterflies when he brushed past them. He dug deeper, pulled by the need. And found...

A door of dark wood, locked and barred, bound with heavy chains that fell away at his touch. The door swung open - and her deepest fears were released. They parted around him like a wave, flickering visions with snarling faces and glowing red eyes, and fell upon the now shaking kit.

He snagged one from the flow and found himself with a younger Amira in a barren field of rocks. On a dare she had come to the forbidden place when she was barely old enough to speak, and now the wind seemed to carry the howls of hungry wolves, every boulder hiding a shadowy form. The vision drained away, and Kuragari felt the ache in his chest fade as he absorbed the fear like a sponge.

He fell on the remaining nightmares with relish.

Amira had not had much to fear in her short lifetime. He was done in less than a minute, and withdrew to find himself back in the clearing. Only then did he notice how she was covered in sweat, the air still ringing from her squeals, the grass ripped apart from her frantic convulsions as the nightmares had converged upon her. The other two kits were staring at him with growing horror, their paws rooted to the ground.

He licked his lips uneasily. He had caused her pain.

"I... uh... I'm sorry," Kuragari said finally. "I didn't mean to..." He stopped, made as if to move forward. The smallest kit whimpered softly.

"Please," said the first kit, the one who had asked him to play. "L-leave us alone." Amira was still trembling violently, her eyes unseeing.

The words hit Kuragari hard. But as quickly as his shame and self-revulsion had come, they faded away, leaving him empty. He could hear paws pounding; the kits' parents coming to make sure they were all right. He bowed his head in acquiescence. "I won't trouble you again."

Then he turned and melted into the underbrush, disappearing as silently as he had come.

That night he dreamed the kit's fears. They howled and snatched at him with claws of shadow, but he danced nimbly away, leaping through dream fading into dream.

Fading into dream.

((I'm terribly sorry if this is too long. *sheepish look* I really got into this.))

Patience...? surprised