You've seen this all before.


Everyday he spent in the swamp was a learning experience. He may never leave, but that fact has not seemed to bother him all that much so far.

Well, doesn't it get boring? Isn't it too small? One may ask.

No, he would respond, if he could only figure out how. Because each part is different. There is still lots of room to wander. There are still so many different forms of life. Views of the world. Feelings of it all in motion. Senses filled each passing moment with something different - no one place, even, remained the same between just mere seconds.

Besides, he was no stranger to feeling trapped. This place...it had fresh air. It had open space. It displayed the sky in all of its glory. It was dark, and light, and cold, and warm, and everything it could be. There were no bars, no chains, not even any dummies nor tests he ever had to worry of. It was free. Freer than he has ever been before. Free enough to last a lifetime to the boy.

It was everything he had ever asked for...minus one thing.

But, that wasn't relevant to him today. At the very least, he tried to make it irrelevant, despite what any of those voices may concur.

The tiger did just as it said - woke up, and he's come to the conclusion that he is hungry. He has since learned that the alligators are perhaps not the best meals offered, but they at least gave out a lot of meat for one catch, and they were not exactly hard to find - nor catch, so long as he caught them outside of deep water. So, this was what he would do.

However, it seems he would run into a complication upon beginning his meal, the smell of burnt meat mixed vaguely with gator blood - the kill is clean, for the most part - filling the air. Vines creep towards it, causing his attention to drift as he suddenly finds a strange plant seeming to grow right on top of his catch. The tiger stares, tensing in confusion, until he finds a venus flytrap emerge. Though, something was so clearly off about it - sharp teeth protruded from its lobe, and it seemed much larger than he would have ever imagined one to be. He cannot help but watch it silently, unsure of what exactly was going on.

But then it twisted around his food and bit down, and suddenly instincts took over. The male let out an angered roar towards it, confusion still ripe within his expression. The plant did not give off any sort of response to his warning, so he swiped one of his paws towards it, the flytrap swinging to the side only to sprout its vines around his paw and fling itself forward, its jaws wide to clamp down onto the boy's head. He lets out another roar, shaking himself quickly only to feel the grip tighten and blood escape his head. His flames are sprouting all over his body now, surely rampaging upon his foe. His orange eyes glowing through the heat as he feels the teeth quickly let go, the plant slithering away as it pushes itself towards water as quickly as possible to avoid being burnt further.

The tiger's flames rage on still after it escapes, growls exiting him as he bares his teeth. He stood, hunched over his meal ablaze, frozen in a pose of action as he stares to where the creature crawled off.

The swamp brings many new lessons to be learnt.

Exiting his house was getting harder and harder lately, and Wormwood has honestly just about to head back home from his short walk out just to catch himself some food, when all of a sudden he heard a bunch of commotion and smelled burning. Anxiety immediately spiking up within him, the kion turned and quickly moved toward the noise, arriving.just in time to see Roy grumbling and glaring with his head faintly bloody, and Audrey darting off into the water and then continuing on, having been on fire. His eyes widened significantly at the scene, first with a definite sense of panic over Audrey. The plant wasn't dead, but they had been pretty clearly been on fire, and he knew eventually they would return to Beck and the ghost boy would be pissed as hell. The male opened and closed his mouth for a moment, struggling to figure out what to do about that, before shaking.his head and sighing heavily. In all honesty, there wasn't really anything that could be done. The plant was going to look like they had been burned no matter what, and lying to Beck was probably a terrible idea, especially right now, so it was better to just deal with Roy ar the moment and worry about Beck's reaction later. All that he could hope for was that Beck was still at home, and wouldn't be around to bear witness to what had happened.

