[AW] For the birds

[Silas]

The morning air was the perfect temperature. Cool enough to be balm against the blistering heat that would soon appear as the sun rose and began to bake the earth, but warm enough to prevent the unexpected chill that makes you want to bury yourself under the covers. The wide river was soft in its passing this morning, surprisingly tranquil compared to the normal roar. On the sandy bank it trickled by, catching small granules and rocks as it went. Birds chirping, starting their day, was the only sound layered on top of the soft lapping of the river.

His lips were submerged as he slaked his thirst, but his eyes were up, watching his surroundings. It was boring, really. The river, the plains, the day. No one about, nothing to do. There weren't even any good trees around for him to scratch his antlers against. But his ears twitched to and fro, listening almost desperately for anything to relieve him of the dullness. The dullness that anyone else might have called a gorgeous summer morn.

A fledgling landed next to him, not two feet away. He lifted his head just slightly from the water's surface, water dripping slowly from his lips. It seemed to have been stunned, or perhaps something was stuck on its wing that was keeping it from flying. It chirped, helplessly grounded. It wasn't yet full grown, nor did it have all its feathers. A gentle smile crossed his face as it cocked its head and peered at him.

He shifted his weight, and crushed its small body beneath one hoof with a sickening crunch. Without lifting his hoof again, he went back to drinking.

[Histe]

HISTE you can't find the words so you scream instead "Shut up!" Histe snapped, her loud voice ringing out across the empty -- or so she assumed -- land. To her right a flock of birds squawked and took flight, startled by the sudden interruption of her voice on an otherwise peaceful morning. To her left Merikh rolled his amber eyes and huffed. "You know I'm right." Was his reply to his striped companion. "I said shut up!" Histe repeated a little more loudly this time, to which Merikh responded with a snarl. This was their normal. They would argue. They would fight. Then they would be friends again, hunting and eating together as they always had since they'd been bonded together. "If we stayed in Helovia you'd be dead." Merikh persisted. "You couldn't beat him in a fight. You know it." His insistence that she would have met her death only made Histe angrier and angrier with the cougar. There was no way in hell he could have killed her. Absolutely. No. Way. "Dead and rotten." Merikh pressed on. "Food for the maggots. And me." He then leveled his gaze on the mare. "I'd definitely eat you if you died." At first Histe didn't know what to think about that little tidbit of information, but then her temper flared. Her ears disappeared into the thin strands of her mane and her blood stained lips pulled back from her teeth. Merikh knew the telltale signs of when his bonded was about to attack, so he was ready for it. By the time her head shot forward and teeth snapped at where his face would have been he'd already run several feet ahead. Histe was not far behind, bellowing her anger as she thundered after the cougar. But the chase was cut short by the scent of fresh blood. She stumbled to an ungraceful stop, nostrils quivering as she scented the air. Her skin prickled with delight because there was nothing better than the smell of fresh blood. She just needed to find where and who it was coming from. That wouldn't prove to be difficult, however, because there was only one other horse around. She had missed him before because of Merikh and his stupidity, but now he had her full attention. The blood stained mare stalked toward the stallion and when she was only several paces away she stopped. The blood she had smelled was definitely coming from him, but she couldn't see any fresh blood on him. Her pale eyes traveled across his body, then down his leg and stopped at his hoof. Peeking out from beneath it she could see part of ... a wing? So he had killed a bird. "You gonna eat that?" "." ooc:// i'm a little rusty with her, but i'll get better

Credits

@Silas

[Silas]

He did not move, even as he was greeted with the sound of approaching footsteps. The small brown wing of the sparrow continued to poke out beneath his cream hoof as a tiny pool of blood formed there. Silas casually turned his antlered crown to face the mare that had just appeared. She was dark— beautiful and wild-looking. Her pale eyes glanced down at the small, broken body of the fowl.

To his surprise, she reacted with neither disgust nor fear nor shock. He was always met with at least one of those emotions, usually a combination of the three.

