[Just as a note, I don't think Circuta is in this thread any more? The very bottom of her post she says she runs as soon as she sees someone. o.o]

She left him.

She left him in the Frostbreath Steppe as the darkness descended. She was supposed to love him, she was supposed to care for him, she was supposed to protect him, but instead she left him. His legs were not as long, not as strong, not as fast, so when they ran, and he fell, she kept on going, and he was consumed.

All that fear, all that anger, it bubbled in his chest as he stalked through the icy realm he thought so fondly of as his kingdom. He wasn't just a king though, not if what mother said was true, and he thought it was after what happened to him.


I am a GOD! I know it to be true. Just look at me. My teeth have grown pointed and long, all sitting shiny and pretty in my muzzle which has grown long and furred. My eyes, as blood red as ever, can better focus in front now that they sit closer together. I wear a crown now mother, you would love it, truly. It's the crown of a god, not just a horn protruding from my skull, though that's still there, but long and deadly as if I'm full grown - that's just the crown of our people. It's not just a wreath on my 'brow, that's just the crown of men. No, no, I have a god's crown, I have my father's crown.

My head is that of a giant wolf.


The rest of Öde is mostly ordinary, his stature still small and coltish, though his chest has widened and is adorned with long hair that gradually shortens to horse coat as it meshes with his stomach. His cloven hooves remain, but the feathering has grown so long it engulfs his toes and trails languidly behind his pasterns. His lion's tail does similar, and though it would appear to heavy, he can twitch it all the way to its end, and so it writhes as he walks like a dark snake, one that is ready to strike.

He kept moving north, exploring as his mother never let him do. He was curious to see his people after all, and he hoped they could satisfy the driving need he felt within. It was not the same as hunger, or cold, which his mother had satisfied when he was younger. It was not even the same as thirst or lust, be it of blood or sex, all Ode knew was he could not fulfill it alone. Was this why a god tended to his mortals like a shepherd to his sheep? Was it their belief he craved, or perhaps their screams of reverence? Was it merely their lives he needed to consume, an eater of souls.

Whatever it was, he'd soon learn, as he came to a halt before Illynx and Deimos. He appeared rather suddenly, his body transporting faster than normal, because he was not normal.
Öde smiled, his lips peeling back over his saliva smothered fangs. "You smell delightfully, fresh" he growled out, a sound that rumbled deep in his chest and hummed through the rest of his body so that his feathered legs trembled.
He laughed, a loud, abrupt noise that barked through his snout. It cut off as quickly as it started, and there was but a moment where he glanced at them both, red gaze glittering like freshly spilled blood. Then he lunged.

If they did not already find his appearance ordinary, or his lack of a scent other than carrion, then surely the way his wolf's maw unhinged to open up wide enough to consume a horse whole would alarm them. He drove forward, the snow unmoving beneath his phantom feet, intent to infect the both of them.