"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
08-19-2019, 02:35 PM (This post was last modified: 08-19-2019, 02:37 PM by Skaide.)
There’s a shift in the air, a heaviness that saturates her every breath.
Adulthood is upon her, a dark cloud finally rising to a thunderhead. Lightning electrifies her veins and surges through her blood. This is new, unfamiliar, but she knows what it is. Instincts crawl like dozens of spiders across her thoughts as she inches from the hovel she found and slept in for months. There were a few hunts, but her appetite was easily suppressed as she secluded herself from the world. A child is not safe, not truly, in such a vast and open world. For selfish reasons, Skaide cornered herself and waited until this moment when no one could take advantage of her small, youthful size.
She was dangerous then, unable to control the flow of her venom, but still she knew to hide.
Now, she rises with a confident swagger, aware of her capabilities.
And she only knows how to obey her instincts.
Thin, slit pupils dart from one tree to another, then to the squirrels and deer and horses. Hunger stirs in her gut now – it has been weeks since her last taste of blood – but her climbing desires (or would it be instinctual needs?) overwhelm all else. Skaide takes a breath, then another, and she can nearly taste the pulses of those nearby. Their heartbeats are so calm, so steady, as they flee from stress and wrap themselves in fleeting ideations of comfort. She looks at each of them, considers them, but nimbly moves along with whispered footsteps until finding a tree to stand next to, her skin rippling to nearly match her surroundings, save for her vibrant, reptilian eyes.
i swear i'll become your only desire. i swear i'll rip you apart.
If there was one bright side to all the traveling the golden stallion found himself doing outside of his home kingdom, it was that his senses and stamina were rising to unprecedented levels. He spent most of his time walking, finding no need to trot or canter since he was in no hurry for there were no specific horses out here he was in search of. But all the walking he did do helped in keeping his body, his muscles, fit and ready, whether it was time to fight or flee for his life.
But he never felt the need for either in the Forest. It was his home for years, even if he now lived in Taiga. Their forests were different, but his instincts were sharp. The stallion was fine tuned for life in such a concealed and close proximity environment, rather than the open fielded meadows that his species had evolved to adapt to.
He still enjoyed a good gallop through the open fields to really test his speed, but where he felt most at home... was where he could blend into the shadows.
And on this day, he did not realize at first that another equine was doing the same. In his quest to find potential Taiga recruits, Aten made his way to the Forest that day to see if any, like himself, had chosen seclusion until they were ready to start anew. Turul had decided to accompany him that day, the gyrfalcon flying overhead the majority of the time to keep an eye in the sky.
At one point, however, the raptor, spotting a meal, had made a dive for the ground and spread his wings to soar through the trees to give himself a better chance of succeeding in his hunt. Unlike a smaller version of his species, Turul's kind preferred hunting so that their bodies were in line with the ground, rather than making a dive-bomb and killing by sheer force of impact. Instead, Turul's talons were poised in front of his body for the blow, his eyes trained on the branch where he had spotted his meal.
The large bird of prey made such little noise that, even with the squirrel's acute senses, he was never seen coming. Turul had chosen a fine creature for his next hunt, for, like the raptor, this animal was considered the largest of his species as well. A male red fox squirrel, busy finding food to store away for the winter, had made his home within a large oak tree that grew in the Forest. Although sizable for his age, the squirrel was still young and had not yet achieved his full growth. If he were his full size, and had Turul not been a Gyrfalcon, the hunt might be questioned, for a full grown fox squirrel could grow bigger than the raptor hunting him.
But in this case, the hunt was over before it started. Turul's wings were bent slightly to allow him swift movement through the trees, and, in the blink of an eye, a small cry of pain could be heard as the raptor made his kill.
The fox squirrel was firmly gripped in Turul's claws as the bird of prey carried him back toward the golden stallion. Aten's eyes found the falcon circling above him through the trees, easily spotting the red carrion in the raptor's talons. His gait slowed for only a moment as he took the sight in before continuing on, knowing his friend would follow.
However, what he did not take into account was something he could not have known. For another equine concealed in the shadows was on the hunt for blood. Aten could not see the filly's reptilian eyes for he did not think she could have hidden herself so well, his nostrils filled with the smell of the dew-covered forest floor and the bark of the trees as some of them began to decay under autumn's cold hooves. The fox squirrel's blood fell on the ground as the falcon and horse traversed the forest together, the stallion's senses trained but his pace and heart calm and steady, for he knew being in a panic might only draw what he was trying to avoid.
Hunters and prey. That’s all they are in this vast world. Skaide could easily count as both as she stands adjacent to the tree, still camouflaged and still hungry. There’s only the rise and fall of her breaths and the shifting of her vigilant eyes that give off signs of life. A squirrel scrambles down the tree, pausing once and twitching its nose hesitantly. Venom begins to trickle down Skaide’s fangs as she prepares to lunge and ensure her meal. Its quickened heartbeat bangs like a drum in her ears, its thermal reading vibrant and tempting.
Slowly, so slowly, her jaws extend. Every muscle throughout her body contracts and prepares, but then there is a noise.
A twig snaps.
Another squirrel screams.
Her meal flees.
It takes all of Skaide’s energy not to whip around and lash at the stallion that unknowingly barges in on her during his aimless wandering. A foreboding hiss slithers past her clenched jaws as she slowly turns to face him, her skin rippling to its vibrant array of teal, magenta, and shades in between. ”You cost me my lunch, you know,” her voice is eerily flat, empty, but her eyes intensely focused. The aggravation that surged through her bones at first diminishes. She knows that meals aren’t always guaranteed, that not every attempt will come to fruition; thus is the life of a hunter.
With the venom suppressed, no longer necessary, she half-interestedly asks, ”Why do you wander without purpose?”
i swear i'll become your only desire. i swear i'll rip you apart.
One effect that the forest could have on an unsuspecting traveler was making one feel like they were being watched, hunted, even if they couldn't detect anything of their pursuer. In Aten's case, he had not detected this yet, hence why he was walking in such a relaxed fashion. But the silence would be broken by a voice slipping through the trees, dripping down like blood and venom in his ears as a small chill ran through his blood.
Aten's muscles quivered under his skin as he stopped and turned to look where the voice came from. The filly had no qualms about concealing herself in the trees now, her eyes burning with focus as if they were trying to sear a mark in Aten's flesh. Her coat was a flashing myriad of colors that still blended into the trees, save for the magenta that would stand out for a brief second before disappearing into a darker shade.
"You cost me my lunch you know." Her words are harsh, but lack true emotion; it was more so that she had spoken to him in a moment of frustration but only wished to yell, not really blame him for what had happened.
Then, she asks him a question that caught Aten slightly off guard, for he had never been asked that before. He had an idea of how he wanted to answer, but first, he turned to Turul, meeting the raptor's eyes.
"Perhaps we should express our apologies." He informed the falcon. Turul tilted his head before flapping his wings and saying something back, though to the filly, it sounded like a series of squawks. "It may have been by accident, but there should be something we can do at the very least." The falcon squeezed his talons tighter around the fox squirrel. "I'm not saying all of it, unless you wish. You can always hunt for another; you have an advantage over her when it comes to hunting small forest animals."
Turul did not want to admit his friend, while maybe not entirely right, had a good point. The raptor prided himself on his ability to hunt through the trees and sky, and while not all his hunts were successful either, there was a distinct difference in hunting while one's size was as big as an equine against small like a bird of prey.
"Is not my purpose to wander? Our kind has evolved to do so over millions of years. And what if I was wandering in search of something? Would that not be my purpose?"
As he said that last question, Turul returned and circled above the two equines for a moment. He descended with each one until he was only a few feet above their heads, and then, when he made a turn over the filly, he relaxed his grip on the fox squirrel and felt it slip from his claws. The small forest animal fell to the earth in front of the filly's hooves, after which the falcon flew toward the stallion and landed on his withers, briefly apologizing to his friend for the blood that would now stain his golden coat.
@[Skaide]
OOC: Hey Skaide. Just wanted to let you know, the italicized dialogue is Aten speaking to Turul through their mental link.
