ORIGIN

Sebastian felt like death.

The panther moaned quietly, blinking blearily.

His head felt like it was boiling, his eyes burning, and not pleasantly. His mouth was dry, no matter how much he licked his lips. He laid limply on a tree branch, legs dangling.

He had been hoping that laying high up, where the breeze could go over his pelt, would cool him down. But now that he had woken up, he felt worse than ever. The light was killing his head, making it throb with every beat of his heart.

He had been meaning to spend time with Rift today - apparently, a fire had been set to Eridanus a year ago to the day. But now he wanted nothing more than to hide away in his little den, which was cool and dark.

So, slowly, he jumped down from the tree, and began to walk towards the chasm. So out of it was he, that he was completely unaware of the flames that bloomed in his paw prints.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

As he walked, Sebastian began to retch.

He kept walking, each heave making his head throb. The flames quit forming in his pawprints, although the ones that had bloomed continued to grow, consuming the lush grass greedily. Soon, they stood as tall as the Panther, and twice as wide.

Staggering, he came to a stop, and heaved. But nothing came out - he hadn't eaten in days, having not had the energy to hunt. The sickness showed - dehydration sunk his eyes into his skull, and hunger made his pelt cling to his bones, muscles stringy. Each retch was painful, pulling at his chest, and made him moan, eyes clenching tightly in an attempt at staving off the pain.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

His stomach beginning to settle, the panther continued on.

So weak was he, he could barely walk, moving at a snail's pace. He weaved drunkenly, head bobbing, unable to keep his paws on the beaten dirt path. Each time his paws landed on the plant life, they went up in flames, starting out in little more than cinders. But the moment his paws lifted, allowing oxygen to feed into the cinders, breathing them into life. The flames grew, not as fast as the others did, which were now beginning to climb trees. But soon they, too, were of a respectable height.

And so the cat walked on, still unaware. His nose, running like a faucet, was unable to smell the burning plants.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Out of nowhere, the panther staggered.

His eyes widened and he vomited what could be considered lava. His jaw still mostly closed, it sprayed all over his front, coming out of his nose as well. It set his fur on fire.

He was still lucid enough to react to this, and staggered, falling off the path. The panther rolled, the plant-life setting alight in his wake.

Finally, he crashed to a stop against a massive tree with a pained yowl. He laid there until the flames went out, moaning pitifully.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Sebastian blinked blearily, his mind even more muddled than before. He attempted to rise, only for the pain in his head to peak, and he managed to drop his jaw quick enough so that he didn't set himself aflame again, instead vomiting burning bile on a nearby, unalite tree. Which, of course, quickly set alite. Flames quickly raced up it, consuming the bough of leaves in a fantastic show akin to fireworks.

Slowly, the panther rose to his paws, blinking blearily. He wheezed, his throat burning from the bile, and all he could think was that he needed to get to his den. All his muddled mind could think was 'den-safe-cool-quiet'.

He remained totally unaware of the chaos around him.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Trudging, he made his way back to the dirt path through sheer willpower. That, and a desperate need for coolness. While normally he was one to love the heat, now it was stifling, making his pain worse.

As he left the burning portion of the forest, he continued to trail flames. Fire bloomed in his pawprints, spreading the fire behind him. At the moment, he was a beast of the apocalypse, spreading death to any Lessers unlucky enough to be in the vicinity.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Finally, he arrived at the edge of the chasm. He wobbled unsteadily, and made his way down to his alcove. It took the better part of an hour, as each step was slow and weak, but finally he found his alcove. As he climbed, the fire continued to rage.

He moved to go through the ivy and moss, only to freeze. His fur stood on end, and he choked, spitting pyrogel on the moss. The panther moaned, and made his way into the alcove. Slowly, he staggered to the back of the cave, where it was the coolest and the darkest. Collapsing, his head faced the ivy.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

The panther wheezed, giving a low moan. His eyelids fluttered, ribs heaving as he fought for each breath. His inner flame fluttered, completely out of control.

Sickly tears oozed from his tear ducts, and snot dripped from his nostrils. Each other breath was a weak cough, and his whole body hurt, throbbing from the burns on his flesh.

It took him a fair amount of time to fall asleep, weakness clinging to him. Black lines smoked into his vision, and finally his eyes flicked closed.

As he slept, he coughed painfully. Each breath rattled, his inner flame causing smoke to spill from his mouth and nose.

And, with one particular cough, burning air shot from his mouth. It flew far enough to set the pyrogel aflame, and it exploded, setting the moss around it alight. The moss, somewhat dry, burned quickly, racing up the sides of the cavern, and the pyrogel flew far enough as to set the moss on the opposite side of the cavern on fire as well. As it climbed, the fire spread to the other side of Eridanus, which had been safe from the fire before.

Soon, all of the moss of the cavern was alight, making it appear to be the maw of hell itself. The panther, dead asleep in the back of his cave, protected only by a vent in his alcove, slept the sleep of the sick, completely unaware of the fire that consumed his brother's beloved forest.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.