[PRP]The red snapper (Serafima x Vorpal)

[Faithofthefallen]

Vorpal bobbed gently on the dark surface of the brackish pond, his eyes were closed, his wings spread to keep him afloat as his tail twitched back and forth in a gentle rhythm. The frumious snapper was cat napping, half dreaming, half awake. Not much had been happening recently in his part of the woods. There was the delightful striped fellow whose axe he had stolen before trapping him in a giant pit, there was the lovely maiden with a split personality who he had dusted with a sleeping powder and then deposited her in the middle of the darkest, most confusing portion of his forest, there was that chap he had dragged down to the bottom of the pond to show him the lovely cave he had discovered there... It wasn't his fault that the stallion hadn't known how to swim.... Although the way he had thrashed and screamed had been terribly funny, well not really screamed so much as bubbled. He had the locals so frightened of entering his territory that there was never anybody to toy with anymore, and they warned so many of the travelers that most of them didn't dare pay a visit either. He just wanted a steady stream of unsuspecting friends to terrify out of their wits regularly to keep his spirits up, he thought the locals were being terribly selfish. Sure, the forest was an absolute minefield of pits and traps and signs pointing hither and thither, and strange frightening flora and fauna, and of course he himself resembles something that had stepped straight out of someone's nightmares.... But that was no reason to not stop in every now and then to see how he was doing...

His eyelids flicked back to reveal whirring magenta eyes that swept through the darkness, perhaps he should try visiting another part of the forest. Perhaps he had lingered here too long, this patch of forest would always feel like home to him, but on the other side of the forest there would be new sights, smells, new places to swim and dig and scare people. It would be a challenge again. Vorpal smiled, his mouth stretching far too wide, as he flexed his heavy membranous wings, driving himself to shore. He stepped out, water sluicing from his dark body in ribbons and shook himself thoroughly, by the time he finished, the area around him was well peppered with water droplets and his coat was fluffy but mostly dry.

Snapping his jaws in excitement, he slid through the trees on his way through the wood, unbeknownst to him he was headed straight for the patch of forest bordering the Underland herd's territory.

DarkenWoodWolf

Sorry about the length, I wanted to tap into his brain a little bit to fuel my muse since its been so long, I kind of had to figure out what he's been up to xD. And no rush on replying, I know you've been busy, figured I'd just set this up while I have a little time n_n

 

[DarkenWoodWolf]

Teepee

This new land was wonderful. Some much color, so many new things to explore. The Herd Lands were welcoming, well, to one such as she, they were welcoming, maybe not to someone else. Wonderlanders had a tendency to like things a bit odd, a bit mad. It was certainly nice to be through the Looking Glass, so to speak. Serafima had never gotten on well with the Queen. Now, their current Queen, her sister, they got along just fine. Kayta didn't even mind if Sera painted the flowers red. She's seen no roses, yet, let alone the red ones that she preferred.

Which was one of the reasons she found herself in the woods today, a search for the wild red rose and something new to mix her paint with. Her current batch... well, it was more a stain than a paint. It had been a quick mix, but it had left her paws stained red for weeks! And while it was amusing to think she could cover herself with it and run around looking like Irina for a while, it would get old. And she did so love her colors.

But still, she wanted a proper paint, which meant proper mixing materials. She just wasn't sure what was and wasn't, not here. Ah well, at least the experiments would be fun.

Twisting her tail behind her, she set out for a darker part of the woods, tail fading in and out as her mind wandered. Her paws did too, you could see the forest floor through the left two, but the others were semi-solid. It worked for her at the moment. She liked having the fade, it made for fun games with her sisters.

Tilting her head, she listened for anything close by, letting her attention be grabbed by a bird here, or a rabbit there, before she wandered on, looking for something to try to mix as a decent paint. It might be a problem more with what she was using as base rather than what she was mixing with for color, but the only way to be sure was to mix something new in and try it out. Then she could try something else, if it didn't work.