‘Are you going to eat that?-‘

His golden eyes stared into her pale ones for a long moment. ’Not at all what I expected.’ He moved slowly from his comfortable position, taking a few steps to the side away from her. ”I think not. I’m not particularly hungry, and that little nibble is hardly worth picking those tiny bones from my teeth.” He scoffed and his nostrils flared as he did. ”The tiny ones always seem to get stuck so easily. But please, enjoy it if you’re so inclined.”

Silas made a small gesture toward the bird stomped into the ground. He did not ask if she ate meat. Or if she had teeth like his. Or how she came to be a carnivore... if that was what she was. He asked none of these questions, though they had already lined up in his mind. The kirin’s attention has deviated to the cougar that was not far behind the mare.

The cougar didn’t appear to be hunting, and if it was, it was doing a terrible job of it. The mare had to have been aware, yet she showed no concern. His curiosity rose with each passing second. His eyes glittered and he turned his gaze back to her. ”Is he your pet... or are you his?”

[Histe]

HISTE you can't find the words so you scream instead She sneered when the stallion said that he wasn't going to eat the bird that he'd just killed. Of course his wasteful ass wasn't going to eat it. He even had the nerve to complain about the bird's tiny bones getting stuck in his teeth. "Then maybe you should kill bigger prey." She snapped haughtily. Like tiny little bird bones were really all that problematic. The hollow things snapped under the lightest bite and disentergrated into nothing if you chewed them enough. Her eyes fell to the crushed remains of the small bird when he finally moved his hoof. While most others would have been appalled and horrified at the state of the animal, Histe was excited. There was nothing quite like the smell of blood no matter the time of day. Even the entrails that had oozed from its tiny crushed body made the mare absolutely giddy. She actually giggled to herself as she snatched the dead sparrow by the wing. For a moment she considered tossing the little morsel to Merikh, then decided against it. He could go find his own snack. Bones snapped and crunched beneath her teeth and for a moment she forgot about the stallion standing there with her as she savored the metallic taste of blood as it coated her tongue. But then he opened his mouth and spoke again and his words caused the mare's expression to darken dangerously. The temptation to spit the chewed up bird in the stallion's face proved to be too much and that was exactly what she did. Or ... at least in the vicinity of his face. Whether or not her aim was true depended on if he moved out of the way of the slimy, chewed up, feathered projectile. Her ears laid flat against her head as she glared at the stallion that had the gall to ask if she were a pet. She had only been refered to as a pet once in her life and the mare that had done it had very nearly had her head smashed in and her pretty little brains smeared across the ground. "I belong to no man, woman, or beast." She hissed. "But given enough time I could make you my pet." "."

Credits

@Silas

[Silas]

Silas groaned and rolled his eyes when the mare scolded him. He didn’t give a flying fuck if he was wasteful. That wasn’t his problem in the slightest. Her reprimand failed to cow him. Instead he was mildly irritated. Her giggle when she saw the mutilated corpse, though, and his mood cooled. He found her laugh rather infectious. A smirk crossed his face and he also found himself chuckling.

But she didn’t like his next comment, no, not at all. He barely dodged the bird spitball. His eyes narrowed as he stared at it on the ground next to him. He turned his gaze back to the bristling mare to find her ears practically invisible against her skull. Apparently he had pricked a nerve. (Though to be fair, that had been his intention all along.)

A challenging gleam appeared in his eyes. “I see. Well I’m afraid that would be as impossible as stopping gravity.” She seemed like the type to not let such trifles stand in her way.

“Fine.” He said nonchalantly, and flicked the topic away like he flicked his tail against his flank. “Do you have names or are you just Carnivore 1 and Carnivore 2? That’s quite a mouthful so I’d prefer something shorter.” He was positive she’d respond this time as angrily as before, and he watched her with anticipation. Getting a rise out of her was proving quite entertaining.

@Histe