Moving over to where Roy was still hunched over, flames burning furiously on his body, Wormwood hesitated before speaking up, making sure that he was a step away so that if he startled the boy he wouldn't be getting a faceful of claws, [glow=black,1,400]"Roy...? Roy, are you alright? I caught the tail end of that, but I think I can piece together what happened... is your head alright?"[/glow] He didn't dare get closer at the moment, since even if he could manipulate the flames away from himself, Roy was still a tiger and fully capable of messing him up if he put effort into it, so instead he glanced down at Roy's now mangled meal before continuing on with his words, sighing as he began to explain, [glow=black,1,400]"That... that plant you just encountered is Audrey. They're Beck's pet... well, more of a friend really than just a pet. They can be pretty aggressive sometimes. Or, well, most of the time. Beck... probably isn't going to be happy when he sees what you did to them... but we'll deal with that later. Do you want me to get Selb- er, do you want me to get Delilah for you? The bite doesn't look like it went too deep, but you always want to make sure that things don't get infected."[/glow] He was speaking a lot more words than he usually did to Roy, but he figured that the other would get where he was coming from in the words that he said.

Briefly, the male glanced off in the direction that Audrey had gone off at, a sigh leaving his body. He wasn't sure what the hell they could do about that, but he certainly didn't want Roy to get screamed at when Audrey had attacked first. It would've been quite helpful if Red was still here, since he had a relationship with Beck that might've actually.made him able to make the ghost cool off, but unfortunately Red was still missing, and all they had was themselves. Roy probably wouldn't be able to properly defend himself, and Worm certainly didn't want to face Beck's childish wrath, but it seemed that it was coming to that, unless somebody else showed up that agreed with Worm that Roy couldn't take all the blame. Given Worm's record with others lately, though... he wasn't holding out hope.

Well, that was definitely a lot to take in.

Lewis was next to approach having seen the fiasco between the tiger and the venus flytrap that seemed to have a mind of its own. He would walk over to see that Wormwood was there and ah, of course, there was Roy the tiger he had met when he had arrived at Tanglewood. His whiskers twitched a bit as he would mew with a soft chuckle "Wow... This swamp definitely provides plenty of surprises." His gaze would then lock onto Roy rather concerned for the male wondering if he was alright, he would sit down slowly looking towards the alligator noticing the smell of burnt flesh and blood making him recall his own encounter with an alligator. He would stare down at his paw only to move his toes briefly, they were getting a bit chilly now that he thought about it. He would let a small flame sprout onto his pawpads holding it there delicately as if it were a fragile rose of some sort, he blinked smiling at Roy. [glow=COLOR,1,400]♛[/glow]

The flames may arise from his own body, but the heat even for him was beginning to make itself louder than the adrenaline. A burning sensation licked at his sides and he felt the flames start to disperse away from his body and sit more around his paws and sides in a defensive manner. Still diluting his gaze, but far enough away that his fur would not burn farther than it already has. If only they could see through that ring - it would be the most fur anyone would have ever seen from the boy. Though, if they were to see, they, too, would realize, patches of it were missing.

He huffs, paws shaking as Wormwood approaches, flames increasing in height. Though, the seem to die down slightly once he hears the words, his body crouching closer to the ground. He blinks up at the lion, the words registering but no response dialing in his head. The growling ceases, at least, and he seems to be grounding himself some more. That is, until, he hears the male's next set of words. "Friend?" he mumbles in shock. The tiger tenses, his body growing smaller. Beck was going to be unhappy. He hurt his friend. Roy was going to be punished. He was bad. He's done it again. He had promised himself he wouldn't.

The weapon is frozen - useless -

it thinks it can defy its purpose.

He was like a ticking time bomb; he needed to be locked up to keep others safe.

Another came - the flaming skeletal creature, similar to himself, but now he can only see and hear the voices and the fire and his mistakes roaring at him. "I'm sorry." He mumbles with a shaky voice. What are you doing? Let's go! Before he wakes up!

He had never been one to run away from his problems before, but now all he can think is that it was his only choice. It is the second time he has been presented this choice, and he has the opportunity to choose right. Why wouldn't he take it?

Oh, but, where would he go? It doesn't matter.

The beast's paws lift and leap into the air, past the others, running quickly. The flames follow his body, enveloping him once more as he fades into the distance. If any were to follow, call out, plead for him, he would not realize it, he would not hear it. He is too far away now. He has hurt too much now. He has seen this all before.