Humming softly to herself, she wandered, paws nearly silent on the ground she could be quieter if she really wanted. As sneaky as she wanted, but she didn't want. Perhaps there was something in the woods that she wanted to meet, and how would they find her if she was completely silent? So, Sera hummed and made a point to rustle a bush here and there, all the while making red marks on the trees so she would know where she's been. This place had a way of turning you around so you were completely lost.

Faithofthefallen

 

[Faithofthefallen]

Vorpal slid through the trees with the ease of someone who has traversed the woods his whole life. Placing his hooves on the gnarled roots that buckled up through the soil and bracken, he was able to move almost silently. His ears swiveled to and fro out of habit, on guard against the many dangers that tended to lurk in a Tulgey wood. He missed his patch of tum tum trees, the deep shadows that had pooled and darkened in the time he had spent there, his brackish pond for swimming, the pitch black paths illuminated by the bluish glow of mushrooms... But he had already scared a few unsuspecting travelers on his way through the forest. He had been a vagabond in his youth, upon finding a home that suited him, he had settled in, but the time had come for him to move on. For now, at least.

An... odd smell reached his nose. "Hmm.." he burbled, setting off to solve this mystery. It was not long before he encountered streaks of red smeared across the trunks of trees in a wobbly line that meandered through the forest... Curious.
Leaning closer he sniffed the liquid, the source of the smell, and grimaced. The color was lovely, such a deep, bright shade of crimson, red was only of his favorite colors, but it didn't belong on a tree. Snapping his jaws absently, he turned to follow the line of color, it was a mystery, and he intended to get to the bottom of it.

Some time later, he had been following the trail, growing a bit bored. He had almost fallen away from the trail a few times, distracted by a deep cool pond that had looked perfect for a swim and a bite to eat, a patch of glowing mushrooms that would have twisted the world and made it wonderfully misty for a while, a sound in the woods that may have been an unexpected visitor creeping through the forest... But Vorpal had held true to his original purpose, and was quite proud of himself for it. Ahead, his sensitive ears picked up the sound of foliage rustling with movement, the furious snapper picked up his pace, skipping from root to root with reckless abandon. A flash of bright color between the trees made him stop suddenly, his ears perking up with interest. A cat like female strode silently through the forest, her bright stripes making his eyes pop, she hummed to herself and every so often jostled a bush with one paw as if to announce her presence.

A long, slow smile slid across his face. A cheshire! For indeed, there was no mistaking this females appearance. Vorpal had been trying for ages to get back to wonderland, digging holes and hiding them in attempt to call up the magic that would send him back home if he toppled through one unexpectedly... The problem was, his memory was excellent. He always knew where he had concealed a pit, so all of that work had been for naught. Yet here, on the other side of the forest, was yet another resident of his homeland!! His hide rippled with excitement, his eyes whizzed back and forth as he stepped out of concealment and smiled at the Cheshire. No words of greeting escaped his lips, he simply stood there, twigs in his fur, his tail swishing back and forth sinuously, his eyes affixed to her face with an intensity that bordered on terrifying and grinned toothily.

DarkenWoodWolf

 

[DarkenWoodWolf]

Serafima was having no luck in her search for something that would make her paint both brilliant and less likely to stain so much as paint. There were things, and some of them were living things like flowers and the like, that could stand to be painted for a short time, long enough for Sera to enjoy the colors, but not long enough that the paint would cause the plants to wilt or die. The stain, however, had a very poor effect on pretty much everything it touched. If it was a plant, it died or refused to put out new growth. Or, in one extreme case, attacked the part of itself that she painted until there was nothing left of it but a mushy pulp. She hadn't sufferent any illness or anything though, so aside from the fact her feet could have belonged to Irina for a few weeks, it looked like whatever it was that made the stain so... problematic with small living plant life did not bother larger things like herself. Perhaps it was because she did not need sunlight to survive, or something.

If she thought on it for a while, she would probably come up with a correct conculsion. But the thoughts drifted out of her head as unimportant because as soon as she finished with the batch she had made, and had with her, she would never again make something using the same ingredients. So the why of things really didn't matter. But then, they seldom did.

