Her time was nearing its end for hunting. The tides were shifting in the ocean, becoming lower, exposing hunting grounds to the battering winds and the lightening sky. She could feel herself getting tired, even if her muscles were used to traversing the water for days on end, but each flick of her tail was slow, labored. The currents were pushing against her as she plunged through the shallow waters, urging her to go back, retreat, deeper into the comforting waves.
As much as she wanted to obey, to give in to rest when the dawn was so close to approaching, she couldn't. Tonight had proved to be a fruitless hunt, which in her case was not good at all. It would be a full moon tomorrow, and she needed the extra calories to survive that horrific night.
She had hoped that by straying farther from the settlements on the Yoreiq Isles, the fishing would have been better, not scared away by all the flopping and frantic seizures of the humans attempting to hunt. But apparently that was not the case. Even drifting for hours in the darkened waters had yielded nothing, just the last silver scatterings of a bait ball that other sharks had rounded and preyed upon. The fish left were broken, with barely enough meat left on their ribs to compensate for the effort of eating them. By Neptune did she miss the days of yore! The days where her and the other mers would scour the oceans, thrusting with their tridents to take down the great beasties-- the sea dragons, the squid, great predators of the ocean that fed for days on end, that made her adrenaline race and her heart roar in her ears.
And now here she was. A wash-up. An exile, an outcast. Punished for a crime that she could never seek repentance for.
The shadows of the waves above cast rippling patterns on the blue-gray of her tail, swimming in easy strokes, the crescent of her fin slicing the water easily. Thin lips were set in a small frown as her stark black eyes still scanned the ocean before her, searching for a sign of prey. She kept her trident loose in her grip, the webbing between her fingers stretched thin over the gray stone and bluish-green algae that clung to her weapon. Her white locks were plastered against the sides of her face, hastily chopped, rough and by her own hand. The chainmail that she wore around her chest had seen better days; spots of rust were appearing on the edges, no matter how often she tried to scape them off. At least she had armor, even if it was nothing compared to what she had before... oh, the chest plates and shoulder guards. How you missed something that was taken so easily for granted.
Icy winds bit at her dorsal fin as Sekhet breached the surface, seeing the sand banks of the beach sloping upwards in the waters. She was close to the shoreline. Not an ideal place for someone like her. Her gills fluttered as she sighed, and Sekhet closed her eyes, ready to turn back. She didn't want to have to be any closer to the shore than was an absolute necessary... at least until tomorrow.
Splashing. The sound made Sekhet turn, sinking underneath the waves as she caught watery images playing on the surface. A creature, fairly large in size, with hard nails that it stood upon. It took Sekhet a minute to realize what she was staring at-- a horse.
A horse! Her lips split into a demonic grin as rows and rows of sharp teeth glinted in the coming light. Graceful on land, but slow and stupid in the water. Oh, perhaps she did catch a lucky break after all!
Sekhet raised her trident, tightening her grip, as she drew closer to the sounds of the mare frolicking in the waves, causing ripples that reverberated in her rib cage. She could almost taste the blood, the sweet flesh... The meal was ultimately too big and would attract the attention of predators for miles around, but if she ate fast... yes.
She waited, and then with a powerful sweep of her tail, Sekhet charged through the water, slicing through the liquid and cutting the surface as she lunged, arm outstretched as she thrust with her trident at the creature. A snarl tore from her throat as she felt the tines sink into the yielding flesh, the delicate ankle bones of the creature snapping as it gave a cry of pain.
Another burst of speed, muscles rippling along her tail as Sekhet beached, extending her jaws until they clicked apart, and then she launched from an incoming wave, hands outstretched as claws gleamed, but nothing was worse than her teeth. Her unhinged jaws sank into the horse's throat, slicing through the jugular vein and letting hot blood spill into her mouth as the creature thrashed, but every movement tore fur and muscle away from bone.
Sekhet twisted her head, bringing the horse down on its side, and began to drag her prey back into the ocean, one hand on its front leg as she pulled back into the waves, her other using her trident to stick into the soft sands and pull back, taking this horse as her own.
She wouldn't go hungry tonight.
