FINTAIL

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

"Mrrr..."

RIPTIDE'S EYES gradually opened. He would come to staring at the smoking skies above. Nothing rendered to his brain, not his senses, not his pain, nothing... not at first. He forced a cough, quick to recognize that he was lying on his side, splayed out like fresh-kill in a successful hunt. He couldn't move at first, nor could he feel anything other than the tremors of the earth. But he could smell... and the first thing that struck his lungs was the wretched taste of blood.

His blood.

Riptide quickly dragged a claw to his underbelly. A whimper left him as fresh crimson started gushing from several massive grooves carved in his underbelly. He was hurt. Bad. And it wasn't just him; Speck was howling across the ravaged crater, his right hip also bleeding from the same source.

Speck!

Riptide tried to stand upon the unstable earth. The quake only dropped him back onto his stomach. Shock still rendered the pain into a dull, numbing throb, but that was all. And his vision was distorting, too; briefly did the longsnout see specks of blackness flood his visage, the same kind you get if you were traversing the molten grounds of the desert.

Something was happening to him. He just didn't know what.

"S-Speck!" he cried, rolling onto his other side for leverage. His legs faintly struggled to maintain themselves, but pushed just enough to draw closer to the squirming longsnout. Riptide's jaws tightened as he pulled forward, growling against the growing anguish in his gut to be with his brother.

"I g-got you, little brother," Riptide croaked. He struggled back to his feet, grasping his brother by the neck and hoisting him to his good foot. Speck didn't say anything; his sobs were enough to render what he was thinking. Riptide winced, looking around at his broken home, hoping to find a place to hide.

There wasn't anything left.

He coughed again, violently this time, feeling a burst of warmth trickle from his maw. He squeezed his eyes shut, nearly fumbling over to his side, and snarled to dismiss it.

You're fine, he thought quickly. You're... f-fine...

It was a shame he was forced to lie to himself. Riptide was feeling a different kind of tired, one he's never experienced before. It was as if he was falling under a spell of sorts, the one that takes over your scales and forces you to stop. His vision was going hazy, and his steps were slowing, and his underbelly was numbing up. The voices, the sounds — it all muffled out all around him. And what replaced it was the eerie sound of his slowing heartbeat.

Thu-Thump...

Thu-Thump...

He stumbled into a still-standing tree, gritting his tongue against each fang as his vision flickered in and out of focus. Everything sounded so far away. And his mind was fogging up like the haze of a midnight storm. Riptide shook his head and nibbled his tongue, trying to keep his vision stable.

But even that proved useless.

It was here when the male suddenly collapsed onto all fours, panting uncontrollably. His right knee struck second, right on cue to alert his brother.

"R-Riptide?"

"I'm alright..." wheezed the longsnout, fighting each breath as blood and smoke collected in his throat. "I need... a minute..."

And he dropped to the ground like a rock.

"RIPTIDE!"

Riptide didn't know what happened in the few seconds that he lost consciousness. He only felt pain... sheer unkind pain, the one cursed upon the weakest of all creatures. His green maw opened and closed as he panted, nostrils flared to suck in each brazen waft of oxygen. But he never returned a reply to his brother. Nor did he have the strength to.