Night time had fallen around the lands, swallowing up the light with an insatiable greed only to cover up the remnants with a cloak of darkness. Many animals had wisely returned home hours ago,  allowing for the nocturnal predators to resume their prowls. I was ever grateful for the night, now more than ever thanks to the strange sensitivity that had overcome me after the battle with the mutated wolf and the Moon Goddess. That would be the last time I ever did a God or Goddess any fucking favors, taking on unnecessary risks to attempt to protect a Goddess that did not seem to appreciate my efforts. Not only did I walk away feeling as though I was nothing more than a shadow, something I was usually proud of, but there was a bitterness in my heart as others actually received gifts. Want to know what glorious gift I managed to get? Nothing. A big fat, voluptuous pile of nada.

No, no that is  not entirely true. I did manage to walk away with one thing, a damned illness that I had never in my life even witnessed before. After I had stormed into the shadows of the strange bamboo forest, I had noticed that everything...Everything seemed too bright, like my eyes had dilated for no reason. Then I noticed I started getting the sniffles, a strange aftertaste was constantly lingering in my mouth no matter how much water I downed,  and there was the ever constant sensation of something on my face. Eventually, I had felt the need to spit something out of my mouth. The substance that spewed from my lips was vile, disgusting and intriguing. Never before had I seen such a thick, dark saliva come from the mouth of any creature, a slime that was too thick to be the effects of something I ate. But when I rubbed the side of my face along the inside of my leg,  I discovered that my eyes and nostrils were also leaking this same substance, the evidence left smeared along my right foreleg.

What in the flying fuck had happened to me was more strange than anything that happened to me in another life, and I actually began to think that it might be continued delayed affects from my travels through a Rift many years ago. Much like the flame-like horns had grown from the split skin of my muzzle, perhaps this was just a sign that my mutations were not over. As night time had choked away the daylight, my eyesight drastically improved at a rate that was surely impossible for any equine. I found myself able to pick out the individual patterns of the bark of each tree,  small animals such as rabbits and mice could be seen from a remarkable distance with any little movement. It didn't matter that it was a dark night, my eyes seemed to draw in any reflected moon and starlight and granted me the gift of an owl's eyesight.

While my eyesight had improved, my sense of smell was damn near obsolete. It was discomforting, being unable to sniff for the scent of unwanted guests on the wind before I could see or hear them. The black slime that dripped from my nares must have something to do with it. For whatever reason, it was annoying as hell. Yes, this was the thanks I received for assisting the Moon Goddess. Mark my words, I would not make the mistake of offering my help to those unworthy again. My lips pulled back in a silent snarl at the thought, ears pinning back into my tousled mane as I spat more of the slime out on the earth.



OOC: Open! Panzram has GLL - and now has the side affects of completely lost sense of smell, and the eyesight of an owl. @Random Event for anyone that joins.

The silence of the night was broken the sound of someone approaching, my ears flicking back to the hoofsteps of an intruder behind me, pinning firmly with my own frustration at being unable to smell the air for clues as to who it was. My neck snapped back as I sought out the figure of whoever dared to sneak up without warning, dark eyes sending a burning glare as they landed on a striped mare with an impressive rack. (Ha.) My crown rose skeptically as she stared at my face, my nose scrunching and a lip pulling back in a sneer as a strange language escaped her lips. Had I lost my ability to hear as well? Had this sickness infected my ability to comprehend basic speech? No, I realized it hadn't as she spoke again in a tongue more familiar to me.

I was silent for a moment, pondering over whether or not she would be worth it to bother answering. Many a mare around here and proven to be more hassle than they were worth, what would make this stranger any different? My eyes scanned over her relatively short frame, hovering over her stocky curves as my improved eyesight took in every dip and slope of muscle underneath her coat before rising up her neck to settle on the vivid emerald of her eyes. "This-" I barely managed to hack out before it triggered a coughing fit, finally able to spit out another glob of the slime. "This is the thanks I get for helping out a Goddess, a disease that's started spreading around like wildfire. Hell, it's probably already too late for you."

I snorted at my last statement, as though already deciding that she was too weak to resist the disease and whipping my tail along my flank. I would not apologize to her if she caught it, it was her own fault for sneaking up on the devil at night. But, I did decide to give her a little warning, my tone becoming just a bit more solemn and quiet. "Nothing has helped as of yet." My gaze drifted away from her as I wondered if finding a healer would be able to help, but ultimately decided to drop that idea and brought my focus back to the vixen that had so foolishly chosen to join me in the night.

"Who are you?" The question slipped out with great curiosity as I stepped forward, orbs narrowing slightly as I gauged her reaction. Was she truly foolish as I had first made her out to be? Or was she more than she let on to believe, a rarity among women these days? "Are you the lost little deer, falling victim to what draws you in during the night?" I pressed on, beginning to circle around her as I studied her body language and testing her capabilities to handle herself in the sudden change of focus and tone. "Or..." Rounding around to her other side, I stretched my neck out to whisper to her, glancing up to be ever mindful of the antlers on the top of her head before further playing my words on her appearance. "Are you the tigress, braving the shadows and the demons without fear?"