The water rippled before the hulking mass breached the water, planting its scarred claws against the marsh. They let out a huge huff through its nostrils, mouth hanging slightly open for fresh air. The process of getting out of the swamp-water looked strenuous, due in part to the amount of muscle and thick, heavy hair it had to drag along with itself.

When it surfaced, it crawled along with the mud, and then shook murky, stinking water from its fur. Then, it slumped down onto its belly and fell still.

This was life for Kala, or at least as far as Kala was willing to call life. They swam (a generous definition. something closer would be 'float'). They hunted. They swam some more. And then they took a particularly heavy nap, because that, no doubt, was very hard work.

Sometimes, someone else would pass by. Most of the time, Kala was content to ignore them-- but sometimes, they'd get too close, annoy Kala while it was trying to sleep, or would intentionally pick fights. The last one took one of it's fingers. But Kala didn't mind.

Enrichment was enrichment.

The only sound to come out of the filthy, damp swamp monster was a series of gunshot-like growls, breathy and abrupt and scattering a couple of hallowed callers that had perched nearby. Content, Kala curled up closer to itself and placed its head down in the mud.

There was comfort to swamp and stone. Solitude in the mists. Erick strode casually through the wastes with little regard to surroundings. He had took up home here for several cycles; he wasn't sure how long really. Somewhere in the Divine's gnarled, creepy roots. He could admit they were concerning at first. He had half a mind to avoid them. But his often-present curiosity of the non-mundane implored him to investigate and he found solace in their brackish embrace. He never really ventured beyond what he knew after that. Today he decided... what the hell, let's explore.

Erick's laden feet trotted him to the the center of the mire; a vast, dark, misty marsh with the buzzing of insects. It was mysterious, but unremarkable. That was, until he heard loud, quick, and strange sounds coming from its bubbling goo. His brow furrowed. It didn't sound like the mud was making it. It sounded... animal. Feral.

His heart skipped a beat. He froze, tail instinctively rising. He craned his neck from his perch near the watery mud to see if he could see anything.

Was anything there?

@Kala

Kala was silent. At least in the verbal department.

The exact sights of Cetus was mostly unknown to it, albeit willingly so. The mask covering its eyes kept it calmer, more relaxed. Instead of knowing Cetus from sight alone, it knew it from heat signals and sounds instead, which meant that when something new froze nearby, Kala was aware of it.

And decidedly, they were interested.

It was their massive head that moved first; bones faintly creaking as they raked through the mud to face Erick. This gesture was more for the sentiment than the actual action of eyeing him up and down-- in Kala's mind this meant 'hello, I can see you,' but from the outside perspective had a higher rate of translating to 'hello, I am a fucking big, eyeless monster and here are my teeth.'

There was a brief shift in the mud after this; Kala began to stand but it swayed its body off towards the side to avoid Erick's head craned over near it. It didn't much appreciate the closeness, but it also didn't think the skunk was-- well, that much of a threat, though it'd been wrong about other animals before.

Still, it was more comfortable at a distance, and so at a distance it went, slowly striding a good six feet away in what could only be described as appropriate social distancing before stopping and swinging its body back to face Erick again.

And there it stayed, waiting, almost expectantly. Without speaking.

@Erick

A strong feeling of utter dread grabbed at Erick's sides and held him further solidified in place. A head was rising up through the mud and, judging by the size of it, harbored an equally huge body beneath the murk. Erick quite honestly wanted to throw up from horror. Something he was definitely not proud to admit. The... thing... moved and he squished his eyes shut tightly, waiting for the end.

But the beast moved farther away and the skunk could only think he must have simply disturbed it. His heartbeat began to stop thrumming as hard against his sternum and he could finally feel his limbs again. Erick was hardly relaxed in its presence now but he could gain his composure at the least.

He swallowed hard, trying to figure out what in the ever flying hell to do. Did he leave? Did he stay? Did he talk? Though the more time passed, the more he felt he still didn't dare move. "Um... S-Sorry." He finally called out. Did the thing understand him? It had after all moved away from him, making him think it wanted to be left to its solitude and that was honestly alright with him. Erick didn't like interacting with normal gembounds, let alone freaking giant mud monsters.

@kala