Sebastian stepped gingerly.

All of his natural grace had gone, leaving him to limp heavily. All four of his paws were heavily burned, weeping pus. And they couldn't heal, they had to take his weight every day.

He wanted to lay in his den, as he had been. Stare at the wall, where he could pretend nothing had happened. That Eridanus hadn't burned, that he hadn't betrayed his brother's trust.

But he needed to fix his mistake. Make reperations for his sins.

He hadn't seen Rift since the fire - had exiled himself. When he smelled Rift, he fled for the Trench. But he entered the Forest - the burnt parts of it, that is - to pull up dead plants, prying out their seed pods and finding a place to plant them so that they might grow anew.

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

He was so thirsty.

So he found a stream, and lowered his head to drink. And it stung - the flesh on his mouth had begun to heal, but it still hurt. The wound on his chest was almost healed, but he used his mouth for so much that it struggled to heal. Not as badly as his paws, but near enough.

He lapped at the water, pulling it into his mouth, before pulling his head back to allow the wound to rest. His eyes opened, and landed on his reflection as the water stilled.

What he saw disgusted him.

A monster stared back at him. Eyes that held fire, a mouth burned from wielding destruction. He deserved it. He deserved those scars for what he had done.

He deserved further scars. He deserved to be a giant scar, his fur burned to cinders, a walking scar, so that everyone would know he was a monster. Would know to stay away from him before he turned on them like he had Rift.

He curled his lips back, baring his teeth at his reflection. No, that wasn't quite right. He ruffled his fur, barely feeling the pain as skin and fur burned, smoke beginning to gather around him.

'There', he thought, staring at his reflection, a monster enshrouded with smoke, that was how he should be seen. A monster, nothing more. One who should be put down before he could harm someone else.

But the spell hadn't been strong, and quickly faded, leaving nothing more than a Panther, even as the panther stared into the water, and saw a monster.

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