Besides, there was something new and more interesting to think about here in these woods. Oh, she wasn't sure what it was yet, just that there was something here. Something that scared the little things into silence and stillness. Not even her passing did that. Honestly, she had nearly stepped on a family of rabbits who were cowering in a small dip in the ground at the base of a tree she was marking. They would not even move then, for it was not she that scared them.

Sera found that all too amusing. Rabbits usually bolted on sight, or scent, so it had been pleasant to get close enough to one of them to brush againt the soft, soft fur of theirs with her nose.

She figured it was the same for the birds hiding in their trees. Not a peep, or a chirp, or a flutter, or even the scratch of little claws on wood escaped into the world. It was like, with the exception of herself, there was nothing left alive here. But she knew that to be false. Something big was coming, and it scared the forest so.

It was exciting so she kept marking her trees and rustling bushes as she passed close enough to them to do so. She was actually starting to get bored when someone stepped out into her line of sight. Something? Someone/thing didn't matter. Sera all but shrieked with glee, prancing forward on paws that vanished and appeared rapidly in her exhaltation.

She'd heard stories, of course, of the Frumious Snapper. Who in Wonderland had not? And. how could this gorgeoous beast of a creatur be anything other than that Frumious Snapper so famous for his deeds, and more so for his disappearance.

Personally, Sera had never met him or knew anyone who had, so some had given the tale up in Wonderland as a scary story parents told their children to keep them in bet at night. But standing before her was proof.

"Frumious Snapper." Sera said softly, her words echoing the silence of the forest, but laced with excitement. She had his complete attention, she could almost feel the weight of his gaze, and it made her grin, mouth stretching wide around her paintbrush, making it wobble in her mouth a little, red dripping, dripping, dripping.
"Now how did someone as lovely as you make it here without the help of the Looking Glass Lake? Or is that how you got here, same as we?" Sera figured she would have known for sure if the Frumious Snatcher had gone through the lake.

Faithofthefallen

I took some liberties with the ppl of Wonderland knowing who/what he was, what he would have looked like. If that's not okay, just shoot me a pm and I will change it.

 

[Faithofthefallen]

Vorpal tilted his head, an even wider smile spreading across his face until it seemed that his head had been nearly split in two by the gruesome grin. He chuckled, what a marvelous thing, to be recognized. What a marvelous thing to encounter another wonderland resident so far from home. "You've hit the nail on the head." He acknowledged, his eyes whirring busily as his head tilted slightly to one side. "And you would be one of the Cheshire clan?" It wasn't really a question, her identity was self evident. His tail flexed, the sharp spikes glistening as he sidled closer, his gaze never leaving hers. His voice was heavy with curiosity, for ages he had been trying to return to Wonderland. His methods had been varied and... Gruesome in some instances. He considered that, he wasn't really sure why he wanted to go home so bad, he was a solitary creature for the most part. He had everything he could ever need in this forest. He guessed what he missed most were the strange denizens that had shared his homeland. Aside from one brief encounter, the inhabitants of Kawani had proven to be rather boring. No taste for death or danger, no love for the inane and ridiculous. He savored their fear, but he was rather bored by how easy it was to cultivate that fear into spasms of terror. There was no challenge, no sport in this world. Vorpal liked his prey to wriggle a bit. And because they scared so easily, no one ever wanted to come visit the patch of forest he had twisted so lovingly into a nightmarish piece of his homeland, they were too scared. He scoffed, fear was the spice of life! Who'd ever heard of avoiding it?
His eyes flicked down to the paint dripping, pooling redly in the gloom. He had found the source of the red smears. He smiled to himself, she didn't want to get lost.

He continued staring at her for a while, letting her question simmer between them in a prolonged silence while he mused. "Oh, I've been here for a while. To be perfectly honest I have no idea how exactly I came through." He shrugged, "Fell, I suppose. One minute I was chasing this little scamp of a rabbit and the next..." Vorpal sighed, "I should've known better than to follow a white rabbit anywhere, I've been trapped here ever since."

His ears pricked foreword... "We?" he purled, curiosity charging the word.

DarkenWoodWolf

Sorry! New job, mid move to a new house, new puppy x-x Muse is on the fritz!