• "I'm sorry."

    The gasp was mustered with much effort, the words creeping from her gaped jaws. Her eyes, once a brilliant molten gold, were hazed over with a dimming gloss, her vision focused no more on Neptune, but something distant. Neptune's own eyes, lit with anger and turmoil, fixated on her bruised figurine, so tiny and so fragile. She was like a cracked porcelain doll, her thick white fur painted with warm, red blood.

    The most unforgiving look was cast upon his facials, an abrupt snort erupting from his nares, his skull jerking to face away from her. "Larka, you knew the consequences that came with what you did." He insisted with an acidic tone, the words rolling off his tongue like hot sauce. His wiry brown fur was bristled at the nape, his lips still peeled back to expose his yellow incisors, his muscles tense and flexed.

    Suddenly, her head tilted towards him, her ears flopping forth as her vision, with struggle, focused on his form. There seemed to be multiple of him, flickering right to left, however she knew this could not be fixed; she was not to live. A gentle sigh escaped her jaws as her head hit the ground again, her lids slowly fluttering over her eyes.

    "I did what was best for the pa-" Larka's soft, quivering words were cut off by Neptune's uncontrollable hostility. Whipping his skull back around, he snapped his strong jaws in her face, webs of saliva flinging from his jaws. "You chose HIM over ME! That, that.." Lost in his words and his own anger, he quickly turned away from her. He knew she was dying, there was nothing more he needed to say.

    "You only see what you want to see, Neptune." She still argued with brittle words, her eyes still closed. For a moment, Neptune paused, his labored heaving slowing down as he, as well, closed his eyes. She continued, "You knew he would be a better leader." Her body flinched, her sprawled body becoming more still as her breaths slowed.

    "You never loved me. You didn't choose me." He insisted, whirling around as heated anger boiled within the pits of his stomach, a snarl thrown in her direction. He slowly waltzed over to her still body, his eyes examining her innocent frame.

    'I.. still do.." Larka mustered under her breath, before her jaws finally closed for the last time. Neptune's brows furrowed with disgust, his face twisting in confusion. His head seemed to be spinning now as he backed away from her lifeless body, his skull tilting heavenwards to fixate on the dark, starless sky.

    Neptune's large paws slowly took him away from his destruction. His conscience? Unaltered. He only paused one, just once, to glance so curiously over his shoulder. Second-guessing himself; was she truly dead?

    But, to his horror, those bright golden eyes of her, the ones he'd fallen for, the ones he had destroyed.. wide as could be, they watched him go.