10-13-2021, 10:00 PM
Hunting was her birthright.
There was only so much one could do on their spit of land in the middle of the ocean. There were only so many sunsets to watch, only so many inland pools to find and sink into. She had learned to stalk the seabirds on the shoreline and to snag and pull the fish from the ponds instead. She had grown up wild, free to roam and run and raise a ruckus. She had been a child born into the Dark but raised in the light, safe from the evil that had once crept in the shadows. Unlike the twins that preceded her and her own brother, her mother had let her wander, had let her experience her own adventures and misadventures both. And she’d had plenty of each. But despite tired feet and a fully belly after a hunt, she hardly ever felt sated.
It’s why she’s here in the common grounds, she thinks. Ischia grew too small much quicker than she left it, in fact, but some deeply rooted familial affection had held her back. Now, with two years behind her, she thinks it might be two years more before she makes her way back to the island – perhaps more, even.
There is so much to do here, so much to see, that it leaves her breathless.
She is speechless, too, when the younger boy turns to look back at her. He is like nothing she has ever seen before. And even as colorful and strange as the creatures back home can be, he is wholly different in a way she can’t quite articulate. So she doesn’t try. Her jaw slackens, further exposing the pointy predators’ teeth she wears. Arrowe plops ungracefully on the ground and tilts her head. His defiant noise is lost on her as she regards him in awe. From the tips of his horns to the scythe-like tail waving in front of her, he looks like the ultimate predator.
“You’re….you’re amazing!” Her turquoise eyes have remained, and they spark with wonder as she meets his gaze. She realizes then the defensive posture he has assumed. “Oh, come on. I was just having a bit of fun.” She lets go of the panther shape and slowly emerges as the striped girl she was born as. A bright smile never leaves her face, even as the fangs retreat. “Besides, I think you could take me looking like that.” She wouldn’t mind finding out who would win, truth be told. But she had promised her mother that she would be careful setting off on her own – at first, anyway. At least until she knew what she was up against in this new world. This boy is certainly a surprise.
Arrowe’s smile falters when the silence grows around them too long. There is that same tingling feeling that she can’t place when she looks at him. A feeling like when she regarded the parrots or dolphins back home, like how she’d tried to talk to them when she was a kid and been met with sounds she couldn’t understand. She tries to ignore the feeling, because they have other things in common, more important things, she thinks. “Do you hunt?” And it seems silly to ask, really, the more she sees of him. He is born for it in a way that she isn’t. Even if she can change her body and wear the features of great predators, he needn’t change a single cell of his DNA to bring down whatever prey he desired.
She can’t imagine she would seem like a threat compared to him, but she doesn’t want to spook him either, so she moves forward one careful step at a time. She goes until the blade of his tail is hovering just before her throat. “I’m Arrowe.”
There was only so much one could do on their spit of land in the middle of the ocean. There were only so many sunsets to watch, only so many inland pools to find and sink into. She had learned to stalk the seabirds on the shoreline and to snag and pull the fish from the ponds instead. She had grown up wild, free to roam and run and raise a ruckus. She had been a child born into the Dark but raised in the light, safe from the evil that had once crept in the shadows. Unlike the twins that preceded her and her own brother, her mother had let her wander, had let her experience her own adventures and misadventures both. And she’d had plenty of each. But despite tired feet and a fully belly after a hunt, she hardly ever felt sated.
It’s why she’s here in the common grounds, she thinks. Ischia grew too small much quicker than she left it, in fact, but some deeply rooted familial affection had held her back. Now, with two years behind her, she thinks it might be two years more before she makes her way back to the island – perhaps more, even.
There is so much to do here, so much to see, that it leaves her breathless.
She is speechless, too, when the younger boy turns to look back at her. He is like nothing she has ever seen before. And even as colorful and strange as the creatures back home can be, he is wholly different in a way she can’t quite articulate. So she doesn’t try. Her jaw slackens, further exposing the pointy predators’ teeth she wears. Arrowe plops ungracefully on the ground and tilts her head. His defiant noise is lost on her as she regards him in awe. From the tips of his horns to the scythe-like tail waving in front of her, he looks like the ultimate predator.
“You’re….you’re amazing!” Her turquoise eyes have remained, and they spark with wonder as she meets his gaze. She realizes then the defensive posture he has assumed. “Oh, come on. I was just having a bit of fun.” She lets go of the panther shape and slowly emerges as the striped girl she was born as. A bright smile never leaves her face, even as the fangs retreat. “Besides, I think you could take me looking like that.” She wouldn’t mind finding out who would win, truth be told. But she had promised her mother that she would be careful setting off on her own – at first, anyway. At least until she knew what she was up against in this new world. This boy is certainly a surprise.
Arrowe’s smile falters when the silence grows around them too long. There is that same tingling feeling that she can’t place when she looks at him. A feeling like when she regarded the parrots or dolphins back home, like how she’d tried to talk to them when she was a kid and been met with sounds she couldn’t understand. She tries to ignore the feeling, because they have other things in common, more important things, she thinks. “Do you hunt?” And it seems silly to ask, really, the more she sees of him. He is born for it in a way that she isn’t. Even if she can change her body and wear the features of great predators, he needn’t change a single cell of his DNA to bring down whatever prey he desired.
She can’t imagine she would seem like a threat compared to him, but she doesn’t want to spook him either, so she moves forward one careful step at a time. She goes until the blade of his tail is hovering just before her throat. “I’m Arrowe.”
arrowe
@[Fret]