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Ahhh, relief.

Sinking down to his belly in the cool waters of a small stream, the tabby patterned wolf closed his eyes briefly and allowed himself to be fully immersed. He wasn't particularly obsessed with cleanliness by nature, but the rushing water was doing more then just clearing away the dirt from his coat at this point. He'd managed to avoid any serious injuries, but the long gash on his belly worried him enough to decide that remaining in wolf form would probably be in his best interest for the time being.

Raising his head, he opened his eyes but saw nothing, his mind rehashing the events of the previous night with a mixture of anger and glee. He wasn't an admirer of spunk or spirit in his prey, in fact he generally avoided troublesome individuals like that, but the white winged mare of the previous night was a different story.

Not only was she a precious student to his arch nemesis, she was herself of slight stature and wholesomely delicious to watch. His blood had burned when his claws had first found her in the City of Thieves, but he had had bigger ambitions then. The demise of her mentor had been his priority, and while it still was now, he had changed his definition of 'demise' since their last meeting in that dead desert city. He didn't want Toujours to simply die, he wanted his spirit to perish first, followed by his mind, then finally the black unicorn's physical body. The height of Seethe's ambitions rested solely on inflicting as much pain on Toujours as he possibly could. Nothing was off limits, no one was safe. And the closer an individual was to his prey, the more pain they themselves would endure before death.

Lazily, he stretched out his claws, his mind helpfully filling in the memory of that glistening white coat bloodstained and pulsing red-hot with the desperate will to live beneath. The crunch of those fragile wing bones sang once again in his ears as he remembered pressing that young mare into the earth, she'd muffled her screams then, and he wanted to know why. Did she know that in doing so that would prolong her suffering? Was she aware that in giving him what he wanted, her life would end? If so, how did she know that he waited for a particular pitch to tell him that the time was ripe? How did she know to avoid it?

Gravel crunched, and his ears came up only to realize that the sound came from his own paws as he dug into the river bottom. The reminder was sufficient to bring his mind back to the present, however, and after dragging himself back to the stream-bank, he saw to his own wounds. Most were healing already, but the one on his belly was still oozing slowly. It would need time to scab over, but Seethe was content to wait.

For now.