[Video; Unseelie]

[colecomfort]

((WARNING: animal suffering.))

[The locket's view opens on a small beach, too small for the creature that's washed itself ashore. It lies with its body twisted and turning across the gravel and the nearby withering tree roots: a great sea snake. On first glance, it may appear dead — but the gills behind its head are still twitching. It struggles to breathe.

The view shudders, as if the hand holding the locket at chest height is shaking. Cole has been murmuring since the locket opened.]

—ee, see. I can't see. It's so bright, so still — no more glimmering, glinting, only white and dry, waiting for death to take me, gasping for water. I can't — I can't breathe...

[Cole gasps for breath himself, regains his bearings. For a moment. He takes a step closer. The locket is left open and continues to show the creature as he moves toward it, but now it swings lightly, forgotten. From out of view, the sound of a dagger being drawn.]

Can't return to the deep. Left in the air and the heat and the heaviness to drown. It will take such a long time...