There’s this shape, black as the entrance to a cave.
A longing wells up in its throat
like a blossom
as it breathes slowly.

Anandi was not always hungry. But she always wanted to eat. To feast. To gorge herself, as though every moment was her last. It was just one of life’s finest pleasures (she had not yet been acquainted with the others) and she was beginning to realize just how much she liked the finer things in life.

Lazy hunting in the reef today. Schools of fish so big they cast a single large, flickering shadow on the coral below. It’s easy here, almost too easy— the fun is almost taken out of the game, when the killing is this good. She’s caught a grouper, the second of the day. It writhes violently in her vicelike grip before succumbing, as all creatures must, to the dark.

Anandi looks up. Two green eyes meet six blue.

The green take their time sizing up the marvelous creature before them. Anandi’s never met a bottom feeder. She’s never particularly cared to, in no small part because she never knew they could be beautiful. But oh, how lovely this one is! How stunning, even in her mousy brown simplicity. And yet-- not so stunning that Anandi feels threatened. Fine company indeed.

After a long moment Anandi sinks her teeth deeper into the fish in her mouth, sawing it in two. She swallows her piece and nudges the other half toward the stranger. The mutilated corpse drifts lazily in the red current. She watches, eyes wide and curious and sharp as glass.

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@Jaylin ;D