SUCKER FOR PAIN | ABANDONED CHILD

[Sorrel]

Where was he supposed to go now? The only thought that could come to his mind was to survive and feed himself for the rest of his life. He didn't dare go back to his family. If anything the voice had convinced him that his family was nothing to him. He would never consider them to be family that much was for certain. The young male had learned a lot from his relative, but the voice in his head was almost a better teacher than he was. Zephyr thought that he was far too young to go through such a tragedy. Were his other classmates even alive anymore? He had simply ran from the fire, and so he could only assume those that he studied with were all dead. The voice in his head told him not to worry about them. The caracal had other pressing matters to think about. He needed to get stronger, to be able to take care of ones that were like his relative that said that he was safe there. He was a liar. A LIAR. Zephyr may be young at this point in time, but he was forced to mature fairly quickly once he was sent away by his own parents that didn't want to deal with the potential that he had. It was hard enough to even get his father to look him in the eye and treat him like a son. He guessed that's what he got for having a criminal as a father. The thought made anger boil up inside of his body. His claws unsheathed to sink into the ground as he started to open his eyes. At first his eyes were filled with determination, until he realized that he was no longer alone.

He hadn't heard the jaguar land on the ground, or even noticed him in his distress. His thoughts made him seem deaf to his surroundings, and almost immediately the determatnion that was in his eyes immediately went away as they were filled with fear. The small caracal backed himself up against the tree that he was up against, his back arching and his fur fluffing up as he prepared to defend himself against the larger predator. It was rare that he had interacted with large predators such as a jaguar, so it was certainly a scare. His parents were much bigger than him, his mother being the same species as him while his father was a shifter from what he knew. Zephyr looked like a animal that was frightened and pushed into a corner, but as soon as the jaguar spoke that he smelled like smoke, the memories came flooding back. The young male flinched so fiercely that it almost looked like that he had been struck. The fighting attitude that he had once held immediately dissipated, and his body started to curl in himself as he started to shake. Tears started to prick his eyes at the horrible deal that he was dealt. Zephry couldn't even look at the larger wildcat as he was questioned, as he felt a lump in his throat. "I... don't know." Zephyr spoke softly, his voice barely a whisper. The melanistic caracal spoke the truth as he didn't know what injuries he had accumulated during his escape from his family. There were small patches of burned black fur across his form, and there were burns underneath his paw pads that he didn't feel just yet.

As the jaguar spoke, he realized he was in someone else's territory. He was lucky to have not been killed on sight for trespassing. Zephyr's short tail flicked behind him as he tried to swallow the lump in his throat, one tear dripping down his cheek and absorbing into the cold ground below. "What... is Elysium?" Zephyr spoke, his voice clearing up as he started to put up a wall that he didn't know he had. He finally raised his head to look up at the jaguar in front of him, keeping a submissive body language in the presence of something that could kill him in one bite. He had never heard of this place, and needed to know if it was far enough away from where he had just ran from where his own family had tried to kill him for no reason. Now that he thought about it, his relative looked somewhat scared as they stood over his sleeping form about to slice him in half, for what reason Zephyr did not know. The melanistic caracal's form continued to shiver due to the cold temperatures that this area seem to experience. The apprentice tried his best not to show any weakness, but his walls were shattered, broken, and littered with holes. He just wanted to feel safe.

BLACK HOLE IS PULLING MY INSIDE