uncaring

      Jaxx ran his eyes across the tarnished shoreline. Every wave brought more thick, black stuff with it, leaving it on the beach like a lazy customer in a supermarket leaves a product on a wrong shelf they do not want after all. The beurre coated vayron turned up his nose. This gunk stank up the whole beach. It smelled like the general term of “dirty”, mixed with a strong hint of sewage and ammonia. Jaxx shook his head in disgust before pulling himself together. He trotted onward and glanced at the situation around him. The closer to the water he went, the blacker the sand became - and it wasn’t just dirty either. It looked like the very grains of sand had gone black and crystal like, instead of being only blackened by the tar. Jaxx felt a shiver down his spine as he trotted along, weaving between the people helping each other and the injured. Their speech and shouts went in from one ear and came out the other. He wasn’t interested - he had only stumbled across the scene during his travels. He liked travelling. He could just pass through a place without much impact or no impact at all. Jaxx glanced over his shoulder at someone shouting. The beurre male wasn’t too keen on helping. More often than not, it just ended up with Jaxx himself getting hurt - or getting tangled into things he definitely did not want to be a part of. He stopped to think and puckered. That really made him sound like an arse, didn’t it. He tried to rephrase it. Nope - still a rectum. Oh well, can’t please everyone - or himself for that matter. He shrugged, huffed softly at himself and kept walking. His rotten luck had gotten him into too many complex scenarios he had to fight tooth and claw to get out of. He was done with loss if he had a way to avoid it.
      The beurre vayron came to a halt as he reached the water. He did not dare to let his toes touch it. It was blackened with swirls of tar and oil like substances, with thick sheets of, whatever that filth was, floating on top of it. Jaxx leaned in with his neck stretched out. He held his breath as he was quite sure it would not smell like roses, since that substance was the very thing that stank up the whole shoreline. He squinted. Someone hollered behind him, but Jaxx did not pay attention to the sound. The sound repeated as the thick film on the water’s surface started to bend upwards. Jaxx pulled his head back. Something was protruding underneath, and suddenly the sheet of matter split open. It spread out into pieces like a slick of thick, partially dried up gel - and from between those sheets of gunk rose a vayron. Jaxx stumbled backwards and tripped on his own tail. The tar blackened, wet sand cushioned his fall only a little, as he started to roll around like an idiot. Once he finally got himself positioned the way he wanted he felt his heart skip a beat - or two. Like a deer in the headlights, Jaxx froze. He didn’t even try to move, but he knew that even if he did, it would be no use. He couldn’t. He was terrified.
      The stranger emerged from the darkened water slowly. Handful of swaying and twitching tentacle-like appendages preceded the way for its head - only for Jaxx to realize that they were actually a part of it. They reached for the sky above, trying to keep their position separate from the thing’s movement. Two of them, one on each side of its neck, seemed to have stingers on their ends. The creature’s whole body started to lift itself from the salt saturated water. The pitch black sheets of filth laid against its skin before falling back whence they came. The creature’s front limbs stepped out of the water with their tawny claws digging into the wet sand. The beurre male’s eyes fixated onto the circular markings on its forearms - as if they were mocking him for his fear, judging his hunched posture with their unrelenting stare. The creature’s whole body emerged from the water inch by inch as it took steps forward. It moved with determination, yet its trajectories had no swiftness of haste - nor did they carry grace. The way it moved felt just as filthy as its coat looked, with its sallow base color and oil-like, black smears. As the thing shook its whole body to dry off, a silvery, angular earring catched Jaxx’s attention for a passing moment with its glint. As he was about to lower his eyes again he was met with a prideful stare. It was looking down on him, towering over his pathetic smallness. With its lip curled back, it revealed a small section of its black teeth, showcasing its white gums on the side. Its head tilted back ever so slightly as Jaxx’s ears drooped further down to the sides of his head. He averted his eyes from it. It wore a sly grin he did not like. He felt a pressure against his skin, spreading from the strange vayron. It felt dirty and thick, like air thickened with smoke, making it hard to breathe. As if its very being radiated something bad, toxic even. It kept Jaxx glued onto the sand against his will. He watched as it walked, slowly passing him. It did not endow the other with another glance - so deep was its disgust for his cowardice.