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  • Beqanna

    COTY

    Assailant -- Year 226

    QOTY

    "But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura


    bury my love in the moondust; any
    #1
    Slinking along the riversedge, the dun girl moves with a feline grace, an inevitability given the oddity of her physiology: shoulders that are not quite set right for a horse and feet that move far too quietly to be hooves. She moves along the well-shaded treeline, slipping through the budding warmth of an early spring day and looking like little more than a shadow herself. 

    This is the land she knows the best, the tallgrass meadows with good hunting and the massive oak where her pride spends their resting hours. Daedra has walked these trails since she was a cub; her first steps had been taken not far from where she now stands. 

    Her tail, a pale thing with a single dark tuft of hair at the tip, twitches against her striped hocks as she crouches, but soon falls still. A dozen yards ahead, a quail leads her feathered brood through the undergrowth. Each of the speckled chicks are no more than a single mouthful, but Daedra's belly is rumbling. They come closer, a dozen little feet pattering along the rain-damp earth. She's waits, poised, and the moment before she leaps someone comes around a copse of thick growth and startles the birds away. 

    Daedra huffs irritably, standing up from her crouch to get a better look at whomever had just interrupted her hunt.
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    #2
    He quietly slips through the outskirts of the nestled heart of Beqanna in his ocelot form. The river land is an unmarked territory he is not familiar with. It is the warmth of an early spring day that interest him to explore the lands of Beqanna more. He has been too cooped up during the winter time within Loess.

    Bright nutmeg eyes scan the horizon of the land. Taking in the new scenery that is only beginning to bud with new life. Titus memorizes the tallgrass, notes the colossal oak tree within the distance from where he moves. His eyes then follow the deep, rapid flowing river that wraps around the land.

    At the corner of his eye that he notices something moving. He barely catches a glimpse of the shadow. To only seeing the shadow for just a moment it is his assumption that there is more than one cat-like creature here.

    Carefully and quietly as he can be, the ocelot shifter moves across the land in the direction where the feline-shadow disappeared. Turning around the corner of the thick growth, Titus spots the family of quails and comes to a stop. His presence instantly startles the birds, sending them quickly far, far away.

    The feline-shadow appears out of the brush from where she crouched. Her huff is loud and audible for him to hear her rather obvious irritation. “Oh,” he says softly as a boyish grin gross across his face. “Did I do that?” He eyes then light up with humor at the feline.
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    #3
    There’s something off about the creature in front of me, and I tilt my golden head curiously as my rounded ears twitch atop my head. He is colored like a cub, but he is too large - there’s enough adult leanness to his figure to suggest that he is fully grown even with his small size. For a moment, she considers the possibility that he might make a meal, but she has always been more fond of the flesh of herbivores.

    Well, herbivores and fowl, the latter of which she’s certainly not going to have today.

    His teasing reminds the girl of her brothers, so her whiskered lips twitch in an amused smile, and she pads forward. ”You owe me a snack now,” she tells him, settling into a more comfortable crouch when she comes nearer to talk. The sun is high in the sky and comfortably warm, so she soon rolls to her side: utterly at ease. This is her home, after all, and not terribly far away is the rest of her familial pride.
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    #4
    Her amused smile is rather pleasing. Perhaps even safe to say he wasn’t going to be the much larger feline’s next meal as a result of him scaring away her meal just moments ago. However, Titus just couldn’t help being a bit of a mischief in the whole situation he created.

    Titus remains in his position as she comes closer and makes herself comfortable. His ears twitch forward, listening at her proposal. Well, it was more of a demand if he was getting any idea of who this feline was.

    “I’m not sure how well that would end up,” he confesses with a soft laugh. Titus has never hunted in a day in his life. Let alone eating herbivores and fowl sounded a bit weird to him. While running and jumping in his ocelot form was all fun and games, he often preferred the herbivore lifestyle. But then how can he prefer the lifestyle of an herbivore when he has never felt flesh and bone beneath his sharp teeth? “I’m not much of a hunter. Well, I’ve never hunted before.”

    The feline rolls to her side. He tilts his head at how at ease she feels within the riverland. The ocelot boy is more reserved in throwing himself sprawled out. He doesn’t really know these parts, and definitely doesn’t know if he can trust this feline. “So, I don’t think I’ll be much help in retrieving you a snack. Sorry, love!” His humorous smile returns to his lips.

    @[Daedra]
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    #5
    They have equine shapes, of course, but Daedra and her pride rarely wear them. Some of them - like Isaac with his mud-dark mane - have no other form, but it is not only empathy that keeps the color-point lioness in her hunter's body. She far prefers this body with its limber strength and coiled power; she is less impressive as a horse.

    So when the little cat says that he has never hunted, Daedra sits up with a startled huff. Her golden eyes are narrowed with an almost suspicious light. "Never hunted?" She repeats, clearly incredulous. Her mother is the smallest of them all but still brings down prey nearly her size, to think that this cub-colored cat has never caught his own meal is clearly hard to believe.

    "But what do you eat?!" Her suspicion is quickly overshadowed by interest; it seems curiosity is a common trait in all felines. Something dawns on her, and a scowl wrinkles her furred brow as she continues: "You don't eat grass, do you? Like the horses?! Daedra is clearly baffled by this idea, and if her slightly exposed fangs are anything to judge by she might be a bit disgusted as well.

    @[Titus]
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    #6
    titus
    one day it's here and then it's gone,
    how are you still holding on?
    Titus often stays within his equine form when he feels more comfortable. After all, it is the only thing he had really known to be like. While his other sibling could shift, and his parents were mostly equine shapes, it had only seemed natural to be in the form he was born in. However, when he became angry or felt on edge about certain situations he shifted into his ocelot form. It only seemed natural due to his increased reflexes and quick need to take a bite if worst came to worst.

    The feline is obviously shocked by the news that he has never hunted. What else would he even eat? The idea felt pretty foreign and weird to him to eat something that was flesh and bone. It was obviously the wrong answer. Perhaps even more since he owed this strange feline a snack after disrupting her hunt.

    She clearly does not like the news of him not hunting, and pushes it even more. Titus was not so baffled by the idea ever until now. “Well, yeah,” he confesses, feeling strange to even admit that was what he did. He felt wrong for even doing it for his entire life now. “No one ever taught me to hunt. It wasn’t something my entire family did since not everyone in my family is like me.” Even his own father, who was half-ocelot, had never tried hunting or tasting meet—at least from his knowledge.

    He is rather annoyed now by the whole idea, especially when the feline shows how baffled it was to even be doing that. “It’s not wrong to eat grass! I was born a horse, so why shouldn’t I?” The ocelot-boy pushes, clearly defending the way he lives his life is not wrong at all. “Besides, aren’t you a horse too? Don't tell me you eat your own kind!”
    son of rome and porcia
    male, classic champagne appaloosa, ocelot-shifting, wings
    character info: here | character reference: here

    @[Daedra]
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    #7
    "That's disgusting."

    The statement is abrupt and definitive, as though Daedra's opinion is the only one that might possibly matter. Still, despite this firm declaration, she does not react otherwise, too intrigued by the story that follows.

    No one had taught him to hunt? What was wrong with his family? Were they purposefully trying to stunt him? Cats are meant to hunt: to stalk and leap and chase and kill. These urges are ingrained in each fiber of the saffron lioness, and what Titus proposes is unfathomable. Not everyone in her family is like her, either, but that does not mean that they are herbivores. Horses have always seem an entirely separate species to Daedra and her pride.

    Yet this stranger straddles a divide she had thought insurmountable, and his defense of his abnormal lifestyle is as fascinating as it is disturbing. The spotted cat's tone suggests he feel as strongly about the subject as Daedra, but his opinions are nearly the opposite.

    "Of course I don't eat horses! I'm not a heathen!" She exclaims. Her affront is visible; she stands at this final exclamation. Still, for all her pride, Daedra is still a social creature, and feels an innate desire to form bonds with other felines rather than break them. Her orange tipped tail still lashes quickly, but the tension bleeds from her body as she lowers herself once more to the ground.

    "You mighta been born a horse, but that doesn't make you any less of a cat." Her tone remains firm, but the words sound nearly rote - and indeed, she is repeating a well-ingrained lesson from her mother. "What if you feel down a cliff and bonked your head and forgot how to shift back? You'd starve."

    "I will teach you how to hunt." It sees everything the cat has to say is decisive, and now that she has made this choice, she is clearly devoted to it. Rising to her feet once more, she steps closer to the smaller cat, and circles him curiously. Not as if he is prey - he would know - but simply to get a better look at him.

    "Maybe we should try something small. I do not think you'd be much help with a deer." She finally says. "There are lots of squirrels in the woods over there -" Daedra gestures with a toss of her whiskered head to the Forest. "I bet you'd be good at those."

    @[Titus]
    Reply
    #8
    titus
    one day it's here and then it's gone,
    how are you still holding on?
    He lets out a clear snort at her comment, indicating he was not pleased by it.

    Clearly, he had never thought of hunting and living the life of a carnivore. It had never crossed his mind that this was even a thing. Titus had only known to stay away from those that would make a meal out of him, or he would have to defend himself to not be their next meal. But becoming one of those hunters seemed rather absurd!

    Titus digs his claws into the earth beneath him at her exclamation. She wasn’t happy with his question evidently. Often, he is quick to push the other one that seems to question who he is when he feels like he needs to defend himself. The feline seems to have more control over her emotions though as she settles back into her previous position. Titus allows himself to relax again as he unclaws the earth beneath his paws.

    “Well at least I know you won’t eat me then,” he says half-heartedly trying to make the situation a little better. If anything, he should remember to keep his own emotions in check too. “I’m sure if I forgot how to shift back I would learn to hunt. I’m not that stupid you know.” He snorts again, making it clear.

    Daedra’s next statement is rather shocking. “You’re going to teach me to hunt now?” It seems rather strange to learn to hunt. Let alone he probably is going to have to eat whatever he catches! He can already taste the foul raw meat within his mouth. A sickening look fills his features.

    But it seemed the feline was already set in her ways, and definitely would not take a no from him. After all, he owed her a meal. “Very well. I will learn since I do owe you.” Titus would not forget he promised this feline something, especially since he was more capable of taking him down if he decided to scrap the idea and make a run for it.

    “I guess starting with something small is the best thing,” he says sarcastically, rolling his eyes. He takes a couple steps towards the Forest before turning around and looking at her. “I’m Titus by the way.” If they were going to be doing some hunting, he might as well give her his name.
    son of rome and porcia
    male, classic champagne appaloosa, ocelot-shifting, wings
    character info: here | character reference: here

    @[Daedra